4.

3 Fracture direction

❖Fracture direction is normal to the minimum resistance.

This is represented by the absolute minimum stress.
❖The Eq. (4.1) and (4.3) suggest that the minimum
horizontal stress is by definition smaller than the
maximum horizontal stress and smaller than the vertical
stress.
❖Therefore the conclusion would be that all hydraulic
fractures should be vertical and normal to minimum
stress direction.

Luong Hai Linh, MSc Petroleum production system 8