Propagation of hydraulically driven fracture

The plane strain model consists of a half-circle plate with one layer of pore pressure cohesive elements inserted in the middle. A two-step transient soil consolidation analysis is performed, and crack propagation is developed along the layer of cohesive elements. In the first step a linearly increased flow rate is initially applied at the crack mouth located at the left side of cohesive element layer, after which the flow rate will be kept constant for the rest of time. In the second step the injection of the fluid is terminated and the built-up pore pressure in fracture is allowed to bleed off into the medium. The same plane strain problem is also modeled using one layer of three-dimensional elements.