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  4. Modeling of Simultaneous Propagation of Multiple Blade‑Like Hydraulic Fractures from a Horizontal Well
 
research article

Modeling of Simultaneous Propagation of Multiple Blade‑Like Hydraulic Fractures from a Horizontal Well

Nikolskiy, Dmitry  
•
Lecampion, Brice  
2020
Rock Mechanics Rock Engineering

We explore different aspects of the multi-stage fracturing process such as stress interaction between growing hydraulic fractures, perforation friction, as well as the wellbore flow dynamics using a specifically developed numerical solver. In particular, great care is taken to appropriately solve for the fluid partition between the different growing fractures at any given time. We restrict the hydraulic fractures to be fully contained in the reservoir (fractures of constant height) thus reducing the problem to two dimensions. After discussions of the numerical algorithm, a number of verification tests are presented. We then define via scaling arguments the key dimensionless parameters controlling the growth of multiple hydraulic fractures during a single pumping stage. We perform a series of numerical simulations spanning the practical range of parameters to quantify which conditions promote uniform versus non-uniform growth. Our results notably show that, although large perforations friction helps to equalize the fluid partitioning between fractures, the pressure drop in the well along the length of the stage has a pronounced adverse effect on fluid partitioning as a result on the uniformity of growth of the different hydraulic fractures.

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Type
research article
DOI
10.1007/s00603-019-02002-4
Author(s)
Nikolskiy, Dmitry  
Lecampion, Brice  
Date Issued

2020

Published in
Rock Mechanics Rock Engineering
Volume

53

Start page

1701

End page

1718

Subjects

Multi-stage fracturing

•

Well stimulation

•

Fluid partitioning

Editorial or Peer reviewed

REVIEWED

Written at

EPFL

EPFL units
GEL  
Available on Infoscience
November 19, 2019
Use this identifier to reference this record
https://infoscience.epfl.ch/handle/20.500.14299/163211
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