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Arma 2016 494
Arma 2016 494
Arma 2016 494
ABSTRACT: We have developed a fluid-coupled algorithm for modeling reorientation of longitudinal fractures propagating from
a wellbore aligned with the intermediate or maximum far-field stress direction. A two-dimensional plane-strain model is adopted.
The rock deformation solver is implemented using the extended finite element method (XFEM). The model for the fluid flow in
hydraulic fractures is based on the Reynolds lubrication equation. The fluid pressure and the fracture opening are obtained from the
solution of a system of nonlinear equations resulting from the coupling of the rock deformation solver with the fluid flow model.
To model fracture reorientation, the direction of fracture propagation is determined based on the maximum tensile stress criterion.
We present the results of modeling of the near-wellbore fracture reorientation in the viscosity-dominated regime with this algorithm
and study the effect of the wellbore casing on the fracture opening and the fluid pressure required to initiate and propagate the
fracture.
formation exposed to the fluid pressure. For example, if
1. INTRODUCTION
perforations in a cased wellbore are misaligned with the
During the hydraulic fracturing process, a hydraulic in-situ principal stress directions, a lower misalignment
fracture initiates from an initial flaw at a wellbore and angle results in a lower viscous pressure drop near the
ultimately propagates in the preferred fracture plane wellbore and a lower pressure required to propagate the
orthogonal to the minimum compressive far-field stress fracture (Abass et al., 1994; Zhang et al., 2011).
direction. If the initial flaw is not orthogonal to the
In this work, we aim to develop a computational tool to
minimum compressive far-field stress, reorientation of
study the implications of the near-wellbore fracture
the hydraulic fracture takes place, leading to one form of
reorientation onto the fluid pressure required to
near-wellbore fracture tortuosity. In this case, the
propagate the fracture, including conditions when a
fracture opening near the wellbore is reduced, which
highly-viscous fluid is injected into a fracture at a
generates a near-wellbore pressure loss and creates a risk
relatively high injection rate. In the present work, we
of wellbore screenout due to proppant bridging (Mack
consider a rock of low permeability. In this case, the
and Warpinski, 2000).
effect of poro-elasticity does not contribute to the first-
Previous studies (Romero et al., 1995; Zhang et al., order characteristics of fracture propagation. When the
2011), as well as observed field data and experiments energy spent to drive the viscous fluid in the fracture
(Aud et al., 1994; Van de Ketterij and de Pater, 1999), dominates the energy spent for the creation of the new
have shown that using a fluid of a higher viscosity and a fracture surfaces, the fracture propagates in the
higher injection rate reduces the negative effects of this viscosity-dominated regime. To model this propagation
form of near-wellbore fracture tortuosity. However, the regime properly, the computational model must be fully
increased viscosity and rate require higher pressure to coupled with the fluid flow in the fracture and accurately
initiate and propagate the fracture. capture the behavior of the fluid pressure near the
Other factors that can influence reduced fracture width fracture tip.
and the near-wellbore pressure loss due to the near- Thus we have developed a fluid-coupled algorithm for
wellbore fracture reorientation include completion type modeling reorientation of longitudinal fractures
and the geometry of the initial defect of the rock propagating from a wellbore aligned with the
intermediate or maximum compressive far-field stress the tension-positive stress convention throughout this
direction. A two-dimensional plane-strain model is paper. The principal (confining) stresses are chosen to be
adopted. The rock deformation solver is based on linear xx and yy , such that xx yy . The initial defect is
elasticity and is implemented using the extended finite
element method (XFEM). The XFEM is a finite element inclined at an angle with respect to the maximum
based method that can simulate fractures propagating principal compressive stress xx . The Youngs modulus,
through a predefined finite element mesh. It represents Poissons ratio and the fracture toughness of rock are
the discontinuous and singular elastic fields, associated denoted, correspondingly, E, and K Ic . The hydraulic
with fractures, using an enriched shape function space
that includes discontinuous and singular functions. The fracture propagates under the injection of a fluid of
model for the fluid flow in hydraulic fractures is based viscosity at the injection rate Qo . We assume that the
on the Reynolds lubrication equation. The fluid pressure fronts of the fluid and the fracture coincide.
and the fracture opening are obtained from the solution
of a system of nonlinear equations resulting from the Throughout the paper, we will use the following scaled
coupling of the rock deformation solver with the fluid material parameters:
flow model. To model fracture reorientation, the E
direction of fracture propagation is determined based on K 32
K Ic , E , 12
1 2
the maximum tensile stress criterion.
Numerical studies of the near-wellbore tortuosity in 2D
were previously performed by means of different
methods, e.g., models based on the displacement
discontinuity method (DDM) (Zhang et al., 2011) and
the finite differences method (Cherny et al., 2009a,
2009b). The XFEM was used for modeling the near-
wellbore fracture tortuosity by Sepehri et al. (2015);
however, their model does not include coupling between
the rock deformation solution, provided by the XFEM,
and the fluid flow. Such model can only be applied in
the toughness-dominated regime, where the energy spent
on the creation of the fracture surfaces dominates the
energy required to drive the viscous fluid through the
fracture. A fluid-coupled XFEM model, based on the Fig. 1. Wellbore in a rock formation with initial defects
finite element software Abaqus, was used by Wang misaligned with the maximum principal compressive stress
(2015) to model near-wellbore fracture reorientation. xx .
Their work focused on poro-elastic and plastic effects on
the fracture reorientation and did not consider viscosity-
dominated propagation. 2.2. XFEM solver for rock deformation
The rock deformation solver is based on linear elasticity
The present XFEM model is fully coupled with the fluid and is implemented using the extended finite element
flow in the fracture and can address toughness- method (XFEM). The XFEM is a finite element based
dominated and viscosity-dominated regimes of fracture method that can simulate fractures propagating through a
propagation in low-permeability rocks. We present the predefined finite element mesh (Mos et al., 1999;
results of modeling of the near-wellbore fracture Stolarska et al., 2001; Fries and Belytschko, 2010) and
reorientation in the viscosity-dominated regime with this thus does not require remeshing. It represents the
algorithm and study some aspects of the effect of the discontinuous and singular elastic fields associated with
wellbore casing on the fracture opening and the fluid fractures, using an enriched shape function space that
pressure required to propagate the fracture. includes discontinuous and singular functions.
2. COUPLED MODEL For the present model, we use the mixed XFEM
formulation developed by Gordeliy and Peirce (2013)
2.1. Problem formulation for the solution of hydraulic fracture problems in
We consider a two-dimensional plane-strain model of a different propagation regimes. The discontinuous and
longitudinal hydraulic fracture propagating from a singular displacement and stress fields associated with a
circular wellbore of radius R. The fracture is initiated at hydraulic fracture are represented by linear combinations
an initial defect of the rock formation, such as a of standard finite-element shape functions, discontinuous
perforation tunnel or a slot or at a pair of symmetric sign enrichment functions and the singular crack-tip
defects for a bi-wing fracture (see Figure 1). We adopt enrichment that takes into account the specific power
law singularity associated with the viscosity-dominated wellbore pressure pw . For a bi-wing fracture, this is
regime of fracture propagation. expressed via
For the examples in this paper, we consider fracture 2
the sum of the fluid fluxes for all fractures propagating w m s (6)
from the wellbore (i.e., two fractures for a bi-wing E
fracture, one fracture for a single-wing fracture) is equal where s is the distance from the fracture tip, V is the
to the total injection rate Qo , and that the fluid pressure fracture tip velocity, and m 21/335/6 . We use this tip
at the wellbore inlet of each fracture is equal to the asymptote within the ILSA approach to determine the
fracture extension for the examples in this paper. Note
that this asymptote does not involve the fracture
toughness K Ic , i.e., K Ic does not influence fracture discretized into a circumferential finite element mesh
propagation in the viscosity-dominated regime. refined near the wellbore to accurately capture the
fracture reorientation (Figure 3). Infinite elements are
To model fracture reorientation, the direction of fracture distributed along the external boundary, to model an
propagation is determined according to the maximum infinite plane.
tensile stress criterion or the zero shear stress criterion
(Erdogan and Sih, 1963). At each time step, the stress Figure 4 (top) shows a comparison of the obtained bi-
field is computed ahead of the fracture tip, and the wing fracture trajectories (only one of the two symmetric
fracture deflection direction for the next time step is fracture wings is shown), and Figure 4 (bottom) shows
determined according to the zero shear stress. the corresponding wellbore pressure evolution with time.
The results from the two models are in good agreement
for the fracture paths and the wellbore pressure at long
3. NUMERICAL EXAMPLES time ( t 0.025 s ). The values of the wellbore pressure
3.1. Validation from the XFEM at early time ( t 0.025 s ) are
In this section, we compare the results of the coupled significantly above the DDM result of Zhang et al.
XFEM model described above to the results obtained by (2011), this shift in pressure may be due to a difference
Zhang et al. (2011). Zhang et al. (2011) modeled the in the modeling of fracture initiation at the wellbore in
near-wellbore reorientation of hydraulic fractures by the two models and is still under investigation.
using a coupled algorithm based on the DDM. To model
fracture extension and deviation, they used the
maximum tensile stress criterion (Erdogan and Sih,
1963) based on the computed mode I and II stress
intensity factors. The fracture front was updated
according to the propagation condition K I K Ic .
However, the parameters of the simulations that we refer
to in this paper all correspond to the viscosity-dominated
regime of propagation ( K * 0.5 ).
xx 80 MPa , yy 50 MPa ,
E 65 GPa , 0.25 , K Ic 1.35 MPa m ,
Fig. 8. Computational annular domain and bi-wing fracture
R 0.1 m . trajectories for openhole (blue) and cased hole (red)
However, now we increase the viscosity of the injected completions, for initial symmetric defects inclined at 30 .
fluid and the injection rate to 0.1 Pa s and
Qo 0.05 m2 /s . (The corresponding value of the
dimensionless toughness is K * 0.06 .) We look at the
results for OH and CH completions for the length of the
initial defects set to a = 0.02 m. For CH, we consider the
steel casing with the same elastic moduli and dimensions
as in the example in Section 3.2.
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