ABSTRACT
The hydraulic fracturing is an essential tool to increase the permeability of tight formations and to increase the petrogeothermal energy recovery. In this paper, a hydraulic fracturing model was developed based on the previous work and implemented in the coupled numerical simulator TOUGH2MP-FLAC3Dplus. It considers the stress redistribution due to fracture opening and hydromechanical effects in full three dimensions. The cubic law was implemented, so that the fluid flow in both porous media and fractures can be simulated at the same time. With the advantages of TOUGH2MP, it is also capable to track the migration and distribution of injected fracturing fluid in the reservoir formation. The model has been used to study the hydraulic fracturing in the geothermal well Gross Buchholz Gt1 in Hanover, Germany. The measured data during the hydraulic fracturing treatment has been matched. The simulated fracture geometry was comparable with that analyzed from the well test. The verified model has been used to study the geothermal utilization in the Detfurth sandstone formation.
