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Study on Hydraulic Fracture Propagation in Hard Roof Under Abutment Pressure

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Abstract

Roof disaster has always been a major hazard in the working face with overlying hard roof. As an effective technology, directional hydraulic fracturing can alleviate the safety risk caused by hard roof. The fracturing region is located around working face or roadway, where the construction of mining and excavation is frequent. Thus, the hydraulic fracture (HF) propagation will be influenced by abutment pressure, which is to be studied by numerical simulation. Different simulation methods for hydraulic fracturing are compared and the extended finite element method (XFEM) is selected for its advantages in solving stress problems. The effect of stress concentration coefficient, lateral coefficient, in-situ stress and perforation angle on HF propagation is analyzed. The results show that the larger vertical stress gradient can shorten the re-orientated distance of HF, but the magnitude of vertical stress has little effect on HF propagation. The comparison of vertical extension range (VER) of HF shows that the larger perforation angle and smaller lateral coefficient is suitable for creating vertical HF. The principles to create vertical HF under abutment pressure are concluded. Finally, a typical case of directional hydraulic fracturing in hard roof is introduced, and the fracturing schemes are further designed based on the simulation results. This research provides a theoretical basis for roof fracturing and bridge the gaps of hydraulic fracturing under abutment pressure.

Highlights

  • The numerical model of hydraulic fracturing is established with the extended finite element method (XFEM) considering the abutment pressure.

  • The effect of stress concentration coefficient, lateral coefficient, in-situ stress and perforation angle on HF propagation is analyzed to bridge the gaps in the existing researches.

  • The vertical extension ranges under different conditions are compared, and the principles to create vertical HFs under abutment pressure are concluded.

  • The potential application prospects are discussed with a typical case of roof cutting of the downward working face.

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Acknowledgements

This research was financially supported by State Key Laboratory of Coal Resources and Safe Mining (CUMT SKLCRSM22X007), National Natural Science Foundation of China (52174132), Joint Funds of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (U21A20107), the Graduate Innovation Program of China University of Mining and Technology (2022WLKXJ051) and the Postgraduate Research & Practice Innovation Program of Jiangsu Province (KYCX222621).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Coal Resources and Safe Mining, China University of Mining and Technology, Xuzhou, 221116, China

    Feiteng Zhang, Xiangyu Wang & Jianbiao Bai

  2. School of Mines, China University of Mining and Technology, Xuzhou, 221116, China

    Feiteng Zhang, Xiangyu Wang, Guanghui Wang, Junchen Li & Dingchao Chen

  3. School of Mining Engineering, Anhui University of Science and Technology, Huainan, 232001, Anhui, China

    Bowen Wu

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  1. Feiteng Zhang
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Correspondence to Xiangyu Wang.

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Zhang, F., Wang, X., Bai, J. et al. Study on Hydraulic Fracture Propagation in Hard Roof Under Abutment Pressure. Rock Mech Rock Eng 55, 6321–6338 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00603-022-02989-3

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