Analysis of power-law self-similar solutions to the problem of hydraulic fracture crack formation

The problem of hydraulic fracture crack propagation in a porous medium is studied in the approximation of small crack opening and the inertialess flow of an incompressible Newtonian hydraulic fracturing fluid inside the crack. A one-parameter family of power-law self-similar solutions is considered in order to determine the crack width evolution, the fluid velocity in the crack, and the seepage depth in the case of high and low seepage rates through the soil when a fluid flow rate is given at the crack inlet.     

Self-similar solutions of the problem of formation of a hydraulic fracture in a porous medium

The problem of hydraulic fracture formation in a porous medium is investigated in the approximation of small fracture opening and inertialess incompressible Newtonian fluid fracture flow when the seepage through the fracture walls into the surrounding reservoir is asymptotically small or large. It is shown that the system of equations describing the propagation of the fracture has self-similar solutions of power-law or exponential form only. A family of self-similar solutions is constructed in order to determine the evolution of the fracture width and length, the fluid velocity in the fracture, and the length of fluid penetration into the porous medium when either the fluid flow rate or the pressure as a power-law or exponential function of time is specified at the fracture entrance. In the case of finite fluid penetration into the soil the system of equations has only a power-law self-similar solution, for example, when the fluid flow rate is specified at the fracture entrance as a quadratic function of time. The solutions of the self-similar equations are found numerically for one of the seepage regimes.     

Self-similar problems of propagation of an extended hydrofracture in a permeable medium

The propagation of an extended hydrofracture in a permeable elastic medium under the influence of an injected viscous fluid is considered within the framework of the model proposed in [1, 2]. It is assumed that the motion of the fluid in the fracture is turbulent. The flow of the fluid in the porous medium is described by the filtration equation. In the quasisteady approximation and for locally one-dimensional leakage [3] new self-similarity solutions of the problem of the hydraulic fracture of a permeable reservoir with an exponential self-similar variable are obtained for plane and axial symmetry. The solution of this two-dimensional evolution problem is reduced to the integration of a one-dimensional integral equation. The asymptotic behavior of the solution near the well and the tip of the fracture is analyzed. The difficulties of using the quasisteady approximation for solving problems of the hydraulic fracture of permeable reservoirs are discussed. Other similarity solutions of the problem of the propagation of plane hydrofractures in the locally one-dimensional leakage approximation were considered in [3, 4] and for leakage constant along the surface of the fracture in [5–7].Translated from Izvestiya Rossiiskoi Akademii Nauk, Mekhanika Zhidkosti i Gaza, No.2, pp. 91–101, March–April, 1992.     

Problem of propagation of a gas fracture in a porous medium

The problem of gas fracture formation in a porous medium is investigated. An inertialess viscous polytropic gas flow along the fracture is considered. The assumption of small fracture width with respect to the height and length makes it possible to adopt the vertical plane cross-section hypothesis on the basis of which the dependence of the gas pressure inside the fracture on its width can be reduced to a linear law. Initially, the soil surrounding the fracture is soaked with oil-bearing fluid. During fracturing the reservoir gas penetrates into the soil mass and displaces the fluid. A closed system of equations, which describes the evolution of the fracture opening, the depth of gas penetration into the reservoir, and the gas velocities inside the fracture, is constructed. The limiting regimes of gas seepage into the surrounding reservoir are considered and a one-parameter family of self-similar solutions of the system is given for each. The asymptotics of the solution in the neighborhood of the fracture nose is investigated and analytic expressions for the fracture length are obtained. The solution of the problem of gas fracture is compared with the hydraulic fracturing problem in an analogous formulation within the framework of the plane cross-section hypothesis.     

Two-dimensional simulation of a hydraulic fracture crack cleaning process with consideration of lateral inflow of a fluid from the surrounding porous saturated rock

The cleaning of a hydraulic fracture crack filled with a fluid injected through a well is studied as one of the stages of oil extraction. A crack is considered as a porous medium whose permeability is much higher than that of the surrounding rock and whose length is several times larger than its width and is many times larger than its thickness. A two-dimensional model of this process is used; in this model it is assumed that a less viscous fluid displaces a more viscous fluid in a porous medium with consideration of inflow through the lateral surface of the crack.     

Pressure distribution in the neighborhood of a growing fracture with a constant wedge force

Exact solutions of the problem of the pressure field in the neighborhood of a hydraulic fracture developing in accordance with a square root law in a permeable porous medium with a constant wedge force acting on the fracture edges are constructed. A particular case admitting a self-similar formulation and an exact solution and, as a result, the fairly complete investigation, is considered. The solution constructed holds for an arbitrary self-similar pressure distribution over the fracture edges. The problem considered reduces to the solution of a mixed boundary-value problem for the Helmholtz equation. The solution found can be useful both in itself and for testing more universal numerical algorithms.     

Fluid velocity based simulation of hydraulic fracture—a penny shaped model. Part II: new,accurate semi-analytical benchmarks for an impermeable solid

In the first part of this paper a universal fluid velocity based algorithm for simulating hydraulic fracture with leak-off was created for a penny-shaped crack. The power-law rheological model of fluid was assumed and the final scheme was capable of tackling both the viscosity and toughness dominated regimes of crack propagation. The obtained solutions were shown to achieve a high level of accuracy. In this paper simple, accurate, semi-analytical approximations of the solution are provided for the zero leak-off case, for a wide range of values of the material toughness and parameters defining the fluid rheology. A comparison with other results available in the literature is undertaken.     

Self-similar solution for deep-penetrating hydraulic fracture propagation

The propagation of a vertical hydraulic fracture of a constant height driven by a viscous fluid injected into a crack under constant pressure, is considered. The fracture is assumed to be rectangular, symmetric with respect to the well, and highly elongated in the horizontal direction (the Perkins and Kern model). The fracturing fluid viscosity is assumed to be different from the stratum saturating fluid viscosity, and the stratum fluid displacement by a fracturing fluid in a porous medium is assumed to be piston-like. The compressibility of the fracturing fluid is neglected. The stratum fluid motion is governed by the equation of transient seepage flow through a porous medium.A self-similar solution to the problem is constructed under the assumption of the quasi-steady character of the fracturing fluid flow in a crack and in a stratum and of a locally one-dimensional character of fluid-loss through the crack surfaces. Crack propagation under a constant injection pressure is characterized by a variation of the crack sizel in timet according to the lawl(t)=l _o (1+At)^1/4, where the constantA is the eigenvalue of the problem. In this case, the crack volume isVl, the seepage volume of fracturing fluidV _f l ³, and the flow rate of a fluid injected into a crack isQ ₀l ^–1.     

Stress-strain state in the vicinity of a crack tip under mixed loading

A method is proposed to calculate the eigenvalues of the class of nonlinear eigenvalue problems resulting from the problem of determining the stress-strain state in the vicinity of a crack tip in power-law materials over the entire range of mixed modes of deformation, from the opening mode to pure shear. The proposed approach was used to found eigenvalues of the problem that differ from the well-known eigenvalue corresponding to the Hutchinson-Rice-Rosengren solution. The resulting asymptotic form of the stress field is a self-similar intermediate asymptotic solution of the problem of a crack in a damaged medium under mixed loading. Using the new asymptotic form of the stress field and introducing a self-similar variable, we obtained an asymptotic solution of the problem of a crack in a damaged medium and constructed the regions of dispersed material near the crack.     

Numerical simulation of hydraulic fracture crack propagation

The plane problem of crack motion in an elastic medium under the pressure of a viscous fluid is considered. Under the condition of a constant fluid flow rate, the fluid is injected at the center of the crack. Contrary to other formulations of the problem, this paper attempts to take into account a possible fluid lag behind the crack tip. The resulting numerical solution is compared with a semianalytic one. It is found that the proposed numerical model can be used to predict the characteristics of a hydraulic fracture crack formed in a medium of a prescribed strength.     

On the problem of fluid leakoff during hydraulic fracturing

While a hydraulic fracture is propagating, fluid flow and associated pressure drops must be accounted for both along the fracture path and perpendicularly, into the formation that is fractured, because of fluid leakoff. The accounting for the leakoff shows that it is the main factor that determines the crack length. The solved problem is useful for the technology of hydraulic fracturing and a good example of mass transport in a porous medium. To find an effective approach for the solution, the thin crack is represented here as the boundary condition for pore pressure spreading in the formation. Earlier such model was used for heat conduction into a rock massif from a seam under injection of hot water. Of course, the equations have other physical sense and mathematically they are somewhat different. The new plane solution is developed for a linearized form that permits the application of the integral transform. The linearization itself is analogous to the linearization of the natural gas equation using the real gas pseudo-pressure function and where the flux rates are held constant and approximations are introduced only into the time derivatives. The resulting analytical solution includes some integrals that can be calculated numerically. This provides rigorous tracking of the created fracture volume, leakoff volume and increasing fracture width. The solutions are an advance over existing discreet formulations and allow ready calculations of the resulting fracture dimensions during the injection of the fracturing fluid.     

A solution to the hydraulic fracture problem in the traveling wave form

Solutions to the system of equations describing the propagation of hydraulic fracture cracks in a porous medium are obtained in the traveling wave form. The only sought solution is the separatrix of integral curves on the “penetration depth-crack width” plane. Some necessary dependencies that should be given at the crack inlet are found for the fluid flow rate and the fluid pressure. The crack width and the fluid penetration depth are related by power laws in the limiting cases when the crack propagation processes or the fluid penetration processes are dominant.     

An investigation of hydraulic fracturing. Part I: one-phase flow model

The prediction of the growth of a hydraulic fracture in an oil bearing formation based on the injection rate of fluid is valuable in applications of the waterflood technique in secondary oil recovery. In this paper, the problem of hydraulic fracture growth is studied under the assumption of uniform distribution of pressure in the fracture and unidirectional permeating flow in an infinitely large isothermal linearly elastic porous medium saturated with a one-phase incompressible fluid. The condition of plane strain is imposed in the study. A comparison of the constant fracture toughness criterion based on the asymptotic value for large crack growth with the crack tip ductility criterion for an ideally plastic solid under plane strain and small-scale yielding conditions indicates that the effect of ductility of rock on the crack growth is so small that the steady state value of the energy release rate can be reached within a short period of crack growth. Thus we can employ the constant fracture toughness criterion in our study. The analysis includes the effects of both fracture volume increase and leak-off of fluid from the surface of the fracture. A nonlinear singular integro-differential equation can be formulated for the quasi-static hydraulic fracture growth under a prescribed injection rate. It is solved numerically by a modified fourth order Runge-Kutta method.     

Growth of a main crack under the influence of gas moving inside it

The motion of a gas or liquid in a growing main crack is examined in connection with the problem of the hydraulic fracture of an oil-bearing bed [1, 2] and evaluation of the quantity of gaseous products escaping from the cavity formed by the underground explosion into the atmosphere by way of the crack [3]. The studies [1, 2] formulated and solved a problem on the quasisteady propagation of an axisymmetric crack in rock under the influence of an incompressible fluid pumped into the crack. An exact solution was obtained in [4] to the problem of the hydraulic fracture of an oil-bearing bed with a constant pressure along the crack. The Biot consolidation theory was used as the basis in [5] for an examination of the growth of a disk-shaped crack associated with hydraulic fracture of a porous bed saturated with fluid. A numerical solution to a similarity problem on the motion of a compressible gas ina plane crack was obtained in [6]. Here we examine the problem of the propagation of a main crack (plane and axisymmetric) under the influence of a gasmoving away from an underground cavity.Translated from Zhurnal Prikladnoi Mekhaniki i Tekhnicheskoi Fiziki, No. 4, pp. 116–122, July–August, 1986.We thank V. M. Entova for his remarks, which helped to improve the investigation.     

Propagation of a plane-strain hydraulic fracture with a fluid lag: Early-time solution

This paper studies the propagation of a plane-strain fluid-driven fracture with a fluid lag in an elastic solid. The fracture is driven by a constant rate of injection of an incompressible viscous fluid at the fracture inlet. The leak-off of the fracturing fluid into the host solid is considered negligible. The viscous fluid flow is lagging behind an advancing fracture tip, and the resulting tip cavity is assumed to be filled at some specified low pressure with either fluid vapor (impermeable host solid) or pore-fluids infiltrating from the permeable host solid. The scaling analysis allows to reduce problem parametric space to two lumped dimensionless parameters with the meaning of the solid toughness and of the tip underpressure (difference between the specified pressure in the tip cavity and the far field confining stress). A constant lumped toughness parameter uniquely defines solution trajectory in the parametric space, while time-varying lumped tip underpressure parameter describes evolution along the trajectory. Further analysis identifies the early and large time asymptotic states of the fracture evolution as corresponding to the small and large tip underpressure solutions, respectively. The former solution is obtained numerically herein and is characterized by a maximum fluid lag (as a fraction of the crack length), while the latter corresponds to the zero-lag solution of Spence and Sharp [Spence, D.A., Sharp, P.W., 1985. Self-similar solution for elastohydrodynamic cavity flow. Proc. Roy. Soc. London, Ser. A (400), 289–313]. The self-similarity at small/large tip underpressure implies that the solution for crack length, crack opening and net fluid pressure in the fluid-filled part of the crack is a given power-law of time, while the fluid lag is a constant fraction of the increasing fracture length. Evolution of a fluid-driven fracture between the two limit states corresponds to gradual expansion of the fluid-filled region and disappearance of the fluid lag. For small solid toughness and small tip underpressure, the fracture is practically devoid of fluid, which is localized into a narrow region near the fracture inlet. Corresponding asymptotic solution on the fracture lengthscale corresponds to that of a crack loaded by a pair of point forces which magnitude is determined from the coupled hydromechanical solution in the fluid-filled region near the crack inlet. For large solid toughness, the fluid lag is vanishingly small at any underpressure and the solution is adequately approximated by the zero-lag self-similar large toughness solution at any stage of fracture evolution. The small underpressure asymptotic solutions obtained in this work are sought to provide initial condition for the propagation of fractures which are initially under plane-strain conditions.     

Hydraulic fracturing of a saturated porous medium-I: General theory

This investigation deals with the problem of steady state hydraulic fracture in an infinite isotropic fluid-saturated elastic porous medium induced by a uniform pressure applied to the crack surfaces. A quasi-static approach is employed in the study. A boundary value problem is formulated and then analyzed by means of the Fourier transform associated with the Wiener-Hopf technique. Stress intensity factor and potential energy release rate are found by asymptotic analysis and the superposition principle as functions of the speed of crack propagation. The material breakdown process at the crack tip is discussed based on Dugdale's model. Finally, a brief discussion of the effect of pressure drop on the hydraulic fracture process and the decrease in crack speed during crack extension is included.     

水力压裂中裂纹扩展的数值模拟

水力压裂是在高压粘滞流体或清水作用下地层内裂缝起裂与扩展的过程。由于包含岩石断裂和流-固耦合等复杂问题,对该过程的数值模拟具有相当大的挑战性。本文建立基于有限元与离散元混合方法的裂纹模型,模拟岩石裂纹扩展,实现了连续向非连续的转化;建立双重介质流动模型,裂隙流作为孔隙渗流的压力边界,孔隙渗流反作用裂隙的压力求解,处理了流体在基岩与人工裂缝中的协调流动;将裂纹模型与流体流动模式进行结合,建立断裂-应力-渗流耦合形式的力学模型,进一步分析了水力压裂的基本过程,综合多种数值计算方法,编写程序,在验证岩体裂纹模型与双重介质流动模型有效性的基础上,对压裂过程进行复现,将模拟结果与文献结果进行了对比,并讨论了所构建模型的优缺点。     

Hydraulic fracturing of a saturated porous medium-II: Special cases

This investigation deals with the problem of steady state hydraulic fracture in an infinite isotropic fluid-saturated elastic porous medium induced by a uniform pressure applied to the crack surfaces. A quasi-static approach is employed in the study. A boundary value problem is formulated and then analyzed by means of the Fourier transform associated with the Wiener-Hopf technique. Stress intensity factor and potential energy release rate are found by asymptotic analysis and the superposition principle as functions of the speed of crack propagation. The material breakdown process at the crack tip is discussed based on Dugdale's model. Finally, a brief discussion of the effect of pressure drop on the hydraulic fracture process and the decrease in crack speed during crack extension is included.     

Viscous Spreading of Non-Newtonian Gravity Currents on a Plane

A gravity current originated by a power-law viscous fluid propagating on a horizontal rigid plane below a fluid of lower density is examined. The intruding fluid is considered to have a pure Ostwald power-law constitutive equation. The set of equations governing the flow is presented, under the assumption of buoyancy-viscous balance and negligible inertial forces. The conditions under which the above assumptions are valid are examined and a self-similar solution in terms of a nonlinear ordinary differential equation is derived. For the release of a time-variable volume of fluid, the shape of the gravity current is determined numerically using an approximate analytical solution derived close to the current front as a starting condition. A closed-form analytical expression is derived for the special case of the release of a fixed volume of fluid. The space-time development of the gravity current is discussed for different flow behavior indexes.     

Self-similar collapse of a circular cavity of a power-law liquid

Using the lubrication approximation we investigate the self-similar axisymmetric flow of a power-law liquid towards a central circular cavity. It is shown that this problem has a self-similar solution of the second kind. The self-similarity exponent is found by solving a non-linear eigenvalue problem arising from the requirement that the integral curve that represents the solution must join the appropriate singular points in the phase plane of the governing equation. The eigenvalues for different values of the rheological index are computed. Numerical integration of the equations allows us to determine the shape of the solution in terms of the physical variables. We make a detailed analysis of the influence of the rheology on the properties of the solutions.