Section 300

FRACTURING ENGINEERING MANUAL

May 1998 Schlumberger
Fracture Modeling Dowell
Page 12 of 35

• Vertical Plane-Strain Geometry: This condition exists for a large confinement

where the fracture is limited to a given zone. Each vertical cross section deforms
independently of the others. The fracture widths in the vertical direction are
coupled through the continuity and fluid-flow equations; however, because there
is no vertical extension (in each of the vertical sections) during simulation, the
pressure is uniform and the cross-sectional shape of the fracture height is
elliptical. This describes the PKN geometry as illustrated in Fig. 5.

Fig. 5. PKN geometry.

DOWELL CONFIDENTIAL