Modeling Hydraulic Fracture Induced Microseismicity in Rock

Abstract:

The analysis of induced microseismicity is one of the few tools available for characterizing the extent of hydraulic fracturing in the field. However, the way in which the size, location, and source mechanisms of these events relate to the fracturing process is poorly understood. Using the GEOS framework, we model the large-scale hydraulic fracturing processes using a fully coupled 3D Finite Element model (Settgast et al., URTeC, 2014) and model the small-scale microseismicity using a point approximation for a population of pre-existing discontinuities distributed throughout the model domain. In our analysis, we explore the effect of the competing influences of tectonic stress change and matrix fluid flow, anisotropy and heterogeneity in the surrounding rock mass, the population of pre-existing fractures, and the design of hydraulic fracturing treatments on the generation of microseismic events.