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Published in: Rock Mechanics and Rock Engineering 4/2015

01-07-2015 | Original Paper

Numerical Investigation on Stress Shadowing in Fluid Injection-Induced Fracture Propagation in Naturally Fractured Geothermal Reservoirs

Authors: Jeoung Seok Yoon, Günter Zimmermann, Arno Zang

Published in: Rock Mechanics and Rock Engineering | Issue 4/2015

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Abstract

In low permeability shale reservoirs, multi-stage hydraulic fracturing is largely used to increase the productivity by enlarging the stimulated rock volume. Hydraulic fracture created alters the stress field around it, and affects the subsequent fractures by the change of the stress field, in particular, mostly increased minimum principal stress at the area of subsequent fracturing. This is called stress shadow which accumulates as the fracturing stages advance from toe to heel. Hydraulic fractures generated in such altered stress field are shorter and compact with orientation deviating significantly from the far-field maximum horizontal stress orientation. This paper presents 2D discrete element-based numerical modeling of multi-stage hydraulic fracturing in a naturally fractured reservoir and investigates stress shadowing. The stress shadowing is tested with two different injection scenarios: constant and cyclic rate injections. The results show that cyclic injection tends to lower the effect of stress shadow as well as mitigates the magnitude of the induced seismicity. Another modeling case is presented to show how the stress shadow can be utilized to optimize a hydraulic fracture network in application to Groß Schönebeck geothermal reservoir, rather than being mitigated. The modeling demonstrated that the stress shadow is successfully utilized for optimizing the geothermal heat exchanger by altering the initial in situ stress field from highly anisotropic to less or even to isotropic.

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Metadata
Title
Numerical Investigation on Stress Shadowing in Fluid Injection-Induced Fracture Propagation in Naturally Fractured Geothermal Reservoirs
Authors
Jeoung Seok Yoon
Günter Zimmermann
Arno Zang
Publication date
01-07-2015
Publisher
Springer Vienna
Published in
Rock Mechanics and Rock Engineering / Issue 4/2015
Print ISSN: 0723-2632
Electronic ISSN: 1434-453X
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/s00603-014-0695-5

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