IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jeners/v9y2016i4p299-d68539.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Numerical Study on the Formation of Shear Fracture Network

Author

Listed:
  • Zhaobin Zhang

    (Key Laboratory of Shale Gas and Geoengineering, Institute of Geology and Geophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100029, China)

  • Xiao Li

    (Key Laboratory of Shale Gas and Geoengineering, Institute of Geology and Geophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100029, China)

Abstract

Shear fracture network is important to the hydraulic fracturing treatment of a shale gas reservoir. In this paper, the formation of shear fracture network is investigated by a Displacement Discontinuity Method (DDM) based model. The results show that the sliding of fracture surface is irreversible but may change significantly after fluid pressure dissipates. The final sliding distance is different for natural and hydraulic fractures. Most of the shear fractures are natural fractures while the newly formed hydraulic fractures tend to be totally closed after pressure dissipates. The effects of in situ stress are investigated. The affected area reaches its maximum value when the maximum principle stress direction is perpendicular to the principal fracture direction. The effects of the injection rate are also investigated. The increasing of the injection rate is helpful in increasing the fracture aperture, but has no effect on the final sliding distance. Moreover, the effects of the injection rate on the affected area depend on the connectivity of natural fractures. The affected area increases with the injection rate when the connectivity is poor but decreases slightly with injection rate when the connectivity is good.

Suggested Citation

  • Zhaobin Zhang & Xiao Li, 2016. "Numerical Study on the Formation of Shear Fracture Network," Energies, MDPI, vol. 9(4), pages 1-16, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jeners:v:9:y:2016:i:4:p:299-:d:68539
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/9/4/299/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/9/4/299/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Zhaobin Zhang & Xiao Li & Jianming He & Yanfang Wu & Bo Zhang, 2015. "Numerical Analysis on the Stability of Hydraulic Fracture Propagation," Energies, MDPI, vol. 8(9), pages 1-18, September.
    2. Zhaobin Zhang & Xiao Li & Weina Yuan & Jianming He & Guanfang Li & Yusong Wu, 2015. "Numerical Analysis on the Optimization of Hydraulic Fracture Networks," Energies, MDPI, vol. 8(10), pages 1-19, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Qian Li & Yiyu Lu & Zhaolong Ge & Zhe Zhou & Jingwei Zheng & Songqiang Xiao, 2017. "A New Tree-Type Fracturing Method for Stimulating Coal Seam Gas Reservoirs," Energies, MDPI, vol. 10(9), pages 1-14, September.
    2. Xin Chang & Yintong Guo & Jun Zhou & Xuehang Song & Chunhe Yang, 2018. "Numerical and Experimental Investigations of the Interactions between Hydraulic and Natural Fractures in Shale Formations," Energies, MDPI, vol. 11(10), pages 1-27, September.
    3. Qiuping Qin & Qingfeng Xue & Zizhuo Ma & Yikang Zheng & Hongyu Zhai, 2021. "Hydraulic Fracturing Simulations with Real-Time Evolution of Physical Parameters," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(6), pages 1-12, March.
    4. Jianming He & Zhaobin Zhang & Xiao Li, 2017. "Numerical Analysis on the Formation of Fracture Network during the Hydraulic Fracturing of Shale with Pre-Existing Fractures," Energies, MDPI, vol. 10(6), pages 1-10, May.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Lianchong Li & Yingjie Xia & Bo Huang & Liaoyuan Zhang & Ming Li & Aishan Li, 2016. "The Behaviour of Fracture Growth in Sedimentary Rocks: A Numerical Study Based on Hydraulic Fracturing Processes," Energies, MDPI, vol. 9(3), pages 1-28, March.
    2. Yanfang Wu & Xiao Li, 2016. "Numerical Simulation of the Propagation of Hydraulic and Natural Fracture Using Dijkstra’s Algorithm," Energies, MDPI, vol. 9(7), pages 1-15, July.
    3. Kun Ai & Longchen Duan & Hui Gao & Guangliang Jia, 2018. "Hydraulic Fracturing Treatment Optimization for Low Permeability Reservoirs Based on Unified Fracture Design," Energies, MDPI, vol. 11(7), pages 1-23, July.
    4. Yiyu Lu & Yugang Cheng & Zhaolong Ge & Liang Cheng & Shaojie Zuo & Jianyu Zhong, 2016. "Determination of Fracture Initiation Locations during Cross-Measure Drilling for Hydraulic Fracturing of Coal Seams," Energies, MDPI, vol. 9(5), pages 1-13, May.
    5. Hui Gao & Yule Hu & Longchen Duan & Kun Ai, 2019. "An Analytical Solution of the Pseudosteady State Productivity Index for the Fracture Geometry Optimization of Fractured Wells," Energies, MDPI, vol. 12(1), pages 1-22, January.
    6. Zhaobin Zhang & Xiao Li & Weina Yuan & Jianming He & Guanfang Li & Yusong Wu, 2015. "Numerical Analysis on the Optimization of Hydraulic Fracture Networks," Energies, MDPI, vol. 8(10), pages 1-19, October.
    7. Wan Cheng & Chunhua Lu & Bo Xiao, 2021. "Perforation Optimization of Intensive-Stage Fracturing in a Horizontal Well Using a Coupled 3D-DDM Fracture Model," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(9), pages 1-18, April.
    8. Jianming He & Zhaobin Zhang & Xiao Li, 2017. "Numerical Analysis on the Formation of Fracture Network during the Hydraulic Fracturing of Shale with Pre-Existing Fractures," Energies, MDPI, vol. 10(6), pages 1-10, May.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jeners:v:9:y:2016:i:4:p:299-:d:68539. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.