Reliability-based analysis of borehole closure on salt rock

Resumo

This work proposes an analysis of structural reliability in salt rocks when drilled by vertical wells, in
order to assist the evaluation of their mechanical behavior. In general, the computational modeling of geotechnical
projects in underground structures has two focuses: a) predict the behavior of soil-structure interaction with good
accuracy; and b) evaluate the stability of these structures. The quality of this prediction is strongly associated
with the accuracy with which the parameters of the problem are defined, such as the mechanical properties of
the materials, the layer dimensions, among others. Considering the complexity of obtaining in situ data for this
type of underground problem, there is always a level of uncertainty associated with them. Structural reliability
addresses the randomness of the design variables to estimate the safety level associated to a structural problem,
regarding pre-established failure criteria. The methodology adopted in this work is based on three main steps: i)
Characterization of the salt rock drilled by vertical wells problem; ii) Statistical characterization of the variables of
interest; and iii) Use of reliability analysis methods to assess the probability of failure of salt rocks drilled by wells.
As the main contribution, it is expected to evaluate the influence of the randomness of the variables involved in the
mechanical response of drilled salt formations, providing important statistical information related to the designed
structures and indicating probability of failure in these structures.