Modeling of fluid-driven fracture interaction with natural discontinuities

拟议的研究涉及流体驱动或水力裂缝在储集岩中的传播。这些裂缝是通过从井筒中抽出粘性流体而形成的，被广泛用于增加含气和含油岩石的产量，并被认为是通过将温室气体注入地下地层来减少大气中温室气体的可行机制。储集层岩石中普遍存在的原有裂缝(层理、节理、断层和原有裂缝网络)在水力裂缝扩展中往往起着决定性的作用。这项研究将加深对这一角色的理解，并为水力裂缝建模提供新的理论、计算和实验工具。

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.