Exploring the influence of rock inherent heterogeneity and grain size on hydraulic fracturing using discrete element modeling

Huang, Litang; Liu, Jianjun; Zhang, Fengshou; Dontsov, Egor; Damjanac, Branko

doi:10.1016/j.ijsolstr.2019.06.018

Cited by 139 publications

(37 citation statements)

References 42 publications

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“…In the postpeak stiffness decrease stage, the damage evolution process of material is shown in Eq. (12).…”

Section: Numerical Model Of Hydraulicmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Sato and Hashida [11] considered the influence of fracture toughness in hydraulic fracturing and found that the higher the fracture toughness of reservoir, the more difficult it is to be fractured. Huang et al [12] investigated the effects of rock inherent heterogeneity and grain size on hydraulic fracture initiation and propagation for different propagation regimes through two dimensional discrete element modelings.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Fracability Evaluation Method and Influencing Factors of the Tight Sandstone Reservoir

Liu

Song³

et al. 2021

Geofluids

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Fracability evaluation is the basis of reservoir fracturing and fracturing zone optimization. The tight sandstone reservoir is characterized by low porosity and low permeability, which requires hydraulic fracturing to improve industrial productivity. In this study, a systematic model was proposed for the fracability evaluation of tight sandstone reservoirs. The rock mechanics tests and sonic tests demonstrated that tight sandstone reservoir is characterized by high brittleness, high fracture toughness, and weak development of natural fractures. Numerical simulation was used to analyze the change of reservoir parameters during hydraulic fracturing and the influence of in situ stress on fracture propagation. The results showed that when the horizontal stress anisotropy coefficient is small, natural fractures may lead hydraulic fractures to change direction, and complex fracture networks are easily formed in the reservoir. The horizontal stress anisotropy coefficient ranges from 0.23 to 0.52, and it is easy to produce fracture networks in the reservoir. A new fracability evaluation model was established based on the analytic hierarchy process (AHP). The fracability of tight sandstone reservoir is characterized by the fracability index (FI) and is divided into three levels. Based on the model, this study carried out fracability evaluation and fracturing zone optimization in the study area, and the microseismic monitoring results verified the accuracy of the model.

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“…In the postpeak stiffness decrease stage, the damage evolution process of material is shown in Eq. (12).…”

Section: Numerical Model Of Hydraulicmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Fracability Evaluation Method and Influencing Factors of the Tight Sandstone Reservoir

Liu

Song³

et al. 2021

Geofluids

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show abstract

“…Towards developing an improved technique for handling the fracture toughness, let us consider the case in which parameters are averaged over time rather than space. As such, we can consider two measures (equivalent to ( 9)- (10), except averaged over time):…”

Section: Strategies For Handling the Materials Toughnessmentioning

confidence: 99%

Periodic toughness distribution -- Can an average toughness concept be feasible? Case study: KGD fracture in an impermeable rock

Fies¹,

Peck²,

Dutko³

et al. 2022

Preprint

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The process of hydraulic fracture through heterogeneous rock with variable material toughness is considered. Numerical simulations are used to examine the effectiveness of differing strategies for homogenising this parameter: the maximum toughness strategy and a newly proposed temporal averaging based approach. We restrict ourselves to periodic distributions and consider only the KGD model without leak-off, allowing us to easily investigate different regimes (toughness/viscosity). Simulations are conducted using an extremely effective (in house-built) time-space adaptive solver. The regimes in which each strategy is effective are determined. It is demonstrated that an averaging based approach can be proposed that incorporates crucial aspects of the process behaviour.

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“…With the achievements in visualization of cut-off and viscosity fingering phenomena, the tests on ROC are beneficial to better understanding of the formation, distribution, trapping, and migration of the residual fluids (Wang et al, 2019;Suo et al, 2020). Besides, compared to micro-computer tomography (CT) scanning, micromodel also provides a more direct, higher resolution, and cost-effective way to visualize structural evolution and flow process, especially when multi-phase/multicomponents and multi-physics are coupled, e.g., hydraulic fracturing and methane hydrate decomposition and transport (Huang et al, 2019;Song et al, 2021aSong et al, , 2021b.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Design and Fabrication of Rock-Based Microfluidics by 3d Printing: The Structure Characterization and Pore-Scale Flow Experiment Validation

et al. 2021

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Although great progress has been achieved in numerical simulation on porous flow in rock in decades, experiments performed on Reservoir-on-a-Chip (ROC) have been emphasized as the most sufficient and direct way to investigate the subsurface fluid flow at pore scale. This paper applies the cutting-edge three-dimensional printing (3DP) technique into the fabrication of ROC and the visualized two-phase fluids experiments.The structure of 3D-printed ROC is quantitatively characterized using the surface 2 scanning analyzer and stereomicroscope, and validated by comparison with the origin digital structure. Then the immiscible (oil-water) two-phase flow experiments are conducted on the 3D-printed ROC and imaged using the high-resolution camera in real-time. The typical fingering phenomenon caused by the heterogeneity of pore-throat is observed, and the effects of surface wettability on the interfacial shape evolution are analyzed. Comparing to traditional fabrication methods (e.g., chemical etching and soft lithography.), 3D-printed ROC is approved to be a novel approach to manufacture the morphology, topology, and connectivity of pore network, and decline the cost and the time-consuming.

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Exploring the influence of rock inherent heterogeneity and grain size on hydraulic fracturing using discrete element modeling

Cited by 139 publications

References 42 publications

Fracability Evaluation Method and Influencing Factors of the Tight Sandstone Reservoir

Fracability Evaluation Method and Influencing Factors of the Tight Sandstone Reservoir

Periodic toughness distribution -- Can an average toughness concept be feasible? Case study: KGD fracture in an impermeable rock

Design and Fabrication of Rock-Based Microfluidics by 3d Printing: The Structure Characterization and Pore-Scale Flow Experiment Validation

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