Interaction between Crustal-Scale Darcy and Hydrofracture Fluid Transport: A Numerical Study

Figure 2

Flow diagram of the numerical simulations. The model consists of a rectangular grid of elements in which the local fluid pressure in excess of the hydrostatic fluid pressure is recorded. Influx of fluid from below is simulated by an incrementally increasing the pressure in the bottom row of the model. The main loop consists of adding fluid and letting the pressures diffuse. Adding pressures is carried out one randomly selected element at a time after which possible hydrofracture initiation is considered. If this occurs, a subloop is initiated for the further propagation of the hydrofracture.