Mechanical responses and fracture behaviors of pre-heat-treated carbonate rocks during hydraulic fracturing under different confining-axial pressures
Abstract
In this work, the mechanical responses and fracture behaviors of pre-heat-treated carbonate rocks during hydraulic fracturing under different confining-axial pressure conditions were systematically investigated. Hydraulic fracturing tests were conducted on carbonate rock samples from the Gaoyuzhuang Formation in Xiongan New Area, China, under equal confining-axial pressures following various temperature pre-treatments. By integrating fluid pressure monitoring, acoustic emission signal acquisition, and three-dimensional fracture morphology scanning, the coupled effects of pre-treatment temperature and stress on fracture pressure, fracture propagation paths, and failure modes were systematically analyzed. The results demonstrate that pre-treatment temperature exerts a significant non-monotonic regulatory effect on rock mechanical behavior. Moderate-low temperatures enhance rock structural integrity, increasing both fracture pressure and the fluid pressure growth rate. In contrast, high temperatures induce micro-fracture networks through thermal stress, resulting in material weakening. Increasing confining-axial pressure not only significantly elevates fracture pressure but also suppresses thermal crack propagation, promoting a transition in failure mode from tension-dominated to shear-dominated behavior. Three-dimensional fracture morphology analysis further reveals that temperature and confining-axial pressure jointly regulate the fluctuation height and spatial complexity of fracture surfaces, with specimens pre-treated at a higher temperature exhibiting peak fracture surface roughness. The research results provide critical experimental evidence for optimizing parameters under coupled temperature-stress conditions in the hydraulic fracturing design of deep carbonate geothermal reservoirs.
Document Type: Original article
Cited as: Li, P., Tang, C., Wu, X., Liu, Y., Cai, M., Gorjian, M. Mechanical responses and fracture behaviors of pre-heat-treated carbonate rocks during hydraulic fracturing under different confining-axial pressures. Advances in Geo-Energy Research, 2026, 19(3): 250-267. https://doi.org/10.46690/ager.2026.03.05
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.46690/ager.2026.03.05Keywords:
Carbonate rocks, hydraulic fracturing, fracture morphology, fracture behaviors, failure modesReferences
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Copyright (c) 2026 Peng Li, Chenyu Tang, Xinghui Wu, Yan Liu, Meifeng Cai, Mostafa Gorjian
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.