In recent years, hydraulic fracturing has led to a dramatic increase in the worldwide production of natural gas. In a typical hydraulic fracturing treatment, millions of gallons of water, sand and chemicals are injected into a reservoir to generate fractures in the reservoir that serve as pathways for fluid flow. Recent research has shown that both the effectiveness of fracturing treatments and the productivity of fractured reservoirs can be heavily influenced by the presence of pre-existing natural fracture networks. This work presents a fully implicit hydro-mechanical algorithm for modeling hydraulic fracturing in complex fracture networks using the two-dimensional discontinuous deformation analysis (DDA). Building upon previous studies coupling the DDA to fracture network flow, this work emphasizes various improvements made to stabilize the existing algorithms and facilitate their convergence. Additional emphasis is placed on validation of the model and on extending the model to the stochastic characterization of hydraulic fracturing in naturally fractured systems. To validate the coupled algorithm, the model was tested against two analytical solutions for hydraulic fracturing, one for the growth of a fixed-length fracture subject to constant fluid pressure, and the other for the growth of a viscosity-storage dominated fracture subject to a constant rate of fluid injection. Additionally, the model was used to reproduce the results of a hydraulic fracturing experiment performed using high-viscosity fracturing fluid in a homogeneous medium. Very good agreement was displayed in all cases, suggesting that the algorithm is suitable for simulating hydraulic fracturing in homogeneous media. Next, this work explores the relationship between the maximum tensile stress and Mohr-Coulomb fracture criteria used in the DDA and the critical stress intensity factor criteria from linear elastic fracture mechanics (LEFM). The relationship between the criteria is derived, and the ability of the model to capture the relationship is examined for both Mode I and Mode II fracturing. The model was then used to simulate the LEFM solution for a toughness-storage dominated bi-wing hydraulic fracture. Good agreement was found between the numerical and theoretical results, suggesting that the simpler maximum tensile stress criteria can serve as an acceptable substitute for the more rigorous LEFM criteria in studies of hydraulic fracturing. Finally, this work presents a method for modeling hydraulic fracturing in reservoirs characterized by pre-existing fracture networks. The ability of the algorithm to correctly model the interaction mechanism of intersecting fractures is demonstrated through comparison with experimental results, and the method is extended to the stochastic analysis of hydraulic fracturing in probabilistically characterized reservoirs. Ultimately, the method is applied to a case study of hydraulic fracturing in the Marcellus Shale, and the sensitivity of fracture propagation to variations in rock and fluid parameters is analyzed.

Discontinuous deformation analysis (DDA) is a newly developed simulation method for discontinuous systems. It was designed to simulate systems with arbitrary shaped blocks with high efficiency while providing accurate solutions for energy dissipation. But DDA usually exhibits damping effects that are inconsistent with theoretical solutions. The deep reason for these artificial damping effects has been an open question, and it is hypothesized that these damping effects could result from the time integration scheme. In this thesis two time integration methods are investigated: the forward Euler method and the Newmark method. The work begins by combining the Newmark method and the DDA. An integrated Newmark method is also developed, where velocity and acceleration do not need to be updated. In simulations, two of the most widely used models are adopted to test the forward Euler method and the Newmark method. The first one is a sliding model, in which both the forward Euler method and the Newmark method give accurate solutions compared with analytical results. The second model is an impacting model, in which the Newmark method has much better accuracy than the forward Euler method, and there are minimal damping effects. / Master of Science

The Distinct Element Method (DEM) and Discontinuous Deformation Analysis (DDA) are the two most commonly used discrete element methods in rock mechanics. Discrete element approaches are computationally expensive as they involve the interaction of multiple discrete bodies with continuously changing contacts. Therefore, it is very important to ensure that the method selected for the analysis is computationally efficient. In this research, a general assessment of DDA and DEM is performed from a computational efficiency perspective, and relevant enhancements to DDA are developed. The computational speed of DDA is observed to be considerably slower than DEM. In order to identify reasons affecting the computational efficiency of DDA, fundamental aspects of DDA and DEM are compared which suggests that they mainly differ in the contact mechanics, and the time integration scheme used. An in-depth evaluation of these aspects revealed that the openclose iterative procedure used in DDA which exhibits highly nonlinear behavior is one of the main reasons causing DDA to slow down. In order to improve the computational efficiency of DDA, an alternative approach based on a more realistic rock joint behavior is developed in this research. In this approach, contacts are assumed to be deformable, i.e., interpenetrations of the blocks in contact are permitted. This eliminated the computationally expensive open-close iterative procedure adopted in DDA-Shi and enhanced its speed up to four times. In order to consider deformability of the blocks in DDA, several approaches are reported. The hybrid DDA-FEM approach is one of them, although this approach captures the block deformability quite effectively, it becomes computationally expensive for large-scale problems. An alternative simplified uncoupled DDA-FEM approach is developed in this research. The main idea of this approach is to model rigid body movement and the block internal deformation separately. Efficiency and simplicity of this approach lie in keeping the DDA and the FEM algorithms separate and solving FEM equations individually for each block. Based on a number of numerical examples presented in this dissertation, it is concluded that from a computational efficiency standpoint, the implicit solution scheme may not be appropriate for discrete element modelling. Although for quasi-static problems where inertia effects are insignificant, implicit schemes have been successfully used for linear analyses, they do not prove to be advantageous for contact-type problems even in quasi-static mode due to the highly nonlinear behavior of contacts.

The Distinct Element Method (DEM) and Discontinuous Deformation Analysis (DDA) are the two most commonly used discrete element methods in rock mechanics. Discrete element approaches are computationally expensive as they involve the interaction of multiple discrete bodies with continuously changing contacts. Therefore, it is very important to ensure that the method selected for the analysis is computationally efficient. In this research, a general assessment of DDA and DEM is performed from a computational efficiency perspective, and relevant enhancements to DDA are developed. The computational speed of DDA is observed to be considerably slower than DEM. In order to identify reasons affecting the computational efficiency of DDA, fundamental aspects of DDA and DEM are compared which suggests that they mainly differ in the contact mechanics, and the time integration scheme used. An in-depth evaluation of these aspects revealed that the openclose iterative procedure used in DDA which exhibits highly nonlinear behavior is one of the main reasons causing DDA to slow down. In order to improve the computational efficiency of DDA, an alternative approach based on a more realistic rock joint behavior is developed in this research. In this approach, contacts are assumed to be deformable, i.e., interpenetrations of the blocks in contact are permitted. This eliminated the computationally expensive open-close iterative procedure adopted in DDA-Shi and enhanced its speed up to four times. In order to consider deformability of the blocks in DDA, several approaches are reported. The hybrid DDA-FEM approach is one of them, although this approach captures the block deformability quite effectively, it becomes computationally expensive for large-scale problems. An alternative simplified uncoupled DDA-FEM approach is developed in this research. The main idea of this approach is to model rigid body movement and the block internal deformation separately. Efficiency and simplicity of this approach lie in keeping the DDA and the FEM algorithms separate and solving FEM equations individually for each block. Based on a number of numerical examples presented in this dissertation, it is concluded that from a computational efficiency standpoint, the implicit solution scheme may not be appropriate for discrete element modelling. Although for quasi-static problems where inertia effects are insignificant, implicit schemes have been successfully used for linear analyses, they do not prove to be advantageous for contact-type problems even in quasi-static mode due to the highly nonlinear behavior of contacts.