Microseismic Emissions During Pneumatic Fracturing: A Numerical Model to Explain the Experiments

Abstract

Modeling of fluid injection processes into a deformable porous medium is a challenging area of physics that has a wide range of applications like the food, construction, and petroleum industries. In this research, we investigate pneumatic fracturing of a porous medium experimentally and numerically in a Hele‐Shaw cell. In the experiments, we inject air into the porous medium (initially random loose packed) to create compaction, channeling, and fracturing while monitoring the cell with accelerometers and a high‐speed camera. Furthermore, we develop a numerical model in two steps: (1) a poroelastoplasticity‐based model to explain dynamic fluid pressure variations and (2) a solid stress model based on Janssen's theory. The contributions of the different pressure sources air in channels and solid stress in the experiments, and the simulations are compared with respect to amplitude and frequency. Afterward, the variations of the normal stress exerting on the plates are convolved with a Lamb Wave green function to generate acoustic emissions numerically. The physics behind the evolution of the experimentally recorded power spectrum of the out‐of‐plane plate vibrations are explained using numerical models. The frequency bands (in the simulated power spectra) are influenced by the size of the opened channels and the Hele‐Shaw cell and are in the same range with the experimentally measured peaks of the acoustic emissions.