• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.23 no.6
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• pp.538-546
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• 2013

This paper deals with a hydraulic fracturing technique, which is one of the methods to maximize the recovery rate and productivity of oil and gas in the petroleum industry. In the hydraulic fracturing, typically water mixed with sand and chemicals is injected into a wellbore in order to create artificial fractures along which formation fluids migrate to the well. In recent years, it is widely used in non-conventional oil and gas such as oil shale and shale gas. Three main stages of the hydraulic fracturing process, the proposed design models for the effective hydraulic fracturing and diagnostics after fracturing treatment are introduced. In addition, this paper introduces reservoir geomechanics to solve various problems in the process of hydraulic fracturing.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.14 no.6
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• pp.581-588
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• 2018

In order to explore the comprehensive evaluation means of the extent of hydraulic fracturing region in coal seams, we analyzed the feasibility of detecting the response of coal rock direct current (DC) apparent resistivity to hydraulic-fracturing using Archie's theory, and conducted experimental researches on the response of DC resistivity in the hydraulic fracturing process using small-scale coal rock samples. The results show that porosity and water saturation are the two factors affecting the apparent resistivity of coal rock while hydraulic fracturing. Water has a dominant effect on the apparent resistivity of coal rock samples. The apparent resistivity in the area where water flows through is reduced more than 50%, which can be considered as a core affect region of hydraulic fracturing. Stress indirectly impacts the apparent resistivity by changing porosity. Before hydraulic fracturing, the greater axial load applied, the more serious the rupture in the samples, resulting in the greater apparent resistivity. Apparent resistivity testing is a potential regional method to evaluate the influence range of hydraulic fracturing in coal seams.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.23 no.6
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• pp.470-479
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• 2013

Hydraulic fracturing is used as a method for promoting the fluid flow in the rock and, in the energy field such as geothermal development and the development of sales gas, many studies has been actively conducted. In many cases, hydraulic fracturing is not performed in isotropic rock and especially in the case of sedimentary rocks, hydraulic fracturing is conducted in the transverse isotropic rock. The direction of the crack growth on hydraulic fracturing does not necessarily coincides with the direction of maximum principal stress in the transverse isotropic rock. Therefore, in this study, bonded particle model with hydro-mechanical coupling analysis was adopted for analyzing the characteristics of hydraulic fracturing in transverse isotropic rock. In addition, experiments of hydraulic fracturing were conducted in laboratory-scale to verify the validity of numerical analysis. In this study, the crack growth and crack patterns showed significant differences depending on the viscosity of injection fluid, the angle of bedding plane and the influence of anisotropy. In the case of transverse isotropic model, the shear crack growth due to hydraulic fracturing appeared prominently.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.31 no.1
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• pp.41-51
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• 2021

The hydraulic fracturing developed to improve permeability of tight reservoir is one of key stimulation technologies for developing unconventional resources such as shale gas and deep geothermal energy. The experimental study was conducted to improve disadvantage of hydraulic fracturing which has simple fracture pattern and poor fracturing efficiency. The fracturing experiments was conducted for tight rock using various fracturing fluids, water, N2, and CO2 and the created fracture pattern and fracturing efficiency was analyzed depending on fracturing fluids. The borehole pressure increased rapidly and then made fractures for hydraulic fracturing with constant injection rate, however, gas fracturing shows slowly increased pressure and less fracture pressure. The 3D tomography technic was used to generate images of induced fracture using hydraulic and gas fracturing. The stimulated reservoir volume (SRV) was estimated increment of 5.71% (water), 12.72% (N2), and 43.82% (CO2) respectively compared to initial pore volume. In addition, permeability measurement was carried out before and after fracturing experiments and the enhanced permeability by gas fracturing showed higher than hydraulic fracturing. The fracture conductivity was measured by increasing confining stress to consider newly creating fracture and closing induced fracture right after fracturing. When the confining stress was increased from 2MPa to 10MPa, the initial permeability was decreased by 89% (N2) and 50% (CO2) respectively. This study shows that the gas fracturing makes more permeability enhancement and less reduction of induced fracture conductivity than hydraulic fracturing.

• Journal of the Korean GEO-environmental Society
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.43-53
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• 2006

Hydraulic fracturing is an important and abundant process in both industrial applications and natural environments. The formation of hydraulic fractures includes nucleation, growth, and termination in numerous rock types and stress regimes, at scales ranging from microns to many kilometers. As a result, fracture segmentation, commonly observed at all scales and in all geo-materials, contributes to this complexity in many ways. In particular, the mechanical interaction of fracture segments strongly affect almost all hydraulic fracturing processes. In this paper, the segmented fracture opening deformation in rock by hydraulic fracturing is quantified using boundary collocation method and is compared with non-interacting single fracture.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.24 no.6
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• pp.440-448
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• 2014

Hydraulic fracturing technique has been applied in various fields in order to improve the recovery of energy resources such as gas, oil and geothermal energy and research about finding out hydraulic fracturing mechanism and application has been steadily proceeded. In this study, for effective hydraulic fracturing, a scale modeling was progressed to simulate similarly with the actual site. In order to analyze the development aspect of surface crack initiation pressure during hydraulic fracturing followed by different conditions, the number of guide holes hydraulic fracturing test was carried out by setting up a hydraulic fracturing test equipment. Also, through the result, we tried to derive reliable results by comparing and analyzing the value of numerical modeling which is obtained based on the physical properties and mechanical properties with 3DEC, a three-dimensional discrete element method program. As a result, it is considered possible to generate effective crack using the guide hole.

• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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• v.20 no.7
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• pp.34-42
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• 2015

Feasibility tests for the hydraulic fracturing were conducted in order to secure additional saline groundwater for irrigating to the land-based aquaculture farm. Two boreholes were placed to the aquaculture farm A and B, respectively. A hydraulic fracturing using single packer was applied to major fracture zones within two boreholes. To identify effects of hydraulic fracturing on securing additional saline groundwater, some selective methods including well logging methods, pumping tests, and groundwater quality analysis were commonly applied to the boreholes before and after the hydraulic fracturing. Enlarging/creating fracture zones, increasing water contents in bedrock near boreholes, and increasing transmissivity were observed after the hydraulic fracturing. Even though the hydraulic fracturing could be an alternative to secure additional saline groundwater to the land-based aquaculture farm, salinity of the groundwater did not meet optimal thresholds for each fingerling in two farms: Fresh submarine groundwater discharge flowed the more into borehole of the farm A that resulted in decreasing a salinity value. Increased saline groundwater quantity in the borehole of the farm B rarely affect to the salinity. Although salinity problem of groundwater limited its direct use for the farms, the mixing with seawater could be effectively used for the fingerlings during the early stage. A horizontal radial collector well placed in the alluvial layer could be an alternative for the farms as well.

• Proceedings of the Korean Geotechical Society Conference
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• 1994.03b
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• pp.3-12
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• 1994

Based on the shear failure mechanism, hydraulic fracturing criteria are extended to three dimensional stress state. According to the situation of the directions of borehole and major principal stress axes, three equations can be derived for three dimensional hydraulic fracturing problems. By comparing these equations, a single criterion is selected for hydraulic fracturing pressure in cohesive soils. The criterion is a function of maximum principal stress, minimum principal stress and soil parameters in UU conditions. The equation indicates that with any increase in maximim principal stress, hydraulic fracturing pressure decreases. In order to prove the integrity of the criteria, laboratory tests are performed on compacted cubical specimens using true a triaxial apparatus. The shape and direction of fractures are determined by injecting colored water after fracture initiation. It is found that the direction of fractures are perpendicular to the o1 plane.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.17 no.6
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• pp.535-541
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• 2019

Combining the radial well drilling and hydraulic fracturing technique, the production capacity of the reservoirs with low-permeability can be improved effectively. Due to the existence of radial holes, the stress around the well is redistributed, and the initiation and propagation of hydraulic fractures are different with those in traditional hydraulic fracturing. Therefore, it is necessary to study the influences of radial horizontal wells on hydraulic fracturing. The laboratory experiment was conducted to simulate the hydraulic fracturing on the physical model with radial holes. The experimental results showed that, compared with the borehole without radial holes, the sample with radial hole in the direction of maximum horizontal stress was fractured with significantly lower pressure. As the angle between direction of the horizontal hole and the maximum horizontal stress increased, the breakdown pressure grew. While when the radial hole was drilled towards the direction of the minimum horizontal stress, the breakdown pressure increased to that needed in the borehole without radial holes. When the angle between the radial hole and the maximum horizontal stress increase, the pressure required to propagate the fractures grew apparently, and the fracture become complex. Meanwhile, the deeper the radial hole drilled, the less the pressure was needed for fracturing.

• 한국지구물리탐사학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2003.11a
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• pp.272-280
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• 2003

A definite shut-in pressure in hydraulic fracturing techniques is needed for obtaining the correct information on the in-situ stress regimes in rock masses. The relation between the behaviour of hydraulically induced fractures and the condition of remote stress is considered to be major reasons of an ambiguous shut-in pressure in hydraulic fracturing pressure-time history curves. This paper describes the results of a series of numerical analyses carried out using UDEC(Universal Distinct Element Code, Itasca), which is based on the discrete element method, to compare several methods for determining the shut-in pressure during hydraulic fracturing. The fully coupling of hydraulic and mechanical analysis was applied, and the effects of four different discontinuity geometries in numerical modelling have been investigated for this purpose. The effects of different remote stress regimes and different physical properties on hydraulic fracture propagation have been also analyzed. Several methods for obtaining shut-in pressure from the ambiguous shut-in curves have been applied to all the numerical models. The graphical intersection methods, such as (P vs. t) method, (P vs. log(t)) method, (log(P) vs. log(t)) method, give smaller values of the shut-in pressure than the statistical method, (dP/dt vs. P). Care should be taken in selecting a method for shut-in pressure, because there can be existed a stress anomaly around the wellbore and fracturing from the wellbore by a constant flow rate may have a more complicate mechanism.