Modeling the Interaction and Growth of Multiple Non-planar Hydraulic Fractures
Stephen Castonguay (University of Texas at Austin), Mark Mear (Department ASE/EM, University of Texas at Austin), Rick Dean (ConocoPhillips), Joseph Schmidt (ConocoPhillips)
Engineering Mechanics and Materials in the Oilfield
Wed 9:00 - 10:30
CIT 227
A computational technique is developed for simulating the evolution of multiple, interacting, non-planar hydraulic fractures in three dimensions. The method is based upon coupling of a weakly-singular, symmetric Galerkin boundary element method (SGBEM) with a finite element method (FEM); the SGBEM is used to model the fracture opening and growth within the context of an unbounded linearly elastic domain, whereas the FEM is used to model flow of a power-law fluid within the (arbitrarily curved) fractures. Various examples are presented to illustrate that the interaction between multiple fractures can give rise to complex fracture evolution. It is hoped that the ability to model the simultaneous growth of multiple interacting non-planar hydraulic fractures will provide a better understanding of the growth of such fractures and, as a result, allow the design of sophisticated fracture operations to be optimized.