Simulation of the growth of multiple interacting 2D hydraulic fractures driven by an inviscid fluid

In this paper we develop a computational procedure to investigate linear fracture of two-dimensional problems in isotropic linearly elastic media. A symmetric Galerkin boundary element method (SGBEM), based on a weakly singular, weak-form traction integral equation, is adopted to model these fractures. In particular we consider multiple interacting cracks in an unbounded domain subject to internal pressure and remote stress. The growth of the cracks is driven by either linearly dependent injection pressures or volumes in each crack. A variety of crack geometries are investigated.