NOTICE: The project that is the subject of this report was approved by the Governing Board of the National Research Council, whose members are drawn from the councils of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, and the Institute of Medicine. The members of the panel responsible for this report were chosen for their special expertise and with regard for appropriate balance among government, industry, and academia.
This report has been reviewed by a group other than the authors according to procedures approved by a Report Review Committee consisting of members of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, and the Institute of Medicine.
Support for this study was provided by the Department of Energy (grant number DE-FG42-92R208008) and the Gas Research Institute. Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed herein are those of the committee and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Department of Energy or the Gas Research Institute.
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COMMITTEE ON ADVANCED DRILLING TECHNOLOGIES
Ali S. Argon,
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
(Chair since July 1993)
Neville G.W. Cook,
University of California, Berkeley
(Chair until July 1993)
George A. Cooper,
University of California, Berkeley
Michael M. Herron,
Schlumberger-Doll Research
Stephen E. Laubach,
The University of Texas, Austin
William C. Maurer,
Maurer Engineering, Inc.
James E. Monsees,
Parsons Brinckerhoff, Inc.
D. Stephen Pye,
UNOCAL Corporation
Jean-Claude Roegiers,
University of Oklahoma
Eugene D. Shchukin,
Institute of Physical Chemistry RAS
Mark D. Zoback,
Stanford University
NRC Staff
Peter H. Smeallie, Study Director
Thomas M. Usselman, Senior Program Officer
Kevin D. Crowley, Program Officer
Jennifer T. Estep, Administrative Assistant
Judith L. Estep, Administrative Assistant
Amelia B. Mathis, Senior Secretary
Nathan L. Harshman, Research Aide
LIAISONS
The U.S. Department of Energy
Stephen Brocoum,
Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management, Washington, D.C.
William J. Gwilliam,
Morgantown Energy Technology Center, Morgantown, West Virginia
Allan J. Jelacic,
Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, Washington, D.C.
Roy C. Long,
Yucca Mountain Project Office, Las Vegas, Nevada
William C. Luth,
Office of Energy Research, Washington, D.C.
John E. Mock,
Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, Washington, D.C.
Albert B. Yost II,
Morgantown Energy Technology Center, Morgantown, West Virginia
Gas Research Institute
Kent F. Perry,
Gas Research Institute, Chicago, Illinois
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Carl Peterson,
Department of Mechanical Engineering
Jeff Tester,
Energy Laboratory
GEOTECHNICAL BOARD
James K. Mitchell, Chair,
University of California, Berkeley
Clarence R. Allen,
California Institute of Technology
Joan (Jodie) Z. Bernstein,
Waste Management, Inc.
David E. Daniel,
University of Texas, Austin
William S. Gardner,
W.S. Gardner and Associates
James P. Gould, Partner,
Mueser, Rutledge Consulting Engineers
François E. Heuze,
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
Charles C. Ladd,
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
James E. Murff,
Exxon Production Research Company
Shlomo P. Neuman,
The University of Arizona
Thomas D. O'Rourke,
Cornell University
Reuben Samuels,
Parsons Brinckerhoff
Robert L. Schuster,
U.S. Geological Survey
Don W. Steeples,
The University of Kansas
NRC Staff
Mahadevan Mani, Director,
Division on Infrastructure, Energy, and Environmental Engineering
Peter H. Smeallie, Director,
Geotechnical Board (1990 through 1993)
Jennifer T. Estep, Administrative Assistant
Amelia B. Mathis, Senior Secretary
COMMISSION ON ENGINEERING AND TECHNICAL SYSTEMS
Albert R. C. Westwood, Chair,
Sandia National Laboratories
Nancy Rutledge Connery, Consultant
Richard A. Conway,
Union Carbide Corporation
Gerard W. Elverum, Jr.,
TRW, Inc.
(Retired)
E. R. (Vald) Heiberg III,
J.A. Jones Construction Services Company
William G. Howard, Jr., Consultant
John McCarthy,
Stanford University
Alton D. Slay,
Slay Enterprises, Inc.
James J. Solberg,
Purdue University
Charles F. Tiffany,
Boeing Military Airplane Company (Retired)
John A. Tillinghast,
Tillinghast Technology Interests
Paul Torgersen,
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
George L. Turin,
Teknekron Corporation
John B. Wachtman, Jr.,
Rutgers University
William C. Webster,
University of California, Berkeley
Robert V. Whitman,
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
NRC Staff
Archie L. Wood, Executive Director
Marlene R. B. Beaudin, Associate Executive Director
Dennis Chamot, Associate Executive Director
Robert J. Katt, Associate Director
Mary Frances Lee, Director of Operations
Sylvia Gilbert, Administrative Assistant
Susan Coppinger, Administrative Assistant
BOARD ON EARTH SCIENCES AND RESOURCES
J. Freeman Gilbert, Chair,
University of California, San Diego
Gail M. Ashley,
Rutgers University
Thure Cerling,
University of Utah
Mark P. Cloos,
University of Texas, Austin
Neville G.W. Cook,
University of California, Berkeley
Joel Darmstadter,
Resources for the Future
Donald J. DePaolo,
University of California, Berkeley
Marco T. Einaudi,
Stanford University
Norman H. Foster,
Independent Geologist
Charles G. Groat,
Louisiana State University
Donald C. Haney,
Kentucky Geological Survey
Andrew H. Knoll,
Harvard University
Philip E. LaMoreaux,
P.E. LaMoreaux and Associates, Inc.
Susan Landon,
Thomasson Partner Associates
Marcia K. McNutt,
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
J. Bernard Minster,
University of California, San Diego
Jill D. Pasteris,
Washington University
Edward C. Roy, Jr.,
Trinity University
NRC Staff
Jonathan G. Price, Director
Thomas M. Usselman, Associate Director
William E. Benson, Senior Program Officer
Kevin D. Crowley, Program Officer
Bruce B. Hanshaw, Program Officer
Anne M. Linn, Program Officer
Lally A. Anderson, Staff Assistant
Charlene E. Anderson, Administrative Assistant
Judith L. Estep, Administrative Assistant
Shelley A. Myers, Project Assistant
Nathan L. Harshman, Research Aide
COMMISSION ON GEOSCIENCES, ENVIRONMENT, AND RESOURCES
M. Gordon Wolman, Chair,
The Johns Hopkins University
Patrick R. Atkins,
Aluminum Company of America
Peter S. Eagleson,
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Edward A. Frieman,
Scripps Institution of Oceanography
W. Barclay Kamb,
California Institute of Technology
Jack E. Oliver,
Cornell University
Frank L. Parker,
Vanderbilt University
Raymond A. Price,
Queen's University at Kingston
Thomas A. Schelling,
University of Maryland
Larry L. Smarr,
University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
Steven M. Stanley,
The Johns Hopkins University
Victoria J. Tschinkel,
Landers and Parsons
Warren Washington,
National Center for Atmospheric Research
Edith Brown Weiss,
Georgetown University Law Center
NRC Staff
Stephen Rattien, Executive Director
Stephen D. Parker, Associate Executive Director
Morgan Gopnik, Assistant Executive Director
Jeanette A. Spoon, Administrative Officer
Sandi S. Fitzpatrick, Administrative Associate
Robin L. Allen, Senior Project Assistant
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PREFACE
Drilling involves a set of processes for breaking and removing rock to produce boreholes, tunnels, and excavations. Drilling is used extensively for resource extraction, for building civil infrastructure systems such as sewers and subways, for environmental remediation, and for scientific purposes. Efficient and effective drilling technologies are critical elements in a robust and healthy economy. Improvements in the fundamental technologies applicable to the drilling of rock will benefit the U.S. economy and strengthen the competitive position of the United States in the worldwide drilling, excavation, and comminution industries.
The Geothermal Division of the Department of Energy is one agency of the U.S. government that hopes to find better and less costly ways of penetrating rock in order to harness geothermal energy resources more efficiently. With this goal in mind, the Geothermal Division asked the National Research Council to establish a committee to examine opportunities for advances in drilling technologies that would have broad industrial, environmental, and scientific applications such as energy exploration and production, mining, tunneling, water well drilling, underground storage, and environmental remediation. The formal charge to the committee is given in Appendix A.
The Committee on Advanced Drilling Technologies began its work in February 1993, and met four times over the course of the study. In April 1993 the committee invited 42 experts on drilling to a workshop that elicited ideas on advanced drilling technologies. A list of the invited experts and other participants is given in Appendix B. Results from this workshop assisted the committee in its assessment of the areas in which improvements are possible.
This report of the committee provides an examination of the technical and scientific feasibility of substantial advances in drilling and related
technologies. In this report, the committee (1) examines concepts for new mechanical and nonmechanical drilling applications, including advances in the knowledge of tool-rock interaction; (2) identifies potential opportunities for research; and (3) makes recommendations on the scope and direction needed to realize these opportunities for improved methods of drilling.
The focus of the report is the physical systems used to create holes and tunnels in the subsurface. The report does not address other aspects of drilling related issues such as sample recovery and waste minimization. Although these are important issues, especially in environmental applications, they are outside the charge to the committee.
This study received direct support from the Department of Energy and the Gas Research Institute. The committee and staff gratefully acknowledge the support of each of these agencies.