Interactions of Hydraulic Fractures With Grain Boundary Discontinuities in the Near Wellbore Region

Hydraulic fractures often turn or branch, interacting with preexisting discontinuities in the rock mass (e.g., natural defects). The criteria for fracture penetration deflection are typically based on situ stress, and angle strength of discontinuities. However, hydraulic experiments carbonate rocks (Naoi et al., 2020, https://doi.org/10.1093/gji/ggaa183), small scale analyses show that deflected more frequently at (grain boundaries) as they propagated farther from wellbore, a finding not explained by conventional criteria. Here, we demonstrate energy dissipation deflecting increases distance such propagating easily deflects discontinuity an energetic standpoint. This tendency was confirmed simulations successive minimization approach. Our findings, which wellbores appreciably affect behavior fractures, highlight importance stability analysis determining paths.