@Article{cmes.2021.011823,
AUTHOR = {Mengtao Cao, Weiguo Liang, Shunde Yin, Maurice B. Dusseault},
TITLE = {Fracture Reactivation Modeling in a Depleted Reservoir},
JOURNAL = {Computer Modeling in Engineering \& Sciences},
VOLUME = {126},
YEAR = {2021},
NUMBER = {1},
PAGES = {217--239},
URL = {http://www.techscience.com/CMES/v126n1/40868},
ISSN = {1526-1506},
ABSTRACT = {Injection-induced fracture reactivation during hydraulic fracturing processes in shale gas development as well as
coal bed methane (CBM) and other unconventional oil and gas recovery is widely investigated because of potential
permeability enhancement impacts. Less attention is paid to induced fracture reactivation during oil and gas
production and its impacts on reservoir permeability, despite its relatively common occurrence. During production,
a reservoir tends to shrink as effective stresses increase, and the deviatoric effective stresses also increase. These
changes in the principal effective stresses may cause Coulomb fracture slip in existing natural fractures, depending
on their strength, orientation, and initial stress conditions. In this work, an extended finite element model with
contact constraints is used to investigate different fracture slip scenarios induced by general reservoir pressure
depletion. The numerical experiments assess the effect of Young’s modulus, the crack orientation, and the frictional
coefficient of the crack surface on the distribution of stress and displacement after some reservoir depletion. Results
show that the crack orientation significantly affects the state of stress and displacement, particularly in the vicinity
of the crack. Slip can only occur in permitted directions, as determined by the magnitudes of the principal stresses
and the frictional coefficient. Lastly, a larger frictional coefficient (i.e., a rougher natural fracture surface) makes
the crack less prone to shear slip.},
DOI = {10.32604/cmes.2021.011823}
}