Study on the influence of physical parameters of coal and rock on hydraulic fracture propagation law

Fan  Zhang; Dongjie  Jiang; Junwen  Li; Ruyi  Wang

doi:10.6180/jase.202603_29(4).0017

Study on the influence of physical parameters of coal and rock on hydraulic fracture propagation law

Physics

$Study on the influence of physical parameters of coal and rock on hydraulic fracture propagation law$

Fan Zhang^1,2,3This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., Dongjie Jiang¹, Junwen Li¹, and Ruyi Wang¹

¹School of Resources and Safety Engineering, Henan University of Engineering, Zhengzhou 451191, China

²State and Local Joint Engineering Laboratory for Gas Drainage & Ground Control of Deep Mines, Henan Polytechnic University, Jiaozuo 454003, China

³Research Institute of Mine Safety and Green Mining, Henan University of Engineering, Zhengzhou 451191, China

Received: April 21, 2025
Accepted: August 16, 2025
Publication Date: August 16, 2025

Copyright The Author(s). This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are cited.

Download Citation: ||https://doi.org/10.6180/jase.202603_29(4).0017

Hydraulic fracturing technology plays an important role in the field of coalbed methane exploration, but the influence of physical parameters of coal seam on hydraulic fracture propagation law is still unclear. In this paper, the initiation time, initiation pressure and fracture propagation law under different mechanical parameters and dip angles of coal seams are studied by RFPA2d-Flow numerical simulation software. The results show that: (1) The direction of fracture propagation is mainly perpendicular to minimum principal stress. (2) The smaller the elastic modulus of coal seam, the easier it is to form hydraulic fractures with wider width. The higher the compressive cracking resistance of coal seam, the later the initiation time. (3) The greater the compressive strength, the greater the initiation pressure, the longer the initiation time, the shorter the fracture length and the narrower the fracture width. Compared with elastic modulus, compressive strength has more significant influence on hydraulic fracture propagation in coal seam. (4) Under the same dip angle, the initiation pressure and cracking pressure of hard coal are bigger than those of soft coal. The research results can provide theoretical basis for coalbed methane exploration and hydraulic fracturing technology research.

Keywords: coalbed methane; hydraulic fracturing; fracture propagation; numerical simulation

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