Poroelasitcity in hydraulic fracturing simulators.

This paper describes a two dimensional hydraulic fracturing simulator that relies on Biot's theory of poroelasticity. The simulator is based on a poroelastic extension of the Displacement Discontinuity (DD) method: it uses time and space distributions of impulse point displacement discontinuities and impulse point sources. As both singular solutions satisfy Biot's equations, the model fully accounts for the coupling between fluid diffusion and rock deformation. This model yields a rigorous determination of the influences of fluid leakoff on fracture width, and of opening distribution on reservoir pore pressures. A brief description of the simulator is included in this paper, as well as some preliminary results relevant to hydraulic fracturing.