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Local Asymmetric Fracturing To Construct PDF
Local Asymmetric Fracturing To Construct PDF
Local Asymmetric Fracturing To Construct PDF
A R T I C LE I N FO A B S T R A C T
Keywords: Hydraulic fracturing to enhance permeability of tight reservoirs is meaningful but difficult in constructing of
Asymmetric fracturing complex fracture network. This study aimed to examine the effectiveness of tight porous reservoir stimulation in
Hydraulic fracturing the context of hydraulic fracturing to increase the fracture complexity as much as possible. The simulation
Complex fracture network experiments were performed to reasonably establish the relation between the laboratory results and the field
Unconventional natural gas
fracturing operations. Large size stratified and intact samples were casted to resist the size and boundary effects
Fluids jet
Underground coal mining
by mixing river sand and/or pulverized coal with concrete cement and freshwater in specific proportions. The
samples with artificial slot orienting were casted to understand the fracture initiation, orientation, and deflection
mechanisms considering the influence of caprock structure and re-fracturing without temporary plugging. The
samples were tested under the scaled geostress conditions of corresponding in-situ stress with a true triaxial
loading system, and the reasonable dimensionless groups derived from the literature. Consequently, this study
proposed an asymmetric fracturing method based on the experimental results considering the scaling structure of
overlying-reservoir-underlying in porous reservoirs. The local asymmetric fracturing is a type of reservoir sti-
mulation method with small scale high-pressure fluids such as carbon dioxide,liquid nitrogen, water, etc., jet
cutting to create slot and perforation for the aid of fracture initiation and orientation. Hydraulic fractures were
influenced by the fracture-induced stress shadow and ratio of the maximum to minimum horizontal stress. The
validation and comparative results showed that, compared with the re-fracturing, the asymmetric fracturing
significantly increased the complexity of fracture network. Although the applicability of the asymmetric frac-
turing depending on the corresponding engineering pilots, the derived method could hopefully address the
properties of the strata structure of the reservoirs efficiently. Therefore, it has a high potential for application in
the fracturing of local underground coal seam and special-trap type oil gas reservoirs to construct fracture
network.
∗
Corresponding author. Room 401, Ho Sin Hang Building, Haidian District, Beijing, 100084, PR China.
∗∗
Corresponding author. Campus A, Chongqing University, No. 174 Shazheng Street, Shapingba District, Chongqing, 400030, PR China.
E-mail addresses: delei.shang@gmail.com, deleishang@tsinghua.edu.cn (D. Shang), mhli@cqu.edu.cn (M. Li).
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jngse.2018.09.005
Received 16 August 2017; Received in revised form 27 July 2018; Accepted 8 September 2018
Available online 12 September 2018
1875-5100/ © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
D. Shang et al. Journal of Natural Gas Science and Engineering 59 (2018) 343–353
First, large size stratified and intact samples were casted and well
2. Literature review cured, respectively, according to the concrete curing specifications at
sizes of 500 × 500 × 500 mm for plan A and 1140 × 600 × 600 mm
To approach sufficient reservoir stimulation, numerous fracturing for plans B and C to resist the size and boundary effects. The sample
methods flourished in oil and gas industry and underground coal material components consisted of filling agents (river sand and pul-
mining, such as, directional fracturing with vertical multi-radial bore- verized coal), cementing agents (ordinary Portland cement at a strength
holes (Guo et al., 2017), with controlling boreholes (Liu et al., 2015), grade of 32.5 MPa and gypsum powder), and additive agent (the re-
with deep hole controlling blasting (Zhai et al., 2012) and fracturing tarder, aqueous solution of borax at a concentration of 0.1% by total
with pulse/cyclic injection (Li et al., 2013; Patel et al., 2017). As an mass of filling agents and cementing agents). The modelling materials
alternative, ultrahigh/high pressure fluids jet that was widespread ap- of the reservoirs and overlying/underlying stratum were stirred well
plication in many fields (Matsuki et al., 1990; Soyama et al., 1996; Lu and prepared by mixing the river sand and/or pulverized coal with the
et al., 2009; Zou et al., 2015; Lin et al., 2015; Wang et al., 2015a; Wu ordinary Portland cement and borax solution in the specific propor-
et al., 2018) was employed for slotting before/without hydraulic frac- tions, as shown in Table 1. The physical and mechanics properties of the
turing in coal reservoirs. Under the guidance of the creating slotting, sample materials were collected in Table 2. When the reservoirs were
the breakdown pressure of hydraulic fracturing can be probably de- casted, the modelling materials were put into the molds layer by layer.
creased (Dehghan et al., 2016; He et al., 2017a) compared with pneu- The difference is that the casting time interval of the sample of plan A is
matic fatigue fracturing (Xie et al., 2016) and supercritical carbon di- longer (≥12 h) than that of plans B (∼4 h) and C (∼1 h), showing
oxide (Zhang et al., 2017). Obviously, the fracturing with slot orienting more obvious discontinuity. The setup of modelling borehole and
is advantageous for tight reservoirs stimulation if the cutting direction slotting is available in Section 3.3.
and drilling program as well as the fracturing operations were co-
ordinated reasonably. However, separately hydraulic slotting with a Table 1
drilling interval of only a few meters often leads to much more drilling Sample sizes, material components and texture.
engineering as well as inefficient borehole sealing and slagging; the Plan Sample size/mm Material components based on the Texture
slotting is also blind in the direction without effective guidance. Despite mass ratioa
lots of emerging waterless/water-reducing fracturing techniques (Yan
et al., 2016; Xu et al., 2017), aforementioned methods were constrained A 500 × 500 × 500 Roof and floor with river sand: With
Portland cement = 1:0.5; bedding
by the limited stimulation range as the poor understanding of fracturing B 1140 × 600 × 600 Coal seam with pulverized coal: No bedding
mechanism (Blunschi et al., 2017), the risk of undesirable fractures Portland cement: gypsum
(Sesetty and Ghassemi, 2015), and the lack of technical equipment (Cha powder = 1:1:1
et al., 2014; Cai et al., 2016). Thus, it is urgent to improve the existing C 1140 × 600 × 600 River sand: Portland cement = 1:1, No bedding
without overlying and underlying
fracturing techniques to safeguard the local dangerous regions, for ex-
strata
ample, the underground coal seam uncovering. It is a new attempt to
integrate hydraulic fracturing and hydraulic slotting (Yan et al., 2015), a
Material strength: low strength (modelling coal seams of plans A and B) →
as is the alternative asymmetric fracturing to construct fracture network medium strength (modelling overlying and underlying stratum of plans A and
in the study. B) → high strength (modelling porous reservoirs of plan C).
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D. Shang et al. Journal of Natural Gas Science and Engineering 59 (2018) 343–353
Table 2 response rate of the hydraulic cylinders varies from 0 to 100 mm/
Physical and mechanical properties of the sample materials. min ± 0.1 mm/mm. The multi-channel (up to 64 channels) data real-
Coal seam (Huang, 2009) E/GPa σt/MPa σc/MPa c/MPa φ/° time acquisition system is also integrated with stress and displacement
measurement accuracies of ± 0.5% and ± 0.1 mm, respectively. Nine
0.53 0.66 5.09 1.10 27.82 control channels controlling nine piston cylinders separately, as shown
in Fig. 2 (a) left, are realized by a control mode with full closed loop and
Overlying and underlying stratum 3.35 0.86 19.47 2.61 60.00
Porous reservoirs of plan C (Zhu and E/GPa ν σc/MPa k/mD Φ/% self-programming of stress and displacement at a precision of 0.01% of
Xu, 2012) 15.00 0.23 48.50 0.50 1.85 the full-scale value. Fig. 2 (b) presents the servo supercharger equipped
with a fluid pressurization chamber with 160 mm diameter and 200 mm
stroke and a separate data acquisition system with a data acquisition
3.2. Experimental setup frequency of 0.83 Hz.
Fig. 2. Experiment setup for fracturing: (a) multi-field coupled large-scale coal mine dynamic disaster simulation test system and stress control software interface, (b)
servo supercharger.
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D. Shang et al. Journal of Natural Gas Science and Engineering 59 (2018) 343–353
was configured along the direction of the minimum and intermediate KIC < 2Pn rf / π (1)
principal stresses, as shown in Fig. 3 (d). The plan A was prepared to
investigate the influence of top-bottom strata on fracture propagation, Here, KIC is the fracture toughness, MPa·m0.5; Pn is the net fracture
plan B for deflection mechanism of hydraulic fractures under the re- pressure, MPa; rf is half length of the fracture, m; π is pi, the ratio of the
fracturing, and plan C for the laws of fracture initiation and propaga- circumference of a circle to its diameter. This study focused on the
tion in the context of the asymmetric fracturing. process of fracture propagation that was dominated by the viscosity
According to in-situ stress measurements (Cai et al., 2013), the without considering the leak-off. Fortunately, based on the dimensional
average maximum, intermediate, and minimum principal stresses at a analysis, several normally used dimensionless groups were designated
buried depth of ∼1061 m are 43.56, 27.24, and 23.28 MPa in Permian according to the scaling laws (de Pater et al., 1994). Thus, the injection
strata of Pingdingshan coalfield, respectively. Thus, the maximum, in- rate, injection time, fluid viscosity, etc., conducted in this study were
termediate, and minimum principal stresses imposed were scaled ac- constrained by the dimensionless group κ as shown in Eq. (2) (Savitski
cordingly in this study. The loading was applied stepwise with the and Detournay, 2002). If the dimensionless group κ < 1, the fracture
stresses increasing. Fig. 2 (a) right shows the control software interface. propagation will be viscosity dominated (κ > 4 for toughness domi-
The fracturing tests in samples of plan A, B, and C were conducted and nated). Here, the intermediate variables K ′ = (32/ π )1/2KIC μ′ = 12μ , and
finished to continue recording the pressure-time curve holding the E′ = E /(1−ν 2) were defined to simplify Eq. (2). The μ is the viscosity,
pump piston motionless until the servo supercharger was stopped. The Pa·s; E is Young's modulus, GPa; ν is Poisson's coefficient; Q0 is the
displacement of the fracturing fluids (Newtonian fluids) injected into constant injection flow; t is the time of fracture initiation and propa-
the model borehole with 8 mm radius and 250 mm length was gation in the lab experiments, s.
Q = 0.06 m3/h. The samples were uniformly and quasistatically pres- 1/18
surized stepwise at a constant loading rate of 2 kN/s (approximately t2
κ = K ′ ⎜⎛ 5 3 13 ⎟⎞
0.01 MPa/s) to a specific stress state. The monitoring methods of the ⎝ μ′ Q0 E′ ⎠ (2)
hydraulic fractures were supplemented in the Appendix.
Research personnel occasionally has to consider the limitation of The experimental parameters can be validated if the dimensionless
experimental conditions. Thus, lab experiments should be performed to groups of the laboratory experiments derived from the parameters
reasonably establish the relation between the laboratory results and the listed in Table 3 were met, as suggested in Eq. (3) (Detournay, 2004).
field operations. The initiation and propagation of on-site hydraulic
qt r σ KIC E r3
fractures can be attributed to three mechanisms, namely viscosity, Nt = ; NK l = K l ; Nσ = c ; NKIC = ; NE =
r3 q E Er 1/2 μq (3)
toughness, and leak-off dominated regimes (Bunger et al., 2005). The
fracture propagation for a radial fracture is primarily dominated by the Here, r is the wellbore radius, m; q is the injection rate, m3/s; Kl is
fracture toughness during the fracture initiation and the final stage of the leak-off coefficient, m/s0.5; E is the crack opening modulus,
fracture propagation, and by viscosity-dominated during other stage of E = E /4(1 − ν 2) , GPa; σc is the uniaxial compressive strength, MPa; σt is
fracture propagation (Detournay, 2004; Gulrajani and Nolte, 2000). the uniaxial tensile strength, MPa; c is the cohesion, MPa; φ is the in-
The leak-off regime can be considered negligible if the reservoirs tend ternal friction angle, °; k is the permeability, mD; Φ is the porosity, %;
to be impermeable; otherwise, Eq. (1) (de Pater et al., 1994) should be Nt is the dimensionless group of experiment time; NKl is the di-
satisfied to validate the fracture size. mensionless group of leak-off; Nσ is the dimensionless group of stress;
NKIC is the dimensionless group of crack formation; NE is the
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D. Shang et al. Journal of Natural Gas Science and Engineering 59 (2018) 343–353
Table 3
Material properties of coal rock and model blocks.
Symbol t r q Kl E σc KIC μ
3 0.5 0.5
Unit s m m /s m/s GPa MPa MPa·m Pa·s
Prototype 1200 0.04 1.33 × 10−1 1 × 10−4 1.76 8.02 0.23 1 × 10−3
Model 60 0.01 8.06 × 10−6 1 × 10−3 0.53 5.09 0.17 1 × 10−3
Scaling ratio St = 20 Sr = 4 Sq = 16, 501 SKl = 0.1 SE = 3.32 Sσc = 1.58 SKIC = 1.35 Sμ = 1
dimensionless group of elastic deformation; Sx is the scaling ratios of increase in the frictional resistance of the fracture interface caused by
the model to the prototype; x represents some specific parameter. fracture deflecting and extending unsteadily. The first and second rise/
drop variation of the pressure during the injection were distorted
compared to the third one that should be the actual breakdown pres-
4. Result analysis sure. As the fractures shown in Fig. 5, Plan A used a stratified sample
with abundant lamination; when the sample was fractured with a sin-
4.1. Fracturing with slot orienting gular slot orientation, in the case of the relatively rich discontinuous
structures and low simulative geostress conditions, the irregular pump
To understand the fracture initiation, orientation, and deflection curves were easily generated such as Fig. 6 in reference from Hou et al.
mechanisms considering the influence of overlying and underlying (2016), Fig. 3 from Meng et al. (2016), and Fig 10 from Liu et al.
strata, a stratified sample containing abundant lamination with a sin- (2018a). The fluctuated injection pressure is probably derived from the
gular slot was prepared in the context of plan A, as shown in Fig. 2 (a) propagation of the non-planar or new creating fracture and interaction
and (b). The fluid pressure–time diagram showed that the fluid pressure between the interface/discontinuity and fracturing fluids. And the non-
rapidly increased up to the first maximum value (slot open, as shown in planar fracture and new creating fracture usually generate a relatively
Fig. 4, ①) after starting the servo supercharger, then the fluid pressure high surface roughness and fracture extending pressure than the usual,
dropped significantly in a short time, which was probably an abnormal which can be explained that the twist fracture and new creating frac-
situation due to the slot blocking during the sample casting; and frac- ture need much more fracture energy; and have a relatively great
ture in the sample have not yet started to initiate at this stage. Subse- fracture friction, i.e., need much more dissipated energy when several
quently the fluid pressure gradually increased to reach the second hydraulic fractures extending simultaneously with multiple nonlinelar
maximum value (the abnormal breakdown, as shown in Fig. 4, ②) until fracture fluids flow, as Fig. 5 from Zhou et al. (2016), Fig. 11 from Liu
the hydraulic fracture extended to the up and down interface and the et al. (2018a). Consequently, the injection pressure and extending
interspace, the fluid pressure decreased again at the end of this stage. At pressure are closely related to the fracture geometries and the number
the third stage, the fluid pressure increased to a new maximum value of the fractures.
(the breakdown, as shown in Fig. 4, ③), then finally slowly decreased to Fig. 5 (a) and (b) showed the surface morphology of the sample after
the shut-in pressure. At the same time, the fracturing fluid was si- the fluid injection. Fig. 5 (c) displayed the fracture propagation situa-
multaneously ejected infiltrating the sample surface, and the data ac- tion after the artificial orienting fracturing with a slot. The white col-
quisition continued to collect the fluid pressure holding the pump loidal matter (addition-type bi-component RTV silicone rubber, in-
piston motionless during the fracture closure. troduced in the Appendix) appeared when the cut was made to 1/4
The first fluid pressure rise/drop was probably attributed to the plane area. The fracture extension range was depicted based on the
non-uniform fracture initiation of the preformed slot with material distribution of the white silicone rubber. The fractures extended for-
blockage; the second fluid pressure rise/drop was probably the actual ward along the direction of the prefabricated slot, then got to propagate
fracture initiation and propagation along the modelling discontinuities; horizontally. Only part of the fracturing fluid was immersed in the roof
whereas the third fluid pressure rise/drop could be caused by a sharp and the floor, indicating that the fractures did not penetrate the top and
bottom interface, but continued to extend in the coal seam between the
top and bottom interfaces (according to Huang and Liu, (2017), whe-
ther the fracture would penetrate the interfaces depended on the in-
terfacial bonding strength). Fig. 5 (d) illustrates that the fracture shape
was clearly visible when 1/2 area of the sample was cut. The fracture
edge had an approximate elliptic curve without obvious corners. Note
that the silicone rubber can only enter a fracture aperture of approxi-
mately 0.3 mm, which roughly reflects macro-crack distribution.
Therefore, no follow-up study with the silicone rubber monitoring was
performed unless requirements, and the pigments were employed for
fracture tracking and monitoring in the following experiments. In a
word, the slot for orienting fracturing is favor of hydraulic fracture
initiation. In a word, the twisted fractures are very likely to produce,
and the slot guiding has some effect on fracture initiation in hetero-
geneous reservoirs.
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D. Shang et al. Journal of Natural Gas Science and Engineering 59 (2018) 343–353
Fig. 5. Orienting fracturing with singular slot. The white RTV silicone rubbers represents the fracture trace and morphology: (a) top view, (b) side view, (c) fracture
at 1/4 plane area of the artificial cut, (d) fracture at 1/2 plane area of the artificial cut (the monitoring methods of hydraulic fracture can be found in the Appendix).
words, there were almost no new fractures created. The final fracture
morphology showed that the first and second injection initiated the
incipient fractures that were created in the first fracturing/injection, as
shown by the red line delineation of the fracture boundary in Fig. 7 (a)
and (b). Actually, the fractures formed did not extend to the sample
surface according to the lab observation during the first and second
injections.
Compared with the Ⅰ and Ⅱ stages, the fluid pressure gradient ob-
viously increased in the Ⅲ stage, which indicated that the flow friction
of the fracture wall increased significantly. One possible explanation is
that the fracture size increase leads to increase in frictional resistance of
the fluid flow. In fact, this inference has been validated by the results in
Fig. 7. The fracture extended to the sample surface according to the
observation during the third injection, implying that the pressure gra-
dient significantly increased compared with the previous Ⅰ and Ⅱ stages,
i.e., the flow friction and leak-off area of the fracturing fluid in the Ⅲ
stage was clearly larger than that of the previous Ⅰ and Ⅱ stages. The
third injection not only opened the originally closed fractures that were
created in the Ⅰ and Ⅱ stages, but also facilitated the creation and
Fig. 6. Fluid pressure vs. time in the context of injection and reinjection. propagation of branch fractures during the Ⅲ stage, thereby produced
some rock fragments and numerous branch fractures, as shown in Fig. 7
the breakdown pressure of ∼3.72 MPa at 37 s after the servo super- (c) and (d), where the yolk yellow line defines the boundary of sec-
charger turned on, as shown in Fig. 6. Then, the fluid pressure rapidly ondary fractures. The results shown in Fig. 7 suggested that the small
decreased to approximately 38.68% of the breakdown pressure ac- size fractures initiated in the fractured reservoirs typically before
companying by a slight pressure oscillation. Finally, the data acquisi- reaching the breakdown pressure combining with the analysis of the
tion continued holding the pump piston motionless. When the second fluid pressure-time plot, as shown in Fig. 6.
injection began at 205 s, the fluid pressure rapidly increased approxi- The top-bottom strata adjacent to the coal seam was fractured,
mately equal to the pressure of the previous Ⅰ stage, and finally did not which was favor of the rock fragments and branch fractures getting
change dramatically any more. The pressure drops versus time, i.e., the interconnected and were significant for the gas production in the con-
pressure gradient, was 0.0157, 0.0156, and 0.0204 MPa/s occurred at text of singular slot for orienting re-fracturing, as shown by the frac-
the duration of 87.41, 82.49 and 66.62 s in stages Ⅰ, Ⅱ, and Ⅲ, re- tures with mottled colors in Fig. 7 (c) and (d). The so-called seepage
spectively, as shown in Fig. 6. There was no significant difference in force generated due to the pore fluid overpressure and tectonic stresses
pressure gradient between the Ⅰ and Ⅱ stage, which indicated that the (Ghani et al., 2013) in the formation containing natural flaws. This is
flow friction of the fracture wall did not significantly increase. In other because the stress field in the vicinity of the fractures created is not yet
348
D. Shang et al. Journal of Natural Gas Science and Engineering 59 (2018) 343–353
349
D. Shang et al. Journal of Natural Gas Science and Engineering 59 (2018) 343–353
Fig. 8. Injection and fracture trace and morphology of the asymmetric fracturing: (a) overall view on the surface of the sample, Plan C; a borehole with a (b) slot
orienting and (d) aid of the perforation, and pressure-time curve of the fracturing fluid with a (c) slot and (e) perforation orienting; the derived fracture at (f) 1/8, (g)
1/4, and (h) 1/2 volume of the sample.
piston was held motionless. Consequently, the deposition of the red complex fracture for many years. However, the hydraulic fractures tend
pigment would last for a longer time on the fracture interfaces filled to extend along the discontinuities, particularly in the presence of
with the pressurized fluid. The longer the red pigment deposited, the natural fractures (Llanos et al., 2017), and the stress ratio was critical to
darker color on the opened fracture interfaces displayed compared to the features of the rock (Song et al., 2017). As a result, the fractures
that in the incipient fracturing stage. Thus, the color of the newly may get multiple twists when the ratio of the maximum to minimum
created fracture surface was lighter than that of the incipient fracturing horizontal geostress becomes less than 1.7 (Liu et al., 2016b, 2018b) or
stage as the leak-off and soak effects on the micron-level fracture 1.9 (Xie et al., 2016); while the fracture network will decrease with the
channels, as shown in Fig. 8 (h). increase in the horizontal geostress ratio (Wang et al., 2016). The
fracture deflection that the stress shadow produces probably takes place
5. Implications of the field operation and future research under the specific re-orientation conditions. Therefore, simultaneous
injection of some technical boreholes in the context of asymmetric
The simultaneous fracturing (Chitrala et al., 2013; Zou et al., 2016) fracturing is more suitable for the fractured reservoirs with a small
and re-fracturing have been used in oil and gas industry to create the horizontal stress difference. However, the stress field near the fractures
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D. Shang et al. Journal of Natural Gas Science and Engineering 59 (2018) 343–353
Fig. 9. Implications of the field asymmetric fracturing with temporary plugging of the cryogenic freeze (the planar projection of drilling bottom in a coal seam,
southwest China).
required an appropriate stress recovery and rebalance duration. Then, the slotting interval should be optimized to reduce possible unexpected
the stress state of the stress-relieved zone will become nearly stable. propagation during encountering the geological structure. Continued
Otherwise, only the opening and extending the native cracks are not research is required through theoretical, experimental, and on-site ob-
conducive for the fracture network creation. Consequently, the re- servations in the context of asymmetric fracturing to determine the
fracturing tends to extend the pre-existing fractures rather than gen- optimal and effective operations. And the relevant stress reorientation
erate the new fractures if the re-orientation conditions are dissatisfied. zone also need to be optimized to approach a reasonable drilling layout
In contrast, the creating fractures tends to deflect in the context of the and favorable fracturing techniques.
asymmetric fracturing with the slot and perforation orienting. The effective range of the proposed fracturing method is tempora-
The stimulation efficacy and efficiency of the asymmetric fracturing rily available only through the experimental results in this study as the
could be well improved with the aid of the newest fracturing methods. lack of complex on-site geological settings (Figueiredo et al., 2017). The
And it has a high potential for application in local fracturing by max- complex cleats, the fracture density and orientation, etc., have a pro-
imizing the associated stress shadow in the vicinity of the creating and found effect on the fracturing process, which cannot be easily re-
natural fractures. For instance, the most dangerous local regions where presented by the simplified lab samples without much more important
the coal uncovering at the crossdrift is conducted in the underground geological details. Although the stratified samples are partially con-
coal mining need to be fracturing stimulation to control the gas dis- sidered in the study, the heterogeneity of the material is also not well
asters. It is a mining engineering case in southwest China, as shown in presented and needs further investigation. The applicability of the
Fig. 9. The fracture network is probably produced if the reinjection is asymmetric fracturing also requires engineering pilots particularly in
well integrated with the cryogenic fracturing (Qin et al., 2018; Yin fractured porous reservoirs, such as the low permeable coal and shale
et al., 2018). Firstly, the temporary plugging based on the fracture gas reservoirs. However, the proposed asymmetric fracturing could ef-
freezing is created using the injected cryogenic agents after the first ficiently address the fracturing effectiveness partially considering the
time of hydraulic fracturing, as the gray fracture trace shown in Fig. 9. reservoir properties of the layered structure. Before that, the induced
Then, the second time of hydraulic fracturing can be performed to fa- stresses caused by the coupling of the stress shadow and the fracturing
cilitate the fracture deflection to create fracture network, as the blue fluids should be realistically captured in the future research to get a
fracture trace shown in Fig. 9. better insight into the fracturing processes with proppant and variable
The alternatively buried brittle and ductile formations can greatly injection rate.
impact the propagation of hydraulic fractures. However, the pore
pressure affects fracture orientation (Charlez, 1997; Wang et al., 2013);
and the influence of pore pressure in fracturing coal cannot be ne- 6. Conclusions
glected when the coal reservoirs are under the re-fracturing operation,
because the pore pressure facilitated crack initiation along the direction This study addressed the effectiveness of the reservoir stimulation in
of the relative great hydraulic gradient (Yan et al., 2015). The process the context of hydraulic fracturing in low permeable porous reservoirs,
can be reproduced that the crack tip infiltrates at first and then gen- which remained a continuous hot topic for the conventional/un-
erates the pore pressure; and the pore pressure continues increasing to conventional oil and gas industries. Accordingly, the stratified and in-
the breakdown pressure resulting in fracture initiating and extending tact samples were prepared by mixing river sand and/or pulverized coal
when the fracture toughness of the rock mass is overcome. However, with concrete cement in specific proportions and adding sufficient
water to overcome the size and boundary effects. The complexity of the
351
D. Shang et al. Journal of Natural Gas Science and Engineering 59 (2018) 343–353
hydraulic fractures is subject to the heterogeneity of the material and hydraulic fracture propagation under different applied stresses in tight sands using
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This study was funded by the National Natural Science Foundation Ghani, I., Koehn, D., Toussaint, R., Passchier, C.W., 2013. Dynamic development of hy-
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