• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.21 no.6
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• pp.93-100
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• 2005

The occurrence of multi-segmented hydraulic fractures that show different behavior from the single fracture is common phenomenon. However, it is not easy to evaluate the behavior of multiple fractures computed by most numerical techniques because of complicated process computation. This study presents how to efficiently calculate the displacement of the multi-segmented hydraulic fractures using the boundary collocation method (BCM). First of all, asymptotic solutions are obtained for the closely spaced overlapping fractures and are compared with those by the BCM where the number of collocation points is varied. As a result, the BCM provides an excellent agreement with the asymptotic solutions even when the number of collocation points is reduced ten times as many as that of conventional implementations. Accordingly, the numerical simulation of more realistic and, hence, more complex fracture geometries by the BCM would be valid with such a significant reduction of the number of collocation points.

• Journal of the Korean GEO-environmental Society
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• v.10 no.4
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• pp.65-71
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• 2009

Hydraulic fracturing technology has been widely applied in the industry for the recovery of the natural resources such as gas, oil and geothermal heat from hot dry rock. During hydraulic fracturing stimulation, multiple cracks are created resulting in mechanical interaction between cracks. Such an interaction influences obtaining hydraulic fracturing key parameters (crack opening, length, and borehole net pressure). The boundary collocation method (BCM) has been proved to be very effective in considering mechanical interaction. However, for better confidence, it needs to be verified by comparison with analytical solutions such as stress intensity factors. In this paper, three cases, single fracture in remote uniaxial tension, single fracture in remote shear stress field and two arbitrary segments in an infinite plane loaded at infinity are considered. As a result, the BCM is proved to be valid technique to consider mechanical interaction between cracks and can be used to estimate the hydraulic fracturing parameters such as opening of the fracture, and so on.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.21 no.9
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• pp.45-52
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• 2005

Recent observations based on geological evidence and laboratory tests confirm that complex segmentation of hydraulic fractures is common phenomena. It is expected that the segmentation causes mechanical interaction between the fractures and affects fracture opening and measured net pressure. In this study, therefore, the opening of the fractures is computed using boundary collocation method to evaluate the mechanical interaction quantitatively. Also, improved boundary collocation method is suggested to evaluate the displacement of the fracture wall accurately and the reliability of this method is confirmed by comparing with that of the finite element method.

• Journal of the Korean GEO-environmental Society
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• v.10 no.6
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• pp.135-141
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• 2009

Fracturing technique using fluid injection into the borehole is widely used technology in the industry for the geothermal heat, oil, and gas extraction. Dealing with fluid-driven natural fractures such as dike and vein indirectly, design technology would be improved by adapting their principles. In this paper, mechanical interaction between the segments is evaluated by modeling highly segmented and closely spaced fluid-driven natural fractures. The number of segments is 71 with 3,339 measured apertures in which the interaction is considerably predicted. To evaluate mechanical interaction, boundary collocation method is used and the net pressure is calculated by using least square method to fit measured apertures. As a result, in case that mechanical interaction is considered, two pressures as fitting parameters are sufficient to capture measured apertures.

• 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.