“…The presence of pre-existing fractures, slip planes, and weak zones are one of the most prevailing challenges and opportunities in the field of hydraulic fracturing (Taleghani et al 2016;Ouenes 2019;Al Mteiri et al 2020). A more optimized hydraulic fracture, in the presence of natural fractures, can be designed to make better use of the existing weak zones to enhance production and minimize costs (Wang and Olson 2020;Ouenes 2019). In this section, we investigate the effects of the presence of pre-existing weak zones on the propagation and energy dissipation in hydraulic fracturing.…”