Numerical Simulation of Hydraulic Fracturing

This minisymposium focuses on recent advances, challenges, and ongoing research in computational methods for complex, multiphase, and multiscale modeling of hydraulic fracturing and related processes. The hydraulic fracturing aims at increasing the overall permeability of reservoirs by enhancing the fracture connectivity involved, for example: in the production of oil and gas, exploitation of geothermal energy from deep geothermal reservoirs, enhancing the block-caving process, and CO2 sequestration.

The main aim of the minisymposium is to bring together researchers in computational mechanics, engineering and applied mathematics, and practitioners from the oil industry to discuss the advantages and limitations of the different computational methods and simulation techniques that have recently been developed for modeling the propagation of hydraulic fractures. Hydraulic fracturing is a complex process consisting of coupled rock deformation, slurry flow in the fracture, fracture propagation, and filtration of fluids through permeable rock. Because of this, submissions may involve wide range of simulation techniques, including: semi-analytic/reduced approaches, boundary element methods, (generalized/extended) finite element methods, phase-field models, discrete fracture network, particle models, and hybrid methods. Novel discretization methods, adaptive techniques, and high performance computing in the context of modeling hydraulic fracturing processes are also of interest. Contributions on related problems are also encouraged, such as: models of fracture initiation from perforated wells, proppant transport and plugging, mesoscale models for permeability and diffusivity, optimal control of the hydraulic fracturing process, and the use of dynamic models in the monitoring of hydraulic fracture evolution.