Analysis of Initiation Angle for Fracture Propagation Considering Stress Interference

Xia Xiao and Cong Xiao
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Xia Xiao: Department of City Construction, Wenhua College, Wuhan 430074, China
Cong Xiao: Faculty of Applied Mathematics, Delft University of Technology, 2628CD Delft, the Netherlands

Energies, 2019, vol. 12, issue 10, 1-12

Abstract: Stress interference of multiplied fractures has significant influences on the propagation behavior of hydraulic fractures in roads, bridges, clay formations, and other forms of engineering. This paper establishes a crossing criterion and initiation angle model with comprehensive consideration of remote stress, stress intensity near the tip of fracture, and stress interference of multiplied fractures. Compared with the existing crossing criterion and initiation angle model, the ability to cross natural fractures decreases. Furthermore, the secondary initiation angle decreases with consideration of multiplied fracture propagation. The length of hydraulic fractures and natural fractures has little influence on the secondary initiation angle. With the increase in fracture space, the stress interference between fractures decreases, and as a result, the initiation angle begins to increase and then decrease. Differing from the propagation behavior of single fracture, the initiation angle basically does not vary with the increasing of net pressure under the high intersection angle between hydraulic fractures and natural fractures. Under a low intersection angle condition, the bigger the net pressure is, the smaller the initiation angle is. These results have great significance when analyzing the propagation behavior of multiplied fractures in real-world applications.

Keywords: stress interference; fracture propagation; crossing criterion; initiation angle (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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