Phase field model of fluid-driven fracture in elastic media: Immersed-fracture formulation and validation with analytical solutions
Propagation of fluid-driven fractures plays an important role in natural and engineering processes, including transport of magma in the lithosphere, geologic sequestration of carbon dioxide, and oil and gas recovery from low-permeability formations, among many others. The simulation of fracture prop...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | en_US |
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American Geophysical Union (AGU)
2017
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| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/110593 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3958-7382 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7370-2332 |
| _version_ | 1826191125864513536 |
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| author | Santillan, David Cueto-Felgueroso Landeira, Luis Juanes, Ruben |
| author2 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering |
| author_facet | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering Santillan, David Cueto-Felgueroso Landeira, Luis Juanes, Ruben |
| author_sort | Santillan, David |
| collection | MIT |
| description | Propagation of fluid-driven fractures plays an important role in natural and engineering processes, including transport of magma in the lithosphere, geologic sequestration of carbon dioxide, and oil and gas recovery from low-permeability formations, among many others. The simulation of fracture propagation poses a computational challenge as a result of the complex physics of fracture and the need to capture disparate length scales. Phase field models represent fractures as a diffuse interface and enjoy the advantage that fracture nucleation, propagation, branching, or twisting can be simulated without ad hoc computational strategies like remeshing or local enrichment of the solution space. Here we propose a new quasi-static phase field formulation for modeling fluid-driven fracturing in elastic media at small strains. The approach fully couples the fluid flow in the fracture (described via the Reynolds lubrication approximation) and the deformation of the surrounding medium. The flow is solved on a lower dimensionality mesh immersed in the elastic medium. This approach leads to accurate coupling of both physics. We assessed the performance of the model extensively by comparing results for the evolution of fracture length, aperture, and fracture fluid pressure against analytical solutions under different fracture propagation regimes. The excellent performance of the numerical model in all regimes builds confidence in the applicability of phase field approaches to simulate fluid-driven fracture. |
| first_indexed | 2024-09-23T08:50:38Z |
| format | Article |
| id | mit-1721.1/110593 |
| institution | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| language | en_US |
| last_indexed | 2024-09-23T08:50:38Z |
| publishDate | 2017 |
| publisher | American Geophysical Union (AGU) |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | mit-1721.1/1105932022-09-30T11:41:35Z Phase field model of fluid-driven fracture in elastic media: Immersed-fracture formulation and validation with analytical solutions Santillan, David Cueto-Felgueroso Landeira, Luis Juanes, Ruben Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences Cueto-Felgueroso Landeira, Luis Juanes, Ruben Propagation of fluid-driven fractures plays an important role in natural and engineering processes, including transport of magma in the lithosphere, geologic sequestration of carbon dioxide, and oil and gas recovery from low-permeability formations, among many others. The simulation of fracture propagation poses a computational challenge as a result of the complex physics of fracture and the need to capture disparate length scales. Phase field models represent fractures as a diffuse interface and enjoy the advantage that fracture nucleation, propagation, branching, or twisting can be simulated without ad hoc computational strategies like remeshing or local enrichment of the solution space. Here we propose a new quasi-static phase field formulation for modeling fluid-driven fracturing in elastic media at small strains. The approach fully couples the fluid flow in the fracture (described via the Reynolds lubrication approximation) and the deformation of the surrounding medium. The flow is solved on a lower dimensionality mesh immersed in the elastic medium. This approach leads to accurate coupling of both physics. We assessed the performance of the model extensively by comparing results for the evolution of fracture length, aperture, and fracture fluid pressure against analytical solutions under different fracture propagation regimes. The excellent performance of the numerical model in all regimes builds confidence in the applicability of phase field approaches to simulate fluid-driven fracture. United States. Department of Energy (Grant DE-SC0009286) Spain. Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (Grant RyC-2012-11704) Spain. Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (Grant CTM2014-54312-P) 2017-07-10T15:49:00Z 2017-07-10T15:49:00Z 2017-03 2016-09 Article http://purl.org/eprint/type/JournalArticle 2169-9356 2169-9313 http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/110593 Santillán, David, Ruben Juanes, and Luis Cueto-Felgueroso. “Phase Field Model of Fluid-Driven Fracture in Elastic Media: Immersed-Fracture Formulation and Validation with Analytical Solutions: PHASE FIELD MODEL FLUID-DRIVEN FRACTURE.” Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth 122.4 (2017): 2565–2589. © 2017 American Geophysical Union. https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3958-7382 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7370-2332 en_US http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/2016JB013572 Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth Article is made available in accordance with the publisher's policy and may be subject to US copyright law. Please refer to the publisher's site for terms of use. application/pdf American Geophysical Union (AGU) MIT Web Domain |
| spellingShingle | Santillan, David Cueto-Felgueroso Landeira, Luis Juanes, Ruben Phase field model of fluid-driven fracture in elastic media: Immersed-fracture formulation and validation with analytical solutions |
| title | Phase field model of fluid-driven fracture in elastic media: Immersed-fracture formulation and validation with analytical solutions |
| title_full | Phase field model of fluid-driven fracture in elastic media: Immersed-fracture formulation and validation with analytical solutions |
| title_fullStr | Phase field model of fluid-driven fracture in elastic media: Immersed-fracture formulation and validation with analytical solutions |
| title_full_unstemmed | Phase field model of fluid-driven fracture in elastic media: Immersed-fracture formulation and validation with analytical solutions |
| title_short | Phase field model of fluid-driven fracture in elastic media: Immersed-fracture formulation and validation with analytical solutions |
| title_sort | phase field model of fluid driven fracture in elastic media immersed fracture formulation and validation with analytical solutions |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/110593 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3958-7382 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7370-2332 |
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