Related papers: Why Fracking Works and How to Optimize It
While the hydraulic fracturing technology, aka fracking (or fraccing, frac), has become highly developed and astonishingly successful, a consistent formulation of the associated fracture mechanics that would not conflict with some…
Strong interaction of closely located, nearly parallel hydraulic fractures and its influence on their propagation are studied. Both computational and physical aspects of the problem are considered. It is shown that from the computational…
Unstable growth of cracks (rough crack surface and crack branching) in dynamic fracture has long been observed in various materials. Until now, there was no universally agreed upon explanation for these instabilities. Here, we demonstrate…
This study analyzes the problem of a constant height hydraulic fracture. It is assumed that the fracture is driven by Newtonian fluid, and the effects of fracture toughness and leak-off are included in the model as well. Analysis of the tip…
The failure of frictional interfaces -- the process of frictional rupture -- is widely assumed to feature crack-like properties, with far-reaching implications for various disciplines, ranging from engineering tribology to earthquake…
The problem of finding what direction cracks should move is not completely solved. A commonly accepted way to predict crack directions is by computing the density of elastic potential energy stored well away from the crack tip, and finding…
Crack growth is the basic mechanism leading to the failure of brittle materials. Engineering addresses this problem within the framework of continuum mechanics, which links deterministically the crack motion to the applied loading. Such an…
These notes address the mechanics of propagating hydraulic fractures (HF). In the first part, we focus on how different physical mechanisms (dissipation in fluid and solid, fluid storage in fracture and its exchange with permeable rock,…
The concept of cracking refers to the tendency of a fluid distribution to "split'', once it abandons the equilibrium. In this manuscript we develop a general formalism to describe the occurrence of cracking within a dissipative fluid…
Fractures are a critical process in how materials wear, weaken, and fail whose unpredictable behavior can have dire consequences. While the behavior of smooth cracks in ideal materials is well understood, it is assumed that for real,…
Predicting when rupture occurs or cracks progress is a major challenge in numerous elds of industrial, societal and geophysical importance. It remains largely unsolved: Stress enhancement at cracks and defects, indeed, makes the macroscale…
Propagation of a fluid-driven crack in an impermeable linear elastic medium under axis-symmetric conditions is investigated in the present work. The fluid exerting the pressure inside the crack is an incompressible Newtonian one and its…
Using a two dimensional lattice model we investigate the crack growth under the influence of remote tensile forces as well as due to an internally applied pressure (hydraulic fracturing). For homogeneous elastic properties we present…
Injections of large volumes of water into tight shale reservoirs allows the extraction of oil and gas not previously accessible. This large volume "super" fracking induces damage that allows the oil and/or gas to flow to an extraction well.…
The paper deals with the fundamental problem of a modeling of the physical, in particular, thermal hydraulic processes, in various media of fractal structure of the natural, technological and technical systems and devices. The examples of a…
The properties of the Hamiltonian developed in Paper II are studied showing that at a particular strain level a ``localization'' phase transition occurs characterized by the emergence of conjugate bands of coherently oriented cracks. The…
While of paramount importance in material science, the dynamics of cracks still lacks a complete physical explanation. The transition from their slow creep behavior to a fast propagation regime is a notable key, as it leads to full material…
Fracture is a fundamental mechanism of materials failure. Propagating cracks can exhibit a rich dynamical behavior controlled by a subtle interplay between microscopic failure processes in the crack tip region and macroscopic elasticity. We…
Cracks, the major vehicle for material failure, tend to accelerate to high velocities in brittle materials. In three-dimensions, cracks generically undergo a micro-branching instability at about 40% of their sonic limiting velocity. Recent…
Fracture in a disordered lattice system is studied. In our system, particles are initially arranged on the triangular lattice and each nearest-neighbor pair is connected with a randomly chosen soft or hard Hookean spring. Every spring has…