One of the most common types of geological complications arising when drilling wells through permafrost rocks is the violation of wellbore integrity due to changes in the natural stress state of the surrounding massif. Securing the wellbore walls with casing requires switching to a smaller drilling diameter, and the use of grouting materials for grouting fractured rocks is ineffective, since cracks are usually filled with ice, preventing the penetration of grouting material into them.
Sedimentary rocks usually have a layered structure, and the strength characteristics at the contacts of layers (cohesion cₖ and angle of internal friction φₖ) can vary from zero to their values in the material of the layer (cₘ and φₘ).
Structural weakening of rocks is currently studied in various aspects. The diversity of the resulting tasks determines a large number of research methods. Most of them provide only an indirect assessment of the weakening of the rock mass and do not give quantitative relationships for the influence of rock weakening on their strength and deformation characteristics under conditions of natural occurrence.