Semester of Graduation

Spring 2019

Degree

Master of Civil Engineering (MCE)

Department

Civil and Environmental Engineering

Document Type

Thesis

Abstract

Hydraulic fracturing has been widely opted in recent times to simulate the unconventional reservoirs and thus, has become key a subject of interest in petroleum engineering. The stress concentration around the borehole affects the breakdown pressure and fracture reopening pressure during the hydraulic fracturing treatments. Thus, the state of stress around borehole wall and its surrounding rocks due to instantaneous drilling and a fluid injection at borehole surface needs to be determined accurately to initiate the hydraulic fractures. This research intends to derive the analytical stress solution of inclined borehole subjected to time-dependent fluid injection and in-situ stress, verify the solution and develop the simulator tool for its implementation. Upon drilling a borehole in a fluid saturated porous medium, it is assumed that pressurized fluid is injected with different flow rate in a finite section of borehole wall. The variation of pore pressure, effective tangential stress and radial stress have been calculated analytically using linear theory of poroelasticity and then, numerically with the use of finite element analysis program ABAQUS. The comparison is made between them to verify the accuracy of formulated analytical solution. Finally, after confirming the validity of analytical solution, a Matlab based simulator tool with a user friendly interface is developed to ease and simplify the procedure of determining the time-dependent stress and pore pressure induced due to in-situ stress and fluid injection during the hydraulic fracturing process.

Committee Chair

Shengli Chen

DOI

10.31390/gradschool_theses.4894

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