Fracture Stress Testing
Fracturing or Stress Testing is a method employed in geotechnical investigations to assist in determined of in-situ rock strength.
The basic method is to use inflatable packers to isolate the section of interest, then generate a fracture in this section by water pressurisation and measure the orientation of this fracture using an impression packer. (An impression packer has a cover made of a semi-cured rubber that retains an impression of the borehole wall when deflated. On removal of the packer this impression can be examined to determine its orientation.) This information allows determination of the principal in-situ stress of the rock mass.
IPI manufactures packer systems and associated hardware to suit such testing in all hole sizes from 30mm to 150mm diameter.
