A plane‐strain hydraulic fracture driven by a shear‐thinning Carreau fluid

We study the propagation of a plane‐strain hydraulic fracture driven by a shear thinning fluid following a Carreau rheology. We restrict to the impermeable medium case and quantify in details the impact on fracture growth of the shear‐thinning properties of the fluid between the low and high shear‐rates Newtonian limits. We derive several dimensionless numbers governing the evolution of the solution. The propagation notably depends on the ratio...