The Effect of Pore Pressure on Hydraulic Fracture Growth: An Experimental Study

Laboratory experiments are conducted in this study to investigate hydraulic fracture initiation and propagation in porous test specimens in the presence of multiple fluid injection sources and anisotropic far-field stresses. Numerous laboratory observations of fracture growth are documented via clear, high resolution images and digital image correlation analyses. It is clearly shown that injection-induced stresses can appreciably affect...