Análise da gênese de bandas de deformação: formação, crescimento e coalescência de microcracks.

Abstract

Deformation bands are structures formed by localized deformation and exhibit the capacity of the porosity and permeability changes in sedimentary rocks. Therefore, it has the capacity to change the flow properties on reservoir rocks. Deformation bands may occur in the individual form (singles) and as bands nucleation (clusters). The genesis of deformation bands can be associated to formation, growth and coalescence of structures named “microcracks”. These strutures are formed and grow approximately to the maximum compression axis (σ1). The main objective of this work is create an evolutive model for the brittle structures of “Outcrop 1”, which is related to the Antenor Navarro Fomration, based in the development and coalescence of microcracks and predict the nucleation location of occurrence. The methodology consists in the analysis, mapping and data collect of planes and lines of the aimed outcrop, and compution of paleotensors that acted in its genesis. This compution was made by the utilization of the software TectonicsFP which uses the data of planes and lines to provide the paleotensors related to formation of these structures. The structural analysis in outcrop resulted in the identification of two brittle structures system, one E-W and another NE-SW. These systems own linkage patterns with each other, allowing to infer that only a set of paleotensors acted in the genesis of both of them. The geometric set of the outcrop, along with de linkage patterns between the deformation bands systems, is similar to the process of microcrack linkage. Preview researchs, about formation of structures by the interaction of microcracks, were based in laboratory and microscopy analysis. However, studies about their development in larger scales remains absents. The microcracks genesis would happen parallelly to the maximum compressive axis (σ1), and would be related to the action of “stress intensity factor” (SIF) mode I (tensile), while the linkage of microcracks would be caused by the stress intensity factor mode II (shearing). The SIF mode II would create a structure denominated “linkage microcrack”, which would bond the coalescente structures, which a larger nucleation of deformation bands would occur in the analogous surroundings of linkage microcrack in the outcrop scale. Ultimately, the current geometric configuration of the outcrop would be a fractal resultant of development of genesis, growth and coalescence of microcracks.