Numerical Simulation of Fracking in Shale Rocks: Current State and Future Approaches

Archives of Computational Methods in Engineering : State of the Art Reviews
Gabriel HattoriAndrew C Aplin

Abstract

Extracting gas from shale rocks is one of the current engineering challenges but offers the prospect of cheap gas. Part of the development of an effective engineering solution for shale gas extraction in the future will be the availability of reliable and efficient methods of modelling the development of a fracture system, and the use of these models to guide operators in locating, drilling and pressurising wells. Numerous research papers have been dedicated to this problem, but the information is still incomplete, since a number of simplifications have been adopted such as the assumption of shale as an isotropic material. Recent works on shale characterisation have proved this assumption to be wrong. The anisotropy of shale depends significantly on the scale at which the problem is tackled (nano, micro or macroscale), suggesting that a multiscale model would be appropriate. Moreover, propagation of hydraulic fractures in such a complex medium can be difficult to model with current numerical discretisation methods. The crack propagation may not be unique, and crack branching can occur during the fracture extension. A number of natural fractures could exist in a shale deposit, so we are dealing with several cracks propagating at...Continue Reading

References

Jul 22, 1991·Physical Review Letters·J FinebergH L Swinney
Dec 25, 2002·Journal of Contaminant Hydrology·Quanlin ZhouCurtis M Oldenburg
Feb 4, 2014·Physical Review. E, Statistical, Nonlinear, and Soft Matter Physics·H Henry, M Adda-Bedia

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