A three-dimensional finite element model of hydraulic progressive damage

Three-dimensional finite element simulations were carried out to investigate the hydraulic progressive damage and associated flow behavior in rock. In this study cohesive elements were used to simulate the damage of rock. A three-dimensional coupled pore fluid flow and stress model was proposed. The commercial engineering software ABAQUS is employed to simulate the damage process in rock along several predefined paths. A user-subroutine named FLOW was developed to enhance the capability of ABAQUS to deal the moving loadings. With the proposed coupling model, we studied the stress distribution, the pore pressure, the fluid loss, the geometry of the progressive damage. The results show that the length and the width of the path of the progressive damage are strongly influenced by both the hydraulic pressure and the injection time. The results provide good interpretation and understanding of the mechanism of hydraulic progressive damage in rock. This study is very useful and important to the oil engineering and some other rock engineering fields.