Influence of Injection-Induced Secondary Fault Slip on the Stability of an Adjacent Critically Stressed Fault
Fluid injection in deep reservoirs can induce fault reactivation and seismicity, posing challenges for geothermal and subsurface energy development. This study investigates the mechanical interaction between two adjacent non-intersecting faults under fluid injection using a pseudo-three-dimensional thermo-hydro-mechanical (THM)-coupled numerical model. The results show that injection first triggers slip on F2, which then redistributes stress onto F1. The response of F1 is strongly heterogeneous: some segments are stabilized due to a decrease in Coulomb failure stress, whereas other segments are destabilized due to an increase in Coulomb failure stress. Stress-path analysis indicates that the immediate response of F1 to F2 slip is mainly governed by changes in effective normal stress and shear stress, rather than abrupt pore pressure changes on F1. These findings demonstrate that fault slip can act as a mechanical stress source that either promotes or inhibits adjacent fault reactivation. Therefore, slip-induced stress transfer should be explicitly considered when assessing fault stability in reservoirs containing multiple closely spaced faults.