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Modelling Hydraulic Fracturing in Coals

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Modelling Rock Fracturing Processes

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Abstract

Hydraulic fracturing is regarded as a promising technology in exploiting unconventional natural gas. Compared to the enormous success achieved in shale-gas exploitation, the application of hydraulic fracturing in coal strata has not matured to a satisfactory level. The main reason is that the models commonly used in hydraulic fracturing in shales fail to reflect the quasi-brittle characteristics of coals. In this Chapter, laboratory experiments were conducted to establish the cohesive zone models of the fracture process zone in coals, which account for the quasi-brittle failure behaviors of coals. Afterwards, we reviewed several numerical algorithms in computational fracture mechanics, and applied cohesive interface element method to simulate the propagation of fluid-driven cracks in coals.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would also like to thank our collaboration partners in the International Collaboration Project on Coupled Fracture Mechanics Modelling, including but not limited to Dr. Baotang Shen, Dr. Jingyu Shi, Prof. Yunliang Tan, Dr. Johannes Suikkanen, Dr. Eui Seob Park, Dr. Yongbok Jung, Dr. Kwang Yeom Kim, Dr. Li Zhuang, Prof. Xiaochun Li, Dr. Bin Bai, Prof. Chun’an Tang, Prof. Ki-Bok Min, Dr. Linmao Xie, Dr. Jonny Rutqvist, Prof. Simon Loew, Prof. Mikael Rinne, Prof. Ove Stephansson, Prof Günter Zimmermann and Dr. Arno Zang.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of In-situ Property-improving Mining of Ministry of Education, Taiyuan University of Technology, Taiyuan, Shanxi, China

    Weiguo Liang & Haojie Lian

  2. College of Mining Engineering, Taiyuan University of Technology, Taiyuan, Shanxi, China

    Weiguo Liang & Haojie Lian

  3. Taiyuan University of Technology, Taiyuan, Shanxi, China

    Jianfeng Yang

Authors
  1. Weiguo Liang
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  2. Haojie Lian
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  3. Jianfeng Yang
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Weiguo Liang .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. CSIRO Mineral Resources, Brisbane, QLD, Australia

    Baotang Shen

  2. GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences, Potsdam, Brandenburg, Germany

    Ove Stephansson

  3. School of Engineering, Department of Civil Engineering, Aalto University, Espoo, Finland

    Mikael Rinne

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Liang, W., Lian, H., Yang, J. (2020). Modelling Hydraulic Fracturing in Coals. In: Shen, B., Stephansson, O., Rinne, M. (eds) Modelling Rock Fracturing Processes. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-35525-8_16

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