TY - JOUR

T1 - Competitive fracture propagation across different regimes during multi-stage hydraulic fracturing

AU - Li, Mengli

AU - Zhang, Fengshou

AU - Li, Mengyi

AU - Dontsov, Egor

AU - Valov, Alexander

AU - Wang, Tuo

N1 - The authors acknowledge the support provided by the National Key Research and Development Project (No. 2023YFE0110900), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 42077247, 52409140), the Postdoctoral Innovative Talents Support Program (GZB20240555), and China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (2024 M762411).

PY - 2026/3/15

Y1 - 2026/3/15

N2 - It is crucial to understand how multiple hydraulic fractures interact with each other to improve effectiveness of fracturing treatments. This study employs a fully coupled DEM-based hydraulic fracture model to investigate the effect of intra- and inter-stage stress shadowing across different propagation regimes under limited entry conditions. Fracture propagation is modeled during injection and shut-in, with the coupled hydro-mechanical scheme validated against existing analytical solutions for radial fractures. The results show that the competitive propagation of multiple fractures is influenced by the fracture propagation regime, stress orientation angle and fracture spacing. Fractures tend to grow uniformly in the viscosity-dominated regime, whereas in the toughness-dominated regime, fractures exhibit petal-like shapes with directional growth preferences. The interaction between fractures during shut-in further complicates the process. Inter-stage stress shadowing promotes secondary propagation of early-stage fractures due to compression stress caused by later fractures, resulting in more significant variations in fracture radii across stages. In contrast, intra-stage stress shadowing causes multiple fractures within a single stage to deviate from symmetrical growth. The stress orientation angle, however, has a relatively minor effect on fracture morphology. As fracture spacing increases, the effect of stress shadowing diminishes, allowing each fracture to behave more like an isolated fracture in its respective propagation regime.

AB - It is crucial to understand how multiple hydraulic fractures interact with each other to improve effectiveness of fracturing treatments. This study employs a fully coupled DEM-based hydraulic fracture model to investigate the effect of intra- and inter-stage stress shadowing across different propagation regimes under limited entry conditions. Fracture propagation is modeled during injection and shut-in, with the coupled hydro-mechanical scheme validated against existing analytical solutions for radial fractures. The results show that the competitive propagation of multiple fractures is influenced by the fracture propagation regime, stress orientation angle and fracture spacing. Fractures tend to grow uniformly in the viscosity-dominated regime, whereas in the toughness-dominated regime, fractures exhibit petal-like shapes with directional growth preferences. The interaction between fractures during shut-in further complicates the process. Inter-stage stress shadowing promotes secondary propagation of early-stage fractures due to compression stress caused by later fractures, resulting in more significant variations in fracture radii across stages. In contrast, intra-stage stress shadowing causes multiple fractures within a single stage to deviate from symmetrical growth. The stress orientation angle, however, has a relatively minor effect on fracture morphology. As fracture spacing increases, the effect of stress shadowing diminishes, allowing each fracture to behave more like an isolated fracture in its respective propagation regime.

KW - DEM

KW - Fracture propagation regimes

KW - Hydraulic fracturing

KW - Multi-stage fractures

UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/105027459166

UR - https://www.mendeley.com/catalogue/647bdb7d-dafc-353d-a4ce-8e3663b29899/

U2 - 10.1016/j.ijsolstr.2025.113817

DO - 10.1016/j.ijsolstr.2025.113817

M3 - Article

VL - 328

JO - International Journal of Solids and Structures

JF - International Journal of Solids and Structures

SN - 0020-7683

M1 - 113817

ER -