Modeling of fluid-driven fracture interaction with natural discontinuities

The proposed study concerns propagation of fluid-driven or hydraulic fractures in reservoir rock. These fractures, created by pumping a viscous fluid from a wellbore, are widely used to increase production from gas and oil bearing rock, and considered a viable mechanism to reduce greenhouse gases in the atmosphere by injecting them into underground formations. Pre-existing fractures (bedding planes, joints, faults, and pre-existing fracture networks) ubiquitous in reservoir rock often play defining role in hydraulic fracture propagation. This research will improve understanding of this role, and provide novel theoretical, computational, and experimental tools for hydraulic fracture modeling.The primary focus of the proposed research program will be on providing fundamental understanding of the hydraulic fracture interaction with discontinuities in rock, as well as, developing of the essential theoretical and computational modeling tools, corroborated by laboratory experiments, for accurate prediction of the evolving hydraulic fracture path, width, and extent. It is expected that application of this work will be in design of (i) effective hydraulic fracturing treatments of naturally-fractured or layered petroleum reservoirs, and (ii) safe process of CO2 sequestration into monolithic or naturally-fractured geological layers. Propagation of hydraulic fractures outside of a targeted geological layer or reservoir may lead to dire economic and environmental consequences, such as, in the case of CO2 injection, hazardous escape of the carbon dioxide to the adjacent rock strata or to the surface.