A criterion for a hydraulic fracture crossing a natural fracture in toughness dominant regime and viscosity dominant regime

Abstract

Hydraulic fracturing is an efficient stimulation technology in the process of unconventional reservoir development, and the hydraulic fracture morphology directly affected oil and gas recovery. In this paper, we proposed a new criterion based on linear elastic fracture mechanics (LEFM) to predict the intersection behavior of hydraulic fracture (HF) and natural fracture (NF) with non-orthogonal angle. The new criterion considered the coupling effects of the fluid flow, stress shadow, and poroelastic response, and was validated with published analytical criteria and laboratory tests. Sensitivity analysis results indicated that an HF tends to cross NF under conditions of short HF half-length, high friction coefficient, high fracturing fluid viscosity and high fracture toughness. In addition, high principal stress difference inhibited the crossing behavior when the intersection angle was less than the transition angle, the HF would be arrested or divert along NF.