Numerical analysis of rock fracturing by gas pressure using the extended finite element method

High energy gas fracturing is a simple approach of applying high pressure gas to stimulate wells by generating several radial cracks without creating any other damages to the wells. In this paper, a numerical algorithm is proposed to quantitatively simulate propagation of these fractures around a pressurized hole as a quasi-static phenomenon. The gas flow through the cracks is assumed as a one-dimensional transient flow, governed by equations of conservation of mass and momentum. The fractured medium is modeled with the extended finite element method, and the stress intensity factor is calculated by the simple, though sufficiently accurate, displacement extrapolation method. To evaluate the proposed algorithm, two field tests are simulated and the unknown parameters are determined through calibration. Sensitivity analyses are performed on the main effective parameters. Considering that the level of uncertainty is very high in these types of engineering problems, the results show a good agreement with the experimental data. They are also consistent with the theory that the final crack length is mainly determined by the gas pressure rather than the initial crack length produced by the stress waves.