Intelligent recognition and identification of fracture types and parameters for borehole images based on developed convolutional neural networks and post-processing

Borehole imaging is one of the main methods for fracture observation in the rock formations, but there is still a lack of identification systems for deriving fracture parameters from borehole images. Additionally, previous research were limited to sinusoidal fractures. In this study, an intelligent system is developed for multiple types of qualitative fracture identification in a quick and robust manner using convolution neural networks and post-processing. Initially, borehole imaging was carried out in six coal mines to develop a borehole image database that includes a wide variety of rock types and fractures. Afterward, the acquired borehole images of fractures were categorized into three types, such as sinusoidal fractures, vertical fractures and broken areas. In this connection, dual convolutional neural networks were developed to recognize fracture type pixels. Meanwhile, the calculation models associated with corresponding fracture parameters were established to quantitatively describe the fracture characteristics. Eventually, the post-processing programs were developed to identify the geometric parameters for each fracture type. The results indicate that the developed dual convolutional neural networks has the capability to detect fracture pixels with a recognition accuracy of 77.1% for each sinusoidal and vertical fracture pixels, and recognication accuracy of 72.9% for broken area pixels. The post-processing program was developed based on Hough transform and a thinning algorithm, that enables it to the the average recognition rate of 88.71% with an average false alarm rate of 16.67% for all three types of fractures.