Multi-Field Coupled Fracture Propagation Mechanisms of Supercritical CO2 Fracturing in Gulong Shale and Tight Sandstone

Abstract

Strong heterogeneity in unconventional reservoirs leads to complex fracture propagation and challenges in quantitative stimulation evaluation. This study integrates true triaxial fracturing experiments, three-dimensional CT reconstruction, multi-field coupled numerical simulation, and multiple linear regression to investigate the fracture behavior of Gulong shale (Q1, Q9) and tight sandstone under supercritical carbon dioxide (SC-CO2) fracturing. A fracture complexity index (FCI) that incorporates fractal dimension, spatial uniformity, and aperture distribution is proposed as a quantitative metric. The results show that SC-CO2 significantly reduces breakdown pressure and increases fracture complexity compared to water. For Q9 shale, SC-CO2 gives a breakdown pressure of 32.91 MPa (10.46% lower than water), a fractal dimension of 2.41, and an FCI of 8.92. In tight sandstone, the SC-CO2 breakdown pressure is 34.12 MPa, whereas water increases it to 44.50 MPa; the fractal dimension and FCI are only 2.05 and 3.40, respectively, lower than those of shale fractured with water. Multiple linear regression quantifies contribution weights: lithological weak-plane development dominates fracture complexity (41.6%), far exceeding the brittleness index. The injection rate mainly controls stimulation scale: the damage area ratio rises from 1.79% to 2.90% when the rate increases from 10 to 40 mL/min. The horizontal stress difference is key to complexity enhancement: the fractal dimension increases from 1.9230 to 1.9901 as the stress difference rises from 0 to 4 MPa. The numerical simulations further reveal the coupled thermal-hydraulic-mechanical effects. The proposed FCI-based evaluation and regression models provide a quantitative framework for optimizing SC-CO2 fracturing design in heterogeneous unconventional reservoirs.