In situ stress measurement at the 250m Niche off the South Shaft No.1 in the Horonobe Underground Research Laboratory

Aoyagi, Kazuhei  ; Sakurai, Akitaka; Niunoya, Sumio*

The objective of this report is to investigate the three dimensional stress state in the 250 m Niche off the South Shaft No.1 at the Horonobe Underground Research Laboratory. For the measurement, three 20.0m long boreholes were drilled. Hydraulic fracturing was applied as a stress measurement method. For the analysis, shut-in pressure of a transverse fractures, reopening pressure of longitudinal fractures and stress condition causing borehole breakouts were integrated into the equation; then stress state was calculated by inversion technique. As a result of the in situ stress state measurement around the experimental area, the orientation of the maximum principal stress is estimated to be between E-W and ENE-WSW, dipping almost horizontal direction. This result agrees well with the estimated orientation of the main principal stress, the location of the borehole wall breakouts in 10-E250-M01 and the orientation of the generated crack in 10-E250-M03. The value of the maximum principal stress was 3.97 MPa.