Morphology of a Reservoir Crack in a Rock Mass with Orthotropy in Fracture Toughness
- Key words
- Reservoir Engineering; Reservoir Parameters; Hot Dry Rock; Growth Path; Compressive Stress; Natural Fractures; Numerical Simulators; Reservoir Parameters
- Conference
- Geothermal Resources Council Transactions
- Year
- 1986
- Session
- Fractures; Rock mechanics; Computer modeling
- Language
- English
Abstract
Growth behavior of a reservoir crack created by hydraulic fracturing from an oblique plan of weakness such as a joint, is analyzed for a rock mass with orthotropy in fracture toughness. The analysis is based on the theory of elasticity and that of fracture mechanics. It is revealed that, in the first stage of the growth, the orthotropy has fairly intense effects, but, in the later stage, the growth path is mainly governed by tectonic stress orientation. This means that reservoir cracks of practical size are macroscopically normal to the least compressive stress even if there exists orthotropy in fracture toughness of surrounding rock masses.
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