Numerical Analysis on the Formation of Fracture Network during the Hydraulic Fracturing of Shale with Pre-Existing Fractures

In this paper, configurations of pre-existing fractures in cubic rock blocks were investigated and reconstructed for the modeling of experimental hydraulic fracturing. The fluid-rock coupling process of hydraulic fracturing was simulated based on the displacement discontinuities method. The numerical model was validated against the related laboratory experiments. The stimulated fracture configurations under different conditions can be clearly shown using the validated numerical model. First, a dominated fracture along the maximum principle stress direction is always formed when the stress difference is large enough. Second, there are less reopened pre-existing fractures, more newly formed fractures and less shear fractures with the increase of the cohesion value of pre-existing fractures. Third, the length of the stimulated shear fracture decreases rapidly with the increase of the friction coefficient, while the length of the tensile fracture has no correlation to the fiction coefficient. Finally, the increase of the fluid injection rate is favorable to the formation of a fracture network. The unfavorable effects of the large stress difference and the large cohesion of pre-existing fractures can be partly suppressed by an increase of the injection rate in the hydraulic fracturing treatment. The results of this paper are useful for understanding fracture propagation behaviors during the hydraulic fracturing of shale reservoirs with pre-existing fractures.