A Three-Dimensional Poroelastic Analysis of Fracture Slip
- Key words
- Induced Seismicity; Enhanced Geothermal System; Displacement Discontinuity; Poroelasticity; Fracture Slip
- Conference
- Geothermal Resources Council Transactions
- Year
- 2008
- Session
- HDR/EGS; Hydroshearing; Reservoir modeling; Injection; Fract
- Language
- English
Abstract
The behavior of joints and other discontinuities plays an important role in the enhanced geothermal systems (EGS). The fracture permeability varies significantly in response to the opening and slip of the fracture. In addition, micro-seismicity is often associated with the shear slip of the discontinuities. It is generally believed that the stresses generated by poro-mechanical and thermo-mechanical processes cause fracture opening and slip in EGS. In this paper, a 3D displacement discontinuity method is used to analyze the opening and slip of a fracture in response to the application of a fluid pressure. It is found that the fluid leak-off causes the fracture response to be time-dependent with the fracture opening and slip potential decreasing with increasing time.
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