An Experimental Study To Investigate Hydraulic
Fracture Reorientation With Respect To The
Principal Stresses
Author(s)
A. Gotti, S. H. Fallahzadeh & V. Rasouli
Abstract
This study investigated the propagation of an induced hydraulic fracture
experimentally. A true triaxial stress cell (TTSC) was used to apply three
independent stresses of vertical, maximum horizontal and minimum horizontal to
a cube of tight sandstone 100mm in size. A large stress anisotropy was applied in
order to help the fracture to initiate more easily. Injection of the fracturing fluid
was possible through a hole drilled at the centre of the sample which was
plugged in top and bottom sections to give an openhole length of approximately
40mm in the sample centre. A pronounced notch was created in the direction of
minimum horizontal stress, i.e. different than the direction at which the fracture
intends to open naturally. The hydraulic fracturing tests were conducted on four
different samples with different locations for the notch to investigate how the
fracture would propagate from different starting angles.
The results indicated that while the fracture initiates along the direction of the
notch, it tends to rotate towards the maximum stress direction as it moves away
from the wellbore wall. As a fracture is propagating through rock, it passes
through inhomogeneities which cause a deviation in the propagation direction.
The results showed that a fracture will still reorient to the direction of maximum
stress after passing inhomogeneities not just at the wellbore wall, but throughout
the rock. The complexity of hydraulic fracturing became apparent in this
experiment as even in a highly controlled laboratory environment, some fractures
propagated in directions that were unexpected. The presented results demonstrate
the need for having a good understanding about the state of stresses when
designing a hydraulic fracturing job for the field.
Keywords: true triaxial stress cell, hydraulic fracturing, fracture propagation
direction, in-situ stresses, fracture reorientation.
Keywords
true triaxial stress cell, hydraulic fracturing, fracture propagation
direction, in-situ stresses, fracture reorientation.
Related Book
Other papers in this volume
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