Hydraulic Fracture Propagation Near the Cavity in a Poroelastic Media

Abstract

In this paper, we investigate the problem of the propagation of hydraulic fractures in a poroelastic medium that has a circular cavity. The research was conducted using the extended finite element method (XFEM) implemented in the ABAQUS software package. The problem was considered in a plane formulation. The initial crack was oriented parallel to the surface of the cavity. It was shown that the path of the hydraulic fracture depends strongly on the hydrostatic stress in the medium and the distance between the crack and the cavity. We studied the influences of the poroelastic parameters, such as permeability and the Biot coefficient, on the propagation of cracks. It was shown that the cracks were less curved when the coupled problem of poroelasticity was considered. The features of fluid pressure changes inside the fracture and at the opening of the mouth were studied. It was shown that the fluid pressure in the fracture during injection was minimally sensitive to the state of the stress in the medium, to the position of the initial crack, and to the poroelastic parameters. The solution to the problem in this setting can be used to simulate hydraulic fracturing close to mine workings during a controlled roof’s collapse to prevent it from hanging, and the formation of impervious screens to reduce airflow from the mine to degassing boreholes through the rock, for example.

3D numerical analysis of stability and onset of hydraulic fracture in the vertical‐oblique‐horizontal wells under wide range of in situ stresses

“…In practice, real rock formations may have a large number of natural fractures, cavities and bedding plane around the wellbore and therefore the existence of such natural fractures can affect the hydraulic fracture initiation and propagation. For instance, the size of natural fracture, location and angular position of the natural fracture relative to the perforation or growing hydraulic fracture, distance between hydraulic fracture and natural fracture are among the main parameters that can affect significantly both the required driving force/pressure and the trajectory or stability of growing hydraulic fracture 79–82 . However, the use of traditional finite element concept may not be used easily for modeling such problems.…”

“…For instance, the size of natural fracture, location and angular position of the natural fracture relative to the perforation or growing hydraulic fracture, distance between hydraulic fracture and natural fracture are among the main parameters that can affect significantly both the required driving force/ pressure and the trajectory or stability of growing hydraulic fracture. [79][80][81][82] However, the use of traditional finite element concept may not be used easily for modeling such problems. In addition, the assumptions that we considered in the current work for the sake of simplicity (such as linear, elastic, isotropic, and continuum media) or may result in non-accurate predictions for the real hydraulic fracture conditions.…”

Implementation of the Displacement Discontinuity Method in Geotechnical Case Studies

“…(b) The second problem considered here was the effect of internal pressure on the circular opening that simulates hydraulic fracturing, a method that finds applications in hydrocarbon exploitation and wellbore stability. The problem's complete solution is a multi-factor problem as fluids coexist and alter the behaviour of the medium, and they have been studied by many scientists [19][20][21][22][23]. This paper presents an approach with two limit cases: (i) No pressure is transferred at all in the fracture, producing the smallest SIFs, and (ii) all pressure is transferred to the fracture's tip, producing the largest SIFs.…”

“…The methodology can then be applied to study the propagation of symmetric cracks, with the existence of internal pressure in the circular excavation (or borehole). Similar techniques have been used with commercial numerical codes [19][20][21][22][23] to simulate hydraulic fracturing. It is worth mentioning the research study performed by Weber et al [24], where the extended finite element method (XFEM) was used to study the hydraulic fracturing behaviour of symmetric joints around a borehole depending on the fluid's viscosity.…”

Advances in Hydraulic Fracture Propagation Research in Shale Reservoirs

“…(1) Currently, physical simulation experiments and numerical simulation techniques are often used to study the propagation mechanism of hydraulic fractures. Among them, the indoor physical simulation experimental method uses small-sized rock samples for hydraulic fracture tests, which simulates the fracturing operation process at the subsurface reservoir scale indoors and can reflect the propagation of hydraulic fractures during the fracturing process in a simple and intuitive way [58,60,144,165]. In addition, indoor physical model experiments can be used to explore the influence of one or some parameters on the hydraulic fracture propagation pattern and to analyze the main control factors affecting the fracture propagation.…”