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An enriched FEM technique for modeling hydraulically driven cohesive fracture propagation in impermeable media with frictional natural faults: Numerical and experimental investigations

Khoei, A. R ; Sharif University of Technology | 2015

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  1. Type of Document: Article
  2. DOI: 10.1002/nme.4944
  3. Publisher: John Wiley and Sons Ltd , 2015
  4. Abstract:
  5. In this paper, an enriched finite element technique is presented to simulate the mechanism of interaction between the hydraulic fracturing and frictional natural fault in impermeable media. The technique allows modeling the discontinuities independent of the finite element mesh by introducing additional DOFs. The coupled equilibrium and flow continuity equations are solved using a staggered Newton solution strategy, and an algorithm is proposed on the basis of fixed-point iteration concept to impose the flow condition at the hydro-fracture mouth. The cohesive crack model is employed to introduce the nonlinear fracturing process occurring ahead of the hydro-fracture tip. Frictional contact is modeled along the natural fault using the penalty method within the framework of plasticity theory of friction. Moreover, an experimental investigation is carried out to perform the hydraulic fracturing experimental test in fractured media under plane strain condition. The results of several numerical and experimental simulations are presented to verify the accuracy and robustness of the proposed computational algorithm as well as to investigate the mechanisms of interaction between the hydraulically driven fracture and frictional natural fault
  6. Keywords:
  7. Cohesive crack model ; Frictional natural fault ; Staggered Newton iteration ; Computation theory ; Constrained optimization ; Crack propagation ; Cracks ; Fracture ; Friction ; Hydraulic fracturing ; Strain ; Thermoelectricity ; Cohesive crack modeling ; Enriched finite elements ; Experimental investigations ; Experimental simulations ; Extended fem ; Flow continuity equations ; Hydraulic fracture propagation ; Newton iterations ; Iterative methods
  8. Source: International Journal for Numerical Methods in Engineering ; Volume 104, Issue 6 , 2015 , Pages 439-468 ; 00295981 (ISSN)
  9. URL: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/nme.4944/abstract