Geomechanical Analysis of Hot Fluid Injection in Thermal Enhanced Oil Recovery

Geomechanical Analysis of Hot Fluid Injection in Thermal Enhanced Oil Recovery | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Research Article Geomechanical Analysis of Hot Fluid Injection in Thermal Enhanced Oil Recovery Mina Khalaf This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-8498719/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Published Journal Publication published 11 Jan, 2026 Read the published version in Energies → Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract Hot-fluid injection in thermal enhanced oil recovery (TEOR) imposes temperature-driven volumetric strains that can substantially alter in-situ stresses, fracture geometry, and wellbore/reservoir integrity, yet existing TEOR modeling has not fully captured coupled thermo-poroelastic effects on fracture aperture, fracture-tip behavior, and stress rotation within a displacement discontinuity method (DDM) framework. This study develops a fully coupled thermo-poroelastic DDM formulation in which fracture-surface normal and shear displacement discontinuities, together with fluid and heat influx, act as boundary sources to compute time-dependent stresses, pore pressure, and temperature, while internal fracture fluid flow (Poiseuille-based volume balance), heat transport (conduction–advection with rock exchange), and mixed-mode propagation criteria are included. A representative scenario considers an initially isothermal hydraulic fracture grown to 32 m, followed by 12 months of hot-fluid injection with temperature contrasts of ΔT = 0-100 °C and reduced pumping rate. Results show that hydraulic fracture aperture increases under isothermal and modest heating (ΔT = 25 °C) and remains nearly stable near ΔT = 50 °C, but progressively narrows for ΔT = 75-100 °C despite continued injection, indicating potential injectivity decline driven by thermally induced compressive stresses. Hot injection also tightens fracture tips, restricting unintended propagation, and produces pronounced near-fracture stress amplification and re-orientation: minimum principal stress increases by 6 MPa for ΔT = 50 °C and 10 MPa for ΔT = 100 °C, with principal-stress rotation reaching 70–90° in regions above and below the fracture and markedly elevated shear stresses that may promote natural-fracture activation. These findings demonstrate that thermo-poroelastic coupling can govern fracture stability, containment, and injectivity during thermal EOR, motivating temperature-aware geomechanical risk assessment and design for long-term hot-fluid injection operations. Petroleum Engineering Thermal enhanced oil recovery (TEOR) Hot-fluid injection Geomechanics Thermo-poroelasticity Hydraulic fracturing Displacement discontinuity method (DDM) Full Text Additional Declarations The authors declare no competing interests. Cite Share Download PDF Status: Published Journal Publication published 11 Jan, 2026 Read the published version in Energies → Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. Our growing team is made up of researchers and industry professionals working together to solve the most critical problems facing scientific publishing. Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-8498719","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Research Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":568262038,"identity":"8cf84065-28c0-4514-b1e3-4b88b81b67d4","order_by":0,"name":"Mina Khalaf","email":"data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAZAAAAAyAQMAAABI0h/eAAAABlBMVEX///8AAABVwtN+AAAACXBIWXMAAA7EAAAOxAGVKw4bAAAA5ElEQVRIiWNgGAWjYDACZhBx4AADHwPjwwdAJg8f0VrYGJiNDUBa2IizCqLFTALEJqhFt5334McfZ+7Is7EfZqv8mmMnA9T78NENPFrMDvMlS/PceGbYxpPMdlt2WzLQYWzGxjl4tfAYSDN8OMzYxpB/7LbkNmagFh42aQJajH/++HDYvo3/MVux5LZ6orSYSfDcOJzYJpHMxvhx22HitFjznDmc3CbxmFmacdtxHjZmQn45f8b45o9jh237+ZMZP/7cVm3Pz9788DE+LSiAmQdMEqscBBh/kKJ6FIyCUTAKRgwAAHiSRn8F0bJ7AAAAAElFTkSuQmCC","orcid":"https://orcid.org/0009-0007-9095-3348","institution":"University of Houston","correspondingAuthor":true,"prefix":"","firstName":"Mina","middleName":"","lastName":"Khalaf","suffix":""}],"badges":[],"createdAt":"2026-01-02 06:54:58","currentVersionCode":1,"declarations":{"humanSubjects":false,"vertebrateSubjects":false,"conflictsOfInterestStatement":false,"humanSubjectEthicalGuidelines":false,"humanSubjectConsent":false,"humanSubjectClinicalTrial":false,"humanSubjectCaseReport":false,"vertebrateSubjectEthicalGuidelines":false},"doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-8498719/v1","doiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-8498719/v1","draftVersion":[],"editorialEvents":[{"content":"https://doi.org/10.3390/en19020386","type":"published","date":"2026-01-12T00:00:00+00:00"}],"editorialNote":"","failedWorkflow":false,"files":[{"id":101262140,"identity":"705d0348-a9d3-4fff-8c64-49c4fb7748d2","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2026-01-27 21:19:09","extension":"pdf","order_by":1,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"manuscript-pdf","size":1265757,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"arXivsubmission.pdf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-8498719/v1_covered_d5491695-b888-4adb-9a3c-6e7695ff1582.pdf"}],"financialInterests":"The authors declare no competing interests.","formattedTitle":"\u003cp\u003eGeomechanical Analysis of Hot Fluid Injection in Thermal Enhanced Oil Recovery\u003c/p\u003e","fulltext":[],"fulltextSource":"","fullText":"","funders":[],"hasAdminPriorityOnWorkflow":false,"hasManuscriptDocX":false,"hasOptedInToPreprint":true,"hasPassedJournalQc":"","hasAnyPriority":true,"hideJournal":false,"highlight":"","institution":"University of Houston","isAcceptedByJournal":true,"isAuthorSuppliedPdf":true,"isDeskRejected":"","isHiddenFromSearch":false,"isInQc":false,"isInWorkflow":false,"isPdf":true,"isPdfUpToDate":true,"isWithdrawnOrRetracted":false,"journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"researchsquare","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"/submission","title":"Research Square","twitterHandle":"researchsquare","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":false,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true},"keywords":"Thermal enhanced oil recovery (TEOR), Hot-fluid injection, Geomechanics, Thermo-poroelasticity, Hydraulic fracturing, Displacement discontinuity method (DDM)","lastPublishedDoi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-8498719/v1","lastPublishedDoiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-8498719/v1","license":{"name":"CC BY 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"},"manuscriptAbstract":"\u003cp\u003eHot-fluid injection in thermal enhanced oil recovery (TEOR) imposes temperature-driven volumetric strains that can substantially alter in-situ stresses, fracture geometry, and wellbore/reservoir integrity, yet existing TEOR modeling has not fully captured coupled thermo-poroelastic effects on fracture aperture, fracture-tip behavior, and stress rotation within a displacement discontinuity method (DDM) framework.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis study develops a fully coupled thermo-poroelastic DDM formulation in which fracture-surface normal and shear displacement discontinuities, together with fluid and heat influx, act as boundary sources to compute time-dependent stresses, pore pressure, and temperature, while internal fracture fluid flow (Poiseuille-based volume balance), heat transport (conduction–advection with rock exchange), and mixed-mode propagation criteria are included. A representative scenario considers an initially isothermal hydraulic fracture grown to 32 m, followed by 12 months of hot-fluid injection with temperature contrasts of ΔT = 0-100 °C and reduced pumping rate. Results show that hydraulic fracture aperture increases under isothermal and modest heating (ΔT = 25 °C) and remains nearly stable near ΔT = 50 °C, but progressively narrows for ΔT = 75-100 °C despite continued injection, indicating potential injectivity decline driven by thermally induced compressive stresses. Hot injection also tightens fracture tips, restricting unintended propagation, and produces pronounced near-fracture stress amplification and re-orientation: minimum principal stress increases by 6 MPa for ΔT = 50 °C and 10 MPa for ΔT = 100 °C, with principal-stress rotation reaching 70–90° in regions above and below the fracture and markedly elevated shear stresses that may promote natural-fracture activation. These findings demonstrate that thermo-poroelastic coupling can govern fracture stability, containment, and injectivity during thermal EOR, motivating temperature-aware geomechanical risk assessment and design for long-term hot-fluid injection operations.\u003c/p\u003e","manuscriptTitle":"Geomechanical Analysis of Hot Fluid Injection in Thermal Enhanced Oil Recovery","msid":"","msnumber":"","nonDraftVersions":[{"code":1,"date":"2026-01-07 03:35:35","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-8498719/v1","editorialEvents":[{"type":"communityComments","content":0}],"status":"published","journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"researchsquare","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"/submission","title":"Research Square","twitterHandle":"researchsquare","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":false,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true}}],"origin":"","ownerIdentity":"9789df16-081d-4b8c-bcc9-42f865e728bf","owner":[],"postedDate":"January 7th, 2026","published":true,"recentEditorialEvents":[],"rejectedJournal":[],"revision":"","amendment":"","status":"published-in-journal","subjectAreas":[{"id":60468024,"name":"Petroleum Engineering"}],"tags":[],"updatedAt":"2026-01-27T21:19:04+00:00","versionOfRecord":{"articleIdentity":"rs-8498719","link":"https://doi.org/10.3390/en19020386","journal":{"identity":"energies","isVorOnly":true,"title":"Energies"},"publishedOn":"2026-01-12 00:00:00","publishedOnDateReadable":"January 12th, 2026"},"versionCreatedAt":"2026-01-07 03:35:35","video":"","vorDoi":"10.3390/en19020386","vorDoiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3390/en19020386","workflowStages":[]},"version":"v1","identity":"rs-8498719","journalConfig":"researchsquare"},"__N_SSP":true},"page":"/article/[identity]/[[...version]]","query":{"redirect":"/article/rs-8498719","identity":"rs-8498719","version":["v1"]},"buildId":"XKTyCvWXoU3ODBz1xrDgd","isFallback":false,"isExperimentalCompile":false,"dynamicIds":[84888],"gssp":true,"scriptLoader":[]}