1

Hydraulic Fracture
Arcady Dyskin
2
Literature
P. Valko and M.J . Economides Hydraulic
Fracture Mechanics, J ohn Wiley & Sons
(the photographs and diagrams are copied from this book, if not
stated otherwise)
2
3
Production increase Reservoir
stimulation
Productivity index
Skin
S>0 Flow impediment
S=0 Undisturbed permeability
S<0 Negative skin (artificially created)
Methods of achieving the negative skin
Matrix stimulation (chemical treatment-acidising)
Hydraulic fracturing
|
|
.
|

\
|
+
=

=
S
r
r
B
kh
p p
q
PI
w
e
o
wf
4
3
ln 2 . 141
4
Hydraulic fracturing
Wellbore
Skin reduced permeability
Wellbore
Skin reduced permeability
Hydraulic fracture infinite permeability
The artificial fracture has a large area to collect hydrocarbon and
forms a channel for its transport to the well
3
5
Hydraulic fracture
initiation
Wellbore
Fracturing fluid
pumped under high
pressure, q
2p 2p
p
p
2p
2p
p
p
q
q
q
q
q
p q 2 =
uu
o
Fracture initiation o
uu
=o
t
6
The fracturing
operation
Mixture of
fracturing fluid
and proppant
Fracturing fluid
Created fracture
Must have low
viscosity
Proppant
Prevents
fracture from
closure
4
7
Proppant
Sands or sand particles coated by resin
Proppants are classified by
Size
Strength
Proppant
W
e
l
l
b
o
r
e
Hydraulic fracture
8
Hydraulic fracture without proppant
Northparkesmine, courtesy of Rob J effrey
The trace is seen because the fracture fluid was coloured in pink
with a dye
5
9
Mechanics of crack growth
K K
I Ic
=
Crack starts growing when
r
o
yy
o
Crack tip
a q K
r
K
I
I
yy
t
t
o = ~ ,
2
q
x
y
x
y
Crack (fracture) unloaded
Crack (fracture) loaded
2 2
2
1
2 ) ( x a
E
q x u

=
v
Opening
Au
10
Fracture toughness of rocks
Laboratory data (~1cm-1 m)
Large-scale data
K
Ic
~1 MPa m
K
Ic
~10 100 MPa m
K
Ic
~ 100 MPa m
K
Ic
~ , , 1 000 10 000 M Pa m
Hydraulic fracturing (~10 -1,000 m) (Shlyapoberskyet al, 1985)
Magmatic dykes (~1-10 km) (Delaney and Pollard, 1981)
Mid-Ocean Ridges (~10 -100 km) (Macdonald et al., 1991)
6
11
Magmatic
dykes
natural
hydraulic
fractures
Host-Rock Deformation and
Magma Flow Near Ship
Rock, New Mexico (Delaney
& Pollard, 1981)
12
Direction of fracture propagation
o
h
o
h
o
H
o
H
h H
o o >
Fracture tends to grow in the direction parallel to the highest compression
7
13
Direction of fracture propagation
o
h
o
h
o
H
o
H
h H
o o >
Fracture tends to grow in the direction parallel to the highest
compression even if it involves changing the direction
14
Fracture changing direction
Horizontal wellbore
o
h
Initial direction
of propagation
Changed direction
of propagation
8
15
Crack propagation through interface
Crack propagation from a fractured material
towards an interface. The concentration of
tensile stress acting in the direction of crack
propagation creates an interface crack
Delamination eventually
arrests the propagation of the
main crack. The continuation
of crack propagation if
possible shows crack offset.
Interface
Delamination
o
xx
=KI(2tr)
-1/2
Interface
Crack offset
x
y
Compressional crossing - Renshaw and
Pollard (1995), (McConaughy and Engelder,
1999).
16
Crack offset in assembly of
osteomorphic blocks
Mark of indentation
Crack offset
(courtesy of HC Khor)
D
ir
e
c
t
io
n

o
f

c
r
a
c
k

p
r
o
p
a
g
a
t
io
n
9
17
Fracture arrest
Leak off of fracturing fluid
into the interface
18
Conclusions
Hydraulic fracturing is a method of reservoir stimulation
whereby an artificial crack is created to increase the skin
permeability and turn factor S negative
Hydraulic fracture is created by the fracturing fluid
pumped in the wellbore
After generating the hydraulic fracture can be closed by
the in-situ pressure in the reservoir; to prevent the
closure and maintain the fluid flow, proppant is used
Fracture tends to grow in the direction parallel to the
highest compression even if it involves changing the
direction
The natural fractures of interfaces between the layers
can arrest the hydraulic fracture propagation or at least
create and offset. This can be accompanied by the leak
off of the fracturing fluid into the interface