Propagation of hydraulically driven fracture

This problem contains basic test cases for one or more Abaqus elements and features.

The tests in this section verify the hydraulically driven crack propagation in a permeable porous medium.

This page discusses:

ProductsAbaqus/Standard

Elements tested

  • COH2D4P
  • COH3D8P

Problem description

The plane strain model consists of a half-circle plate with one layer of pore pressure cohesive elements inserted in the middle. A two-step transient soil consolidation analysis is performed, and crack propagation is developed along the layer of cohesive elements. In the first step a linearly increased flow rate is initially applied at the crack mouth located at the left side of cohesive element layer, after which the flow rate will be kept constant for the rest of time. In the second step the injection of the fluid is terminated and the built-up pore pressure in fracture is allowed to bleed off into the medium. The same plane strain problem is also modeled using one layer of three-dimensional elements.

Results and discussion

In the first step steady crack propagation can be observed, with pressure built up gradually inside the developed crack. In the second step the crack was eventually closed, since the built-up pressure bled off into the medium. The same behaviors can be observed in the two-dimensional models and the three-dimensional model.