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Experimental exploration of fluid-driven cracks in brittle hydrogels

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 April 2018

Niall J. O’Keeffe Open the ORCID record for Niall J. O’Keeffe [Opens in a new window] ,
Herbert E. Huppert  and
P. F. Linden
Niall J. O’Keeffe*
Affiliation:
Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics, University of Cambridge, Wilberforce Road, Cambridge CB3 0WA, UK
Herbert E. Huppert
Affiliation:
Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics, University of Cambridge, Wilberforce Road, Cambridge CB3 0WA, UK
P. F. Linden
Affiliation:
Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics, University of Cambridge, Wilberforce Road, Cambridge CB3 0WA, UK
*
†Email address for correspondence: okeeffen@damtp.cam.ac.uk
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Abstract

Hydraulic fracturing is a procedure by which a fracture is initiated and propagates due to pressure (hydraulic loading) applied by a fluid introduced inside the fracture. In this study, we focus on a crack driven by an incompressible Newtonian fluid, injected at a constant rate into an elastic matrix. The injected fluid creates a radial fracture that propagates along a plane. We investigate this type of fracture both theoretically and experimentally. Our experimental apparatus uses a brittle and transparent polyacrylamide hydrogel matrix. Using this medium, we examine the rate of radial crack growth, fracture aperture, shape of the crack tip and internal fluid flow field. Our range of experimental parameters allows us to exhibit two distinct fracturing regimes, and the transition between these, in which the rate of radial crack propagation is dominated by either viscous flow within the fracture or the material toughness. Measurements of the profiles near the crack tip provide additional evidence of the viscosity-dominated and toughness-dominated regimes, and allow us to observe the transition from the viscous to the toughness regime as the crack propagates. Particle image velocimetry measurements show that the flow in the crack is radial, as expected in the viscous regime and in the early stages of the toughness regime. However, at later times in the toughness regime, circulation cells are observed in the flow within the crack that destroy the radial symmetry of the flow field.

JFM classification

Geophysical and Geological Flows: Geophysical and Geological Flows Low-Reynolds-number flows: Low-Reynolds-number flows
Type
JFM Papers
Information
Journal of Fluid Mechanics , Volume 844 , 10 June 2018 , pp. 435 - 458
Copyright
© 2018 Cambridge University Press 

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