X Preface
face in the Gulf of Mexico. One of the authors had participated pore pres-
sure, wellbore and casing stability analyses in the world deepest oil well
(34,070 feet or 10,384 m in true vertical depth from the sea level) in the
deep water of the Gulf of Mexico in 2005. As the depth of underground
engineering increases, in-situ stress, pore pressure, and temperature in-
crease, causing various engineering and geological problems, such as ex-
cavation and wellbore instability, water inrush and influx, rock and coal
burst, mining-induced seismicity, gas blowout and explosion, etc. This
book attempts to solve some problems mentioned above.
The aims of this book are to:
x introduce basic principles of engineering geology in underground
mining and oil and gas development,
x discuss methods to determine in-situ stress and pore pressure using
geophysical means.
x focus on applications of rock mechanics and poromechanics in ex-
cavation and wellbore instability, and
x emphasize coupled rock stress/deformation, pore pressure, and
fluid flow in porous rocks and fractured porous formations.
The authors would like to thank the following organizations for their
supports:
The State Key Laboratory of Coal Resource and Safe Mining, China
University of Mining and Technology
Knowledge Systems, Inc., U.S.A.
CIRES, the University of Colorado at Boulder, U.S.A.
This book was supported by the National Science Foundation of
China (grant No. 50221402, 50490271, and 50025413), the China National
Program on Key Basic Research Project (grant No. 2002CB211707 and
2005CB221500), the key project of the Ministry of Education (No.
306002) and the Program for Changjiang Scholars and Innovative Re-
search Team in University of MOEˈPRC (IRT0408).
China Coal Research Institute and some coal mining bureaus in
China, such as Datong, Daliuta, Datun, Huainan, Huaibei, Handan, Feng-
feng, Feicheng, Jiaozhuo, Kailuan, Lianshao, Shuangyashan, Yanzhou,
Xingtai, Zaozhuang, Zibo, etc. gave the authors access to their database,
which is gratefully acknowledged.
Authors appreciate the help from Hal H. Zhang and Justin W. Lee.