Methods of pre-testing expansion charge for selectively expanding a wall of a tubular, and methods of selectively expanding walls of nested tubulars

A method of determining a size and an explosive gram weight of an expansion charge able to selectively expand, without perforating or cutting through, a portion of a wall of a tubular in a wellbore, the method comprising:

• determining a size of a protrusion to be formed in the wall of the tubular;
• determining conditions in the wellbore, including:
• fluid/gas medium in the wellbore;
• hydrostatic pressure bearing on the tubular in the wellbore;
• and
• at least one physical characteristic of the tubular;
• reproducing, at a second location other than the wellbore, at least one of the conditions determined in the wellbore;
• providing a test tubular at the second location;
• determining a size and an explosive gram weight of a test expansion charge able to expand, without perforating or cutting through, the wall of the test tubular, based on the at least one of the conditions determined in the wellbore;
• positioning the test expansion charge comprising the determined size and explosive gram weight within the test tubular;
• and
• actuating the test expansion charge to expand the wall of the test tubular radially outward, without perforating or cutting through the wall of the test tubular, to form a test protrusion in the wall of the test tubular.