Mechanics of hydraulic fracturing is a great branch of the application of fracture mechanics theory, since hydraulic fracturing was considered as a technique for recovering geothermal energy from hot dry rocks. A substantial amount of geothermal energy could be extracted from hot dry rocks near the earth's surface by circulating water through crack-like hydraulic fractures.Because of the low thermal conductivity of rock, relatively large fractures are necessary to gain an economically acceptable thermal energy rate.
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