ELASTO-PLASTIC PHASE-FIELD MODEL OF HYDRAULIC FRACTURE IN SATURATED BINARY POROUS MEDIA

In many fields of engineering, especially in geo sciences and rock mechanics, the theoretical and numerical modeling of hydraulic fracturing of porous materials plays an important role. Hydraulic fracturing is a well-known technology in which porous materials are fractured by a pressurized liquid. The process involves the pressure injection of a fracking fluid (primarily water, often enriched with filling materials and thickening agents) and accompanied by crack nucleation and propagation, as well as mass transport. This article presents a macroscopic model based on the Theory of Porous Media (TPM). For simplification, an incompressible binary model consisting of the solid and liquid phases is used. The development of the damage of the elastic-plastic solid phase is controlled by an evolution equation, which corresponds to known diffusive phase-field models within a continuum mechanical framework. A numerical example shows that the simplified model is indeed capable of simulating hydraulic fracturing of porous media.