Numerical Study of Elasto-Plastic Hydraulic Fracture Propagation in Deep Reservoirs Using a Hybrid EDFM–XFEM Method

Wenzheng Liu, Qingdong Zeng, Jun Yao, Ziyou Liu, Tianliang Li and Xia Yan
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Wenzheng Liu: Research Center of Multiphase Flow in Porous Media, China University of Petroleum (East China), Qingdao 266580, China
Qingdong Zeng: Department of Mechanics, Shandong University of Science and Technology, Qingdao 266580, China
Jun Yao: Research Center of Multiphase Flow in Porous Media, China University of Petroleum (East China), Qingdao 266580, China
Ziyou Liu: Research Center of Multiphase Flow in Porous Media, China University of Petroleum (East China), Qingdao 266580, China
Tianliang Li: Production Optimization R&D Institute of COSL, Tianjin 300459, China
Xia Yan: Research Center of Multiphase Flow in Porous Media, China University of Petroleum (East China), Qingdao 266580, China

Energies, 2021, vol. 14, issue 9, 1-18

Abstract: Rock yielding may well take place during hydraulic fracturing in deep reservoirs. The prevailing models based on the linear elastic fracture mechanics (LEFM) are incapable of describing the evolution process of hydraulic fractures accurately. In this paper, a hydro-elasto-plastic model is proposed to investigate the hydraulic fracture propagation in deep reservoirs. The Drucker–Prager plasticity model, Darcy’s law, cubic law and cohesive zone model are employed to describe the plastic deformation, matrix flow, fracture flow and evolution of hydraulic fractures, respectively. Combining the embedded discrete fracture model (EDFM), extended finite element method (XFEM) and finite volume method, a hybrid numerical scheme is presented to carry out simulations. A dual-layer iterative procedure is developed based on the fixed-stress split method, Picard iterative method and Newton–Raphson iterative method. The iterative procedure is used to deal with the coupling between nonlinear deformation with fracture extension and fluid flow. The proposed model is verified against analytical solutions and other numerical simulation results. A series of numerical cases are performed to investigate the influences of rock plasticity, internal friction angle, dilatancy angle and permeability on hydraulic fracture propagation. Finally, the proposed model is extended to simulate multiple hydraulic fracture propagation. The result shows that plastic deformation can enhance the stress-shadowing effect.

Keywords: hydraulic fracture; deep reservoir; rock plasticity; cohesive zone model; embedded discrete fracture model; extended finite element method (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: 2021
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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