| Title | Secondary Thermal Cracks in EGS: A Variational Approach |
|---|---|
| Authors | Bourdin, B.; Maurini, C.; Knepley, M. |
| Year | 2010 |
| Conference | Geothermal Resources Council Transactions |
| Keywords | EGS; Reservoir stimulation; Secondary thermal cracks; Numberical simulation; Fracture |
| Abstract | We present a mechanistically faithful and mathematically sound approach to the numerical simulation of secondary thermal cracks propagation in EGS based on the variational approach to fracture [1-4]. While remaining compatible with classical theories, this approach provides a unified framework to crack nucleation, full path identification, including interaction between multiple cracks, branching or kinking in 2 and 3D. We present large scale numerical experiments, and compare our results with the literature. |