Journal of Rock Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering xxx (2016) 1e12

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Journal of Rock Mechanics and

Geotechnical Engineering
journal homepage: www.rockgeotech.org

Review

Geomechanical modeling of CO2 geological storage: A review

Pengzhi Pan a, b, *, Zhenhua Wu a, b, Xiating Feng a, Fei Yan a
a
State Key Laboratory of Geomechanics and Geotechnical Engineering, Institute of Rock and Soil Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan, 430071,
China
b
University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China

a r t i c l e i n f o

a b s t r a c t

Article history:
Received 17 July 2016
Received in revised form
8 October 2016
Accepted 10 October 2016
Available online xxx

This paper focuses on the progress in geomechanical modeling associated with carbon dioxide (CO2)
geological storage. The detailed review of some geomechanical aspects, including numerical methods,
stress analysis, ground deformation, fault reactivation, induced seismicity and crack propagation, is
presented. It is indicated that although all the processes involved are not fully understood, integration of
all available data, such as ground survey, geological conditions, microseismicity and ground level
deformation, has led to many new insights into the rock mechanical response to CO2 injection. The
review also shows that in geomechanical modeling, continuum modeling methods are predominant
compared with discontinuum methods. It is recommended to develop continuumediscontinuum numerical methods since they are more convenient for geomechanical modeling of CO2 geological storage,
especially for fracture propagation simulation. The MohreCoulomb criterion is widely used in prediction
of rock mass mechanical behavior. It would be better to use a criterion considering the effect of the
intermediate principal stress on rock mechanical behavior, especially for the stability analysis of deeply
seated rock engineering. Some challenges related to geomechanical modeling of CO2 geological storage
are also discussed.

2016 Institute of Rock and Soil Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences. Production and hosting by
Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/
licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

Keywords:
Geomechanical modeling
Carbon dioxide (CO2) geological storage
Continuum numerical method
Continuumediscontinuum numerical
method
Fault representation
Fault reactivation
Fracture propagation
Induced seismicity

1. Introduction
Greenhouse gas is regarded as one of the contributions to the
global climate change, and sound ways to reduce carbon dioxide
(CO2) emissions have been extensively studied. Carbon capture and
storage (CCS) in deep geological formations has been recognized as
a promising option (Nordbotten and Celia, 2011). Such geological
formations are mainly deep sedimentary formations, including oil
and gas reservoirs and deep saline aquifers (Bachu, 2008; Benson
and Cole, 2008; Bickle, 2009).
The injection of large amounts of CO2 into the deep subsurface
may be associated with a number of geomechanical risks. Fig. 1
illustrates the main typical observations during CO2 injection into
brine aquifer (Ringrose et al., 2013). The fault or fracture zone will
behave as a ow conduit for CO2 and a focal point for rock failure.
The pressure buildup inside the storage formation might lead to
slip and dilation along these preexisting faults and fracture zones.

* Corresponding author.
E-mail address: pzpan@whrsm.ac.cn (P. Pan).
Peer review under responsibility of Institute of Rock and Soil Mechanics,
Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Injection-induced seismicity might cause structural damage and

perhaps panic among local people (Rutqvist et al., 2014). Furthermore, CO2 injection may introduce new hydraulic fractures within
or near the injection zone. These fractures may propagate upwards
into the lower caprock and further through the upper caprock
(Ringrose et al., 2013). As a result, the shallow drinking water might
be contaminated by the CO2 leakage (Zheng et al., 2009; Apps et al.,
2010; Keating et al., 2010).
Concerns for geomechanical aspects associated with geological
carbon storage (GCS) originated in the 1990s (Holloway and Savage,
1993; Rutqvist, 2012). Later, a series of studies, including generic
modeling and actual CO2 injection activities (e.g. In Salah CO2
storage project in Algeria, WASP in Canada), showed that signicant
geomechanical changes may indeed occur, depending on the injection pressure and site-specic geomechanical conditions (Li
et al., 2002; Rutqvist and Tsang, 2002; Streit and Hillis, 2004;
Yamamoto and Takahashi, 2004; Hawkes et al., 2005; Keith and
Lavoie, 2009; Rutqvist et al., 2010; Goodarzi et al., 2012; Rutqvist,
2012; Ringrose et al., 2013). In geomechanical aspects, changes in
stresses and strains, ground surface deformations and potential
dangers such as new caprock fracture initiation and propagation or
preexisting fault opening and slippage are important for large-scale

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jrmge.2016.10.002
1674-7755
2016 Institute of Rock and Soil Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences. Production and hosting by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BYNC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

Please cite this article in press as: Pan P, et al., Geomechanical modeling of CO2 geological storage: A review, Journal of Rock Mechanics and
Geotechnical Engineering (2016), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jrmge.2016.10.002

P. Pan et al. / Journal of Rock Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering xxx (2016) 1e12

Rock mechanical strain propagating to surface

Upper caprock
(Main Seal Unit)
Lower caprock
(Second
Storage Unit)

HUC

fault

Possible vertical extension

of fault/fracture

CO2 plume
(free-phase gas)

~ 600m

Elevated pressure in
reservoir volume

~ 300m

Hot Shale
C20.1
C10.3
C10.2
D70

~ 1 km

Fig. 1. Sketch illustration of the main geomechanical observations in CO2 storage (Ringrose et al., 2013).

and long-term CO2 storage (Rutqvist, 2012). Therefore, it is of great

signicance to assess the geomechanical risks and stability before
commencing the operation of CO2 injection.
Geomechanical modeling is an important way to understand
and predict the mechanical behavior of geological media. It can be
adopted to characterize, predict and optimize subsurface systems
of increasing complexity. This increase arises foremost from the
technological challenges that must be addressed to ensure the
sustainability of water, energy and environmental systems.
Therefore, in this paper, the progress in modeling of some
geomechanical aspects of CO2 geological storage is summarized. A
review on numerical methods related to CO2 geological storage is
presented rst. Modeling of fault representation, fault activation
and induced seismicity, and modeling technique for fracture
propagation are summarized. Some challenges in geomechanical
modeling are also discussed.
2. Numerical methods for geomechanical modeling
2.1. Main physical processes in GCS
The operation of CO2 geological storage will induce complex
physical processes, concerning the interactions between thermohydro-mechano-chemical elds. These interactions may be direct
or indirect. For example, geomechanical and geochemical effects
may signicantly affect the aqueous phase composition, porosity
and permeability of the formation, which in turn inuence the ow
and transport (Zhang et al., 2015a). During the injection of lowtemperature CO2, pore pressure increase and temperature reduction create geomechanical deformation of both the reservoir and
surrounding rocks. The induced mechanical aspects are varied with
time and space. In a reservoir, the mechanical response is dependent on temperature, hydraulic pressure and stress change. In the
caprock or overburden, or the area far beyond the injection site, the
mechanical response is mainly related to stress change. At the
beginning of injection, the hydraulic pressure is relatively small.
The mechanical responses of rock mass may be reversible or elastic.
However, due to the heterogeneity of rock mass and stress change,
microseismic events might be triggered, and the ground deformation may be detectable (Rutqvist, 2012). With increasing injection
pressure, irreversible mechanical changes, such as plasticity or
damage, may occur. If the pressure is sufciently high, the failure of
rock mass may occur. In GCS, the generally considered modes of
failure include shear or tension of intact rock, re-shearing of
cohesionless faults, and the opening of new fractures from tensile

failure. The reactivation of large faults might induce a signicant

seismic event (e.g. magnitude >3).
To simulate the main physical processes, especially the mechanical aspects, appropriate numerical methods should be
selected.
2.2. Numerical methods
For geomechanical problems, the most commonly used numerical methods are classied into three types (Jing, 2003). The
rst comprises continuum methods, such as the nite element
method (FEM), nite difference method (FDM) and boundary
element method (BEM). The second comprises the discontinuum
methods, including the discrete (distinct) element method (DEM),
discontinuous displacement analysis (DDA) method and discrete
fracture network (DFN) method. The third comprises continuume
discontinuum methods, such as hybrid FEM/BEM and FEM/DEM.
In modeling of GCS, the numerical methods are usually combined with or linked to reservoir modules or software. For example,
in the implementation of thermo-hydro-mechanical (THM)
coupling, two schemes, i.e. fully coupled and sequentially coupled,
are usually used. The fully coupled scheme is far more complex,
while the sequentially coupled one is more practical and has been
used widely. In a typical sequentially coupled scheme, as shown in
Fig. 2, two modules (one for uid ow and the other for mechanical
behavior) are explicitly coupled (on a time step basis), i.e. once the
uid ow equations have been solved for the increments of pressure and temperature over a time step, these two variables for each
grid block will be transferred to the geomechanical model to solve

TOUGH2
Multi-phase flow and heat conduction
Pressure
Temperature
Saturation

THM model

THM simulation

Non-linearity
Discontinuity
Stress and strain

Permeability
Porosity
Capillary pressure

THM model

RDCA

Fig. 2. Schematic of sequential scheme of coupled THM simulations (Pan et al., 2014a).

Please cite this article in press as: Pan P, et al., Geomechanical modeling of CO2 geological storage: A review, Journal of Rock Mechanics and
Geotechnical Engineering (2016), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jrmge.2016.10.002

P. Pan et al. / Journal of Rock Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering xxx (2016) 1e12

the solid mechanics equations for strains and to update the mechanical states (deformation or failure). The new mechanical states
will then be used to calculate the mechanical variable dependent
permeability modiers for the fractured grid blocks to simulate
fracture propagation for the next time step in the ow model.
The continuum-based numerical simulators, such as CODEBRIGHT (FEM) (Olivella et al., 1994, 1996; Vilarrasa et al., 2010),
FEMH (Bower and Zyvoloski, 1997; Deng et al., 2011), TOUGH-FLAC
(FVM FDM) (Rutqvist and Tsang, 2002), OpenGeoSys (FEM)
(Wang and Kolditz, 2007; Goerke et al., 2011), ECLIPSE-FE-IE
(FDM FEM) (Ferronato et al., 2010), ECLIPSE-VISAGE
(FDM FEM) (Ouellet et al., 2011), STARS (Bissell et al., 2011),
NUFT-SYNEF (NUFT-GEODYN-L (nonlinear FEM code) (Vorobiev,
2010)) (Morris et al., 2011a,b,c), DYNAFLOW (FEM) (Prevost, 1981;
Preisig and Prevost, 2011), TOUGH2-Code_Aster (FEM) (Rohmer
and Seyedi, 2010), AEEA Coupler (FEM FDM) (Fei et al., 2015),
and THM-CO2 (integral FDM) (Huang et al., 2015), have been
developed and used to study the THM process related to GCS. In
these numerical methods, the elastic or elastoplastic constitutive
relation is usually used to characterize the geomechanical behavior
of rocks.
The discontinuum or continuumediscontinuum based numerical methods are used to simulate the hydraulic fracturing of rocks.
For example, Weng et al. (2011) used the displacement discontinuity method to develop a hydraulic fracture model to simulate
complex-fracture-network propagation in a formation with preexisting fractures. Fu et al. (2013) simulated hydraulic fracture
propagation in an arbitrary discrete fracture network using an
explicit coupled hydromechanical model. Torres and Castao
(2007) introduced a discrete element simulation for the hydraulic
fracturing process of rocks. Dahi Taleghani (2009) presented a
complex hydraulic fracture propagation model based on extended
FEM. Damjanac et al. (2010) simulated typical hydraulic fracturing
operation in a naturally fractured rock using the DEM. Hamidi and
Mortazavi (2014) used 3DEC for simulating the initiation and
propagation of hydraulically induced fractures in rock mass. De
Pater and Beugelsdijk (2005) used DEM to handle multiple fracture propagation. Meyer and Bazan (2011) presented a DFN numerical simulator formulated for a pseudo-three-dimensional
(P3D) hydraulically induced fracture system. Nasehi and Mortazavi
(2013) employed a two-dimensional (2D) DEM (UDEC) to simulate
the fully coupled hydromechanical interaction between uid ow
and rock in a typical hydraulic fracturing process. Jiao et al. (2015)
developed a 2D coupled hydromechanical discontinuum model for
simulating the rock hydraulic fracturing process based on DDA.
Wang et al. (2016) presented a coupled bonded particle and lattice
Boltzmann method for modeling hydraulic fracturing. For application of discontinuum methods to the study of GCS, relatively few
studies have been reported. For example, the NUFT (nonisothermal
unsaturatedesaturated ow and transport model) code has been
used previously in combination with the Livermore distinct
element code (Morris et al., 2006) to investigate caprock integrity
during CO2 storage (Johnson et al., 2005). Pan et al. (2012a, 2014b,c)
developed a continuumediscontinuum numerical model (RDCA) to
simulate the rock fracture propagation and coalescence under uid
pressurization induced by CO2 injection.
Based on the literature review, it is found that the continuum
methods are predominant in geomechanical modeling of GCS
compared to discontinuum or continuumediscontinuum methods.
For numerical methods, there are no absolute advantages of one
method over another. It should be noted that the continuum-based
numerical approaches are also practically useful for simulation of
rock failure process, especially for pre-failure damage evolution.
For example, the TOUGH-FLAC approach has been successfully used
in laboratory-scale studies (Lei et al., 2016) and natural analog

studies (Sorai et al., 2015). Actually, in geomechanical modeling of

GCS, the choice of numerical methods (continuum or discontinuum) depends on problem-specic factors, such as the purpose of the study, problem scale and fracture geometry. Therefore,
the right selection is made if the numerical method is adequate for
the representation of the mechanical behavior of rock mass.
2.3. Upscaling of geomechanical properties
The numerical modeling of geomechanical aspects of CO2
geological storage, such as uplift, fault reactivation and induced
seismicity, is usually at a large scale. In some cases, it is impractical
and unnecessary to track all local behaviors of rock mass. Simplication or upscaling can be used to reduce the computational
burden. In this case, appropriate model and input parameters
should be assigned to reasonably characterize the mechanical
behavior of rock mass. The input hydromechanical properties must
be based on the values measured by small-scale laboratory tests.
However, the measured values are valid only at these small scales,
representing only intact rock matrix or single small fractures.
Upscaling methods should be used to transform the small-scale
data to large-scale values required as inputs to numerical models
(Blum et al., 2005). However, upscaling of mechanical properties is
regarded as a key and challenging issue in geomechanical modeling
(Alain and Vincent, 2004; Guvanasen and Chan, 2004; Blum et al.,
2005; Rodriguez et al., 2006; Ne
zerka et al., 2014; Liu et al., 2016;
Zeng et al., 2016). The difculty of upscaling lies in several aspects. Because complete three-dimensional (3D) information about
mechanical properties is never obtainable, numerous methods
have been developed to interpolate among data and to use
geological, hydrogeological, and geophysical information to create
images of formation properties (Koltermann and Gorelick, 1996).
However, one of the challenges is that the interpolation of mechanical parameters determined at specic locations in the rock to
locations throughout the rock may be signicantly different.
Furthermore, whether a representative element volume (REV) exists is also a problem. Since it is dependent on the variations in the
fracture density and geometry, the REV may or may not exist for
fractured rocks. In addition, the presence of minor faults in caprock
greatly affects reservoir performance. These faults are usually
below the resolution limit of conventional 3D seismic testing.
Conventional methods of fracture characterization such as onedimensional (1D) (well logs or cores) or 2D (outcrop analogs)
approach lack the spatial characterization that is needed to
comprehensively assess their impact on reservoir performance. To
gain insight into the fracture characteristics of the target formation,
an iterative process of modeling and incorporating production and/
or injection data from eld experiments may be helpful
(Chiaramonte et al., 2011).
3. Modeling of ground deformation
During the injection of CO2 around the injection zone, the
changes (even small changes at the beginning) of reservoir pressure
will induce some mechanical and hydraulic responses, including
ground deformation (or uplift), stress distribution and permeability
variation. In these responses, the estimation of ground deformation
induced by CO2 injection is important for assessing the suitability of
the injection site. For this purpose, the analytical methods, semianalytical methods and numerical models are often used to
assess the ground deformation, stress distribution, stability and
leakage of CO2. For example, Fjaer et al. (2008) proposed a simple
but practical analytical formula to calculate the reservoir vertical
expansion:

Please cite this article in press as: Pan P, et al., Geomechanical modeling of CO2 geological storage: A review, Journal of Rock Mechanics and
Geotechnical Engineering (2016), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jrmge.2016.10.002

P. Pan et al. / Journal of Rock Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering xxx (2016) 1e12

Dh

1 n1  2n
DP
a
h
1  nE

(1)

where Dh is the vertical expansion of the reservoir, h is the thickness of the reservoir, a is the Biots coefcient, n is the Poissons
ratio, E is the Youngs modulus, and DP is the change in reservoir
pressure.
The analytical solution to Eq. (1) was based on the assumption
that the 1D reservoir is thin and laterally extensive. It does not
consider the effects of different geological formations and the restriction of vertical expansion by overlying rock. Furthermore, the
uplift in reality is not dependent on well pressure but on the
average pressure within the injection zone. Therefore, the model
may overestimate the ground deformation. Despite this, Rutqvist
(2012) showed that the uplift obtained by Eq. (1) is in the correct
order of magnitude. To consider these effects on the uplift, semianalytical models and numerical methods might be more useful.
For semi-analytical models, typically, Selvadurai (2009) provided an elementary model of the interaction between a surface
rock layer and a deep rock mass that is pressurized during the injection of storage uids. The heave (i.e. w(r)) of the surcial rock
layer due to pressures generated by injected uids is expressed as

wr

Ui at

ZN

h
0

ell=h

J la=hJ0 lr=adl
3 1

1 Fi l

i f; b

(2)

where f and b are the frictionless and bonded interfaces,

respectively.

The analytical and semi-analytical models for mechanical stability and leakage of CO2 storage can also be found in the literature
(Streit and Hillis, 2004; Lucier et al., 2006; Chiaramonte et al., 2008;
Mathias et al., 2009; Selvadurai, 2009; Soltanzadeh and Hawkes,
2009; Rohmer and Bouc, 2010; Vidal-Gilbert et al., 2010; Gor
et al., 2013; Sun et al., 2013). In some cases, these simplied models
(analytical or semi-analytical) provide an effective and quick way to
analyze the mechanical behavior of rock mass. For example,
Chiaramonte et al. (2011) developed a simplied, geomechanically
constrained 3D reservoir uid ow simulation at Teapot Dome Oil
Field, WY, USA, a site of a CO2 enhanced oil reservoir (CO2-EOR)
sequestration pilot project. Nevertheless, to further understand the
failure mechanism or behavior of rocks in GCS, numerical
modeling, especially the associated geomechanical aspects, is
required. Fig. 3 shows a typical numerically simulated ground
deformation using a continuum numerical method (Zhang et al.,
2015b).
4. Modeling technique for faults
Geological systems are heterogeneous and discontinuous media, which may contain faults and fractures of various sizes, i.e. from
small meter-scale fractures to kilometer-scale faults. Sequestration
of large amounts of CO2 within such media is a challenging task
since the uid pressurization may affect an area extending to a
radius more than 100 km (Birkholzer and Zhou, 2009; Cappa and
Rutqvist, 2011a). Over such a vast area, some major faults may
not be avoidable (Cappa and Rutqvist, 2011a). Under uid pressurization, the faults might be reactivated and associated seismicity
may occur. CO2 migration could occur through existing fractures

Fig. 3. Contours of nal vertical displacement distributions for the model with weak faults and injection rates of (a) 1 Mt/yr, (b) 3 Mt/yr and (c) 5 Mt/yr at the end of a 20-year
injection period (Zhang et al., 2015b).

Please cite this article in press as: Pan P, et al., Geomechanical modeling of CO2 geological storage: A review, Journal of Rock Mechanics and
Geotechnical Engineering (2016), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jrmge.2016.10.002

P. Pan et al. / Journal of Rock Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering xxx (2016) 1e12

and fault zones. Therefore, it is important to assess the potential

risk due to the existence of faults numerically. The fault zones
generally contain complex structures and a single-fault hydromechanical model covering all types of faults and fault stages may not
be possible. According to the scale of interest and purpose, the
approach applied to analysis of fault geomechanical behavior may
be different. For example, it is possible to represent the fault heterogeneities in detail for small-scale simulation, while a simplied
fault model may be represented for large-scale simulation. For
example, in the work of Morris et al. (2011a,b,c), the faults were
treated by introducing directional weakness into the elements of
the calculation. In the nite element analysis by Li et al. (2006), a
classical spring model was adopted to consider the mechanical
changes of the fault. Cappa and Rutqvist (2011a) analyzed different
hydromechanical fault models and demonstrated how such models
can be applied as part of hydromechanical analysis of a CO2 injection site. Using the continuum-based TOUGH-FLAC simulator, a
fault or fault zone was represented by a mechanical interface or
nite-thickness solid elements with isotropic or anisotropic mechanical behavior (Fig. 4). Their analysis showed that a nitethickness element approach is easier to be implemented and can

be readily applied to different types of fault structures, from a single

slip plane to a complex fault zone.
However, difculties can occur with the treatment of large
slopes and separations along the fault because the continuum
model paints the fault on top of the Lagrangian mesh such that it
moves with the mesh (Morris et al., 2011c). Moreover, when there
are some faults or fracture networks in the system, using the nitethickness elemental fault representation is still a tedious task due
to the limitation of continuum numerical methods. For example, in
large-scale GCS, the fault may be over 1 km in length and several
meters in width. The edge length on the fault should be small
enough within the rupture area to ensure enough cells to well
resolve the weakening process. For example, Cappa and Rutqvist
(2012) used an elemental size of 0.25 m for the fault in the
rupture zone. Using such a small elemental size to simulate a fault
over 1 km in length will require many computer resources and
mesh dependency may occur. To overcome these difculties, a
discontinuum numerical method or a combination of continuum
and discontinuum methods may be more convenient to represent
the fault or fracture. This work has been performed by some researchers. For example, recently, special shape functions, i.e. the
Heaviside function to simulate the crack (or fracture) surfaces, and
the asymptotic crack-tip displacement eld function, have been
designed to approximate discontinuous displacement, which is
expressed as (Stazi et al., 2003; Budyn et al., 2004):

uh x

m 1 jN m

iN

mc X
X

Ni xui

mt X
X

"

Nk x

p 1 kN p

4
X

a1

Nj xHjm xam
j
#

(3)

p
p
Fak xbak

where N represents the total nodal number of the element; x represents the coordinate; Nm is the set of nodes of the elements
intersected completely by the crack m; Np is the set of nodes
associated with crack tips in their inuence domain; Ni, Nj and Nk
are the shape functions of the associated node; ui is the nodal
displacement (standard degrees of freedom); am
j is the additional
unknown for the modied step enrichment Hjm x of crack m; bpak is
the vector of the additional nodal degree of freedom for the tip
enrichment of tip p for the modied branch function Fapk x; and a is
the crack tip set.
By using the discontinuous displacement function shown in Eq.
(3), with a combination of the fracture tracking method (e.g. level
set method) and partition of unity, the fracture or fault geometry is
independent of the numerical grid (Pan et al., 2012a). Therefore, a
fault with great length can be represented in a uniform grid and the
mesh dependency can be overcome. Furthermore, arbitrary fracture geometry (e.g. curved fracture) can be conveniently simulated.
Fig. 5 shows the case of a zigzag caprock fracture geometry, through
simply updating the discontinuity geometry (Pan et al., 2014a),
demonstrating the versatility of this method.
5. Modeling of fault activation and induced seismicity
5.1. Fault activation
The possible activation of a preexisting fault may occur whenever the shear stress acting on the fracture plane exceeds the
MohreCoulomb failure criterion (Wiprut and Zoback, 2000; Jaeger
et al., 2007):
Fig. 4. Representation of a fault (Cappa and Rutqvist, 2011a). (a) A zero-thickness
interface, (b) solid elements and (c) solid elements with ubiquitous joints oriented
as weak planes along the strike of fault plane.

jss j  c s0 n tanf

(4)

Please cite this article in press as: Pan P, et al., Geomechanical modeling of CO2 geological storage: A review, Journal of Rock Mechanics and
Geotechnical Engineering (2016), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jrmge.2016.10.002

P. Pan et al. / Journal of Rock Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering xxx (2016) 1e12

Fig. 5. The fracture mechanical behavior during injection of CO2 (1000). (a) 12 months, (b) 15 months, (c) 18 months and (d) 36 months (Pan et al., 2014a).

where s0 n and ss are the normal and shear stresses, respectively; c is

the cohesion; f is the friction angle; and tanf represents the static
friction coefcient. s0 n is positive when the fault is in compression.
s0 n represents the effective normal stress on the fault, which is
reduced by an increase in pore pressure or by a reduction in the in
situ conning stress. The fault can slip when jssj is greater than or
equal to the right-hand side of Eq. (4) (Fig. 6). The fault may open
when the tensile stress is applied.
In practice, given that no direct measurements of c can be used
in Eq. (4), the contribution of fault cohesion to shear strength is
usually neglected (i.e. c 0 MPa or a small value) (Ferronato et al.,
2010; Cappa and Rutqvist, 2011a). In most of the generic modeling
studies, a slip-weakening modeling is used. In this case, the friction
coefcient drops from a peak value to a residual value to model the
rupture of the fault. Although the peak friction coefcient (i.e. tanf)
is typically in the range of 0.6e0.85 (with the friction angle of about
30 e39 ) (Goodman, 1975; Byerlee, 1978; Vidal-Gilbert et al.,
2009), many researchers used a lower value of peak friction coefcient (e.g. 0.47, corresponding to the friction angle of 25 , or even
lower friction angle of 14 ) (Streit and Hillis, 2004; Cappa and
Rutqvist, 2011c; Pereira et al., 2014; Figueiredo et al., 2015; Wei
et al., 2016a). A residual friction coefcient of 0.2 (i.e. a friction
angle of approximately 11 ) is often used (Cappa and Rutqvist,
2012). It should be noted that the friction coefcients of faults are
dependent on several factors, such as temperature, degree of
saturation and the constituents of the fault content (Saffer and
Marone, 2003). Experimental studies indicate that the friction coefcient of pure smectite under the vacuum-dried condition is 0.3e
0.4, while it would be 0.13e0.3 under the saturated condition
(Morrow et al., 1992, 2000). The friction coefcient of smectitequartz mixtures is approximately 0.2e0.53, while it is much
higher for illite shale (0.41e0.73) (Saffer and Marone, 2003).
Therefore, these factors should be considered in the selection of the
friction coefcient.

The MohreCoulomb failure criterion in Eq. (4) or its modication is practically useful for describing the slip tendency. In the
analysis, the stress is an important factor to be considered in the
evaluation of fault activation or slip tendency. In most studies, the
slip tendency is calculated based on the pre-injection principal
stress magnitude and orientation corresponding to the regional
stress eld. However, studies show that in situ stress state can be
changed because of poro-elastic stress development related to the
changes in pore pressure and temperature (Kano et al., 2014).
Therefore, it is necessary to assess the impact of stress uncertainty
induced by CO2 injection on fault stability.
In most recent studies, fault reactivation is treated as a quasistatic mechanical process (Cappa and Rutqvist, 2011a,b,c). In a
dynamic simulation of fault slip induced by CO2 injection, rate- and
state-dependent friction laws should be involved. In this case,
friction is assumed to evolve from the static value to a reference
dynamic value linearly with increasing slip displacement, until the
critical distance is reached. Thereafter, the friction coefcient depends on sliding velocity, according to the rate- and statedependent friction law (Urpi et al., 2016). This law can be interpreted from laboratory experiments in the conceptual model of the
rate- and state-dependent friction laws (Scholz, 1998; Niemeijer
et al., 2012). In this case, the reliability of laboratory data, when
extrapolated to faults in nature, especially in terms of upscaling the
results from laboratory to eld data, should be evaluated.
5.2. Induced microseismicity
In large-scale storage of CO2 in deep underground reservoirs,
concern has been focused on whether nearby faults could be
reactivated since fault reactivation might be accompanied by a
seismic event. Many relevant modeling studies have been conducted (e.g. Lucier et al., 2006; Bissell et al., 2011; Lei et al., 2013;
Atkinson et al., 2016) and the analyses show great uncertainties

Please cite this article in press as: Pan P, et al., Geomechanical modeling of CO2 geological storage: A review, Journal of Rock Mechanics and
Geotechnical Engineering (2016), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jrmge.2016.10.002

P. Pan et al. / Journal of Rock Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering xxx (2016) 1e12

Fig. 6. (a) Normal and shear stresses resolved on a fault with a given orientation from the remote principal stresses and pressure in fault by uid injection; (b) Mohr diagram of
shear stress versus effective normal stress showing how the increasing uid pressure may activate a fault.

in the in situ stress and the assumed strength properties. In GCS,

tensile and shear failure occurs as a consequence of the injection
and the common criterion to decide that failure is based on a
critical uid pressure for fracturing that exceeds a given tectonic
stress (Rutqvist et al., 2008; Stanchits et al., 2011). To use this criterion, an accurate estimation of in situ stress eld is essential
(Rutqvist et al., 2008). However, Carcione et al. (2015) found that it
is easier to establish the failure criterion on the basis of the strength
of the rock, since this information (stiffness modulus) can be obtained from seismic data. Langenbruch and Shapiro (2014) showed
that the elastic heterogeneity of rocks obtained from sonic and
density logs along boreholes causes signicant uctuations of
fracture reactivation and opening pressures. The stiffness modulus
can be obtained from seismic and sonic-log data or ultrasonic experiments on cores. Other criteria exist to determine the emission,
for instance, Rozhko (2010) used the effective-stress law and the
Coulomb yielding stress obtained from geomechanical triaxial
laboratory measurements. Carcione et al. (2015) introduced a
realistic forward modeling algorithm to simulate P- and S-wave

propagation, where each source strength and radiation pattern are

determined by the pore pressure and a generalized moment-tensor
theory, respectively.
As mentioned above, if the MohreCoulomb failure criterion is
used, the fault will reactivate when jssj is greater than or equal to
the right-hand side of Eq. (4). The microseismicity or earthquake
induced by fault reactivation is mathematically modeled by a shear
displacement discontinuity (dislocation) across a surface S in an
elastic medium. This dislocation is equivalent to a distribution of
double couples on this surface whose total moment (i.e. seismic
moment) M0 is (Kanamori and Anderson, 1975)

M0 mAd

(5)

where m is the shear modulus of the fault media (Pa), A is the

rupture area of S (m2), and d is the average dislocation or slip (m).
Fig. 7 shows the typical simulation results of seismic moment by
Cappa and Rutqvist (2011b). The seismological theories are used to
calculate the magnitude (M) of microseismicity:

Fig. 7. Earthquake scaling relationship after Viegas et al. (2010): source dimension (radius) and seismic moment. Red and black circles correspond to the simulation results by Cappa
and Rutqvist (2011b).

Please cite this article in press as: Pan P, et al., Geomechanical modeling of CO2 geological storage: A review, Journal of Rock Mechanics and
Geotechnical Engineering (2016), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jrmge.2016.10.002

P. Pan et al. / Journal of Rock Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering xxx (2016) 1e12

M log10 M0 =1:5  6:1

(6)

In the modeling, the magnitude of microseismicity depends on

the constitutive law for the fault. A brittle fault with a peak and a
residual friction coefcient may produce an earthquake large
enough to be felt by humans.
Regarding the microseismicity propagation patterns, since
plastic strain occurs when a seism occurs, the region where seismic
events would occur can be assessed by tracking the evolution of
plastic strain, which can be obtained by using an elastoplastic
constitutive law or elasto-viscoplastic constitutive law (Vilarrasa
et al., 2010, 2013).
Fault reactivation may be accompanied by seismicity as
mentioned above. However, it may also be aseismic. Therefore, an
advanced technique should be developed to detect the aseismic
fault slip since it will result in leakage quietly and should be paid
more attention.

6. Modeling technique for fracture propagation

As mentioned above, the caprock may be discontinuous and
may contain heterogeneities such as faults and fractures of various
sizes, i.e. from small meter-scale fractures to kilometer-scale faults.
One of the most important concerns with respect to the safe storage
of CO2 is that the formation fracturing could potentially provide
pathways for CO2 leakage through previously impermeable rocks. It
is important to model fracture propagation for several reasons
(Goodarzi et al., 2012): (1) to avoid fracture propagation through
the caprock to the extent that it would create a loss of containment
(i.e. connect to other permeable zones) by controlling the injection
rate, (2) to use the information on fracture length to correctly
design the well pattern, and (3) to be able to control the injection
rate to avoid excessive fracture lengths.
However, because of the complexity of rock formations, analysis
of rock fracture propagation is one of the challenges in computational rock mechanics.
Over the past few decades, several approaches have been proposed to model crack problems (Abdelaziz and Hamouine, 2008):
the method based on quarter-point nite element (Henshell and
Shaw, 1975), enriched FEM (Benzley, 1974; Gifford and Hilton,
1978), the boundary collocation method (Newman, 1971), the integral equation method, the body force method (Nisitani, 1985),
BEM (Cruse, 1988), the dislocation method (Vitek, 1977), and meshfree methods such as the element-free Galerkin method (Belytschko
et al., 1994). To avoid the remeshing step in crack modeling, several
techniques have been proposed: the incorporation of a discontinuous model on an element level (Oliver et al., 2002), a moving mesh
technique (Rashid, 1998), and an enrichment technique based on a
partition of unity XFEM (Belytschko and Black, 1999).
For determination of crack propagation, two sets of criteria, i.e.
toughness-based fracturing criterion and MohreCoulomb criterion
with tension cutoff, have been commonly used to simulate the
fracturing behavior of rocks. The toughness-based fracturing criterion is typically employed in small-scale fracture propagation
(Adachi et al., 2007). For large-scale simulation (e.g. CO2 injection
into brine aquifer), the MohreCoulomb criterion with tension cutoff
is often used to determine the condition of fracture propagation.
This criterion uses well-known parameters: tensile strength, friction
angle, cohesion and dilation angle (Zhang et al., 2015b).
For the modeling of fracturing induced by CO2 injection, only a
few publications can be found in the literature. For example, Ji et al.
(2009) presented a fracturing model that couples a 3D nite
element geomechanical model with a conventional 3D nite difference reservoir simulator. Compared to the continuum numerical

methods, the discontinuum method may be more convenient to

simulate the propagation of a single fracture, multiple fractures and
even the fracture networks. For example, Pan et al. (2014a) developed a TOUGH-RDCA simulator for modeling rock discontinuous
mechanical behavior under multiphase uid ow conditions. In
this simulator, the fracture geometry is independent of the numerical grid so that no remeshing is needed during the propagation
of rock fractures, which is essentially different from continuum
numerical methods and therefore greatly simplies the simulation
of fracture propagation. The TOUGH-RDCA simulator was used to
study the propagation of single and multiple fractures in caprock
during CO2 injection into a deep brine aquifer (Pan et al., 2013,
2014b). The initiation, propagation and coalescence of fractures in
caprock and the CO2 migration can be simulated explicitly by using
this method (Figs. 8 and 9) (Pan et al., 2014b).
It should be noted that the rock mass mechanical changes
induced by CO2 injection are gradual. Before cracking, the rock can
be regarded as a continuous formation, which means that
displacement continuity is maintained. After cracking, the rock can
be considered as a discontinuous medium since displacement
discontinuity occurs. Therefore, the challenge is how to nd numerical methods to describe the rock fracturing process from
continuity to discontinuity. The continuum damage mechanics and
fracture mechanics are usually used to describe the continuity and
discontinuity parts, respectively. However, the link between these
two approaches suffers from several difculties: energetic equivalence, initial crack shape and size denition. The application of
damage-based propagation in the XFEM framework is a possible
way to address this problem (Minnebo et al., 2011).
Although productive work has been obtained in the modeling of
the rock fracturing problem, the modeling of 3D fracturing is still a
challenge. There are only a few papers concerned about the 3D
implementation of such methods. One of the difcult issues in a 3D
setting is how to describe and track the crack surface (Rabczuk
et al., 2010). In this case, the difculties in the analysis of 3D fracture problems by the standard FEM lie in (1) the need to construct a
mesh that conforms to both the crack surface and the body geometry, (2) the need to rene the mesh around the crack front, and
(3) the need to remesh at each growth step in crack propagation
studies. By using the enrichment functions, which are realized
through the partition of unity concept, the mesh does not need to
conform to the crack boundaries. The 3D curved cracks can be
tracked by using the level set method (Gonzlez-Albuixech et al.,
2013).
7. Discussion and conclusions
In this paper, we presented a review on the geomechanical
modeling of CO2 geological storage, emphasizing on numerical
methods, representation of a fault, fault activation and fracture
propagation. Based on this work, some possible challenges and
recommendations in geomechanical modeling are listed below:
(1) Rock mass is signicantly heterogeneous. It usually contains
complex combinations of constituents. With the long history
of formation, various geological media are ubiquitous, which
makes rock masses a difcult material for mathematical
representation via numerical modeling. For example, a
typical CO2 storage reservoir usually contains different
geological groups (e.g. lower aquifer, caprock rock and upper
aquifer), faults and cracks, etc. In numerical modeling, a
convenient way to represent the interfaces between different
material domains is still a challenge. Under mechanical
loading, the interface may behave strain continuity (weak
discontinuity) initially and then displacement discontinuity

Please cite this article in press as: Pan P, et al., Geomechanical modeling of CO2 geological storage: A review, Journal of Rock Mechanics and
Geotechnical Engineering (2016), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jrmge.2016.10.002

P. Pan et al. / Journal of Rock Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering xxx (2016) 1e12

Fig. 8. Fracturing of F1 and connections to F2 in caprock during CO2 injection (Pan et al., 2014b).

Fig. 9. CO2 saturation evolution during injection (Pan et al., 2014b) (X and Z in m).

(strong discontinuity) may occur. One possible solution is to

use an enrichment function in displacement approximation
through the concept of partition of unity. The interfaces can
be located by level set method (Sukumar et al., 2001). By
doing so, the modeling of large-scale CO2 storage in complex
geological conditions would be greatly simplied.
(2) It is recognized that CO2 injection may stimulate or reactivate
natural fractures and may introduce new hydraulic fractures
within or near the injection zone. These fractures may
propagate upwards into the lower caprock and further
through the upper caprock (Ringrose et al., 2013). For the
initiation of fracture or crack in caprock, Rutqvist et al. (2002)
used the pressure margin to assess the possible fracturing
region. This is an elastic analysis and provides a quick way to
evaluate the approximate fracturing zone. Using this
method, the fracturing zone may be smaller than that using
an elastoplastic analysis, since the plasticity-induced stress

adjustment will lead to further failure of rock mass. Therefore, it is recommended to consider the whole failure process
of rock mass in geomechanical modeling of GCS. The fracturing of rock mass is actually a continuousediscontinuous
process, which generally experiences elastic deformation,
plastic deformation or damage, fracture initiation, fracture
propagation and coalescence. A numerical method to characterize this continuousediscontinuous deformation failure
process induced by CO2 injection is needed.
(3) CO2 is usually injected into subsurface media with great
depth, where the stress environment is much more complex
than that in near-surface rock engineering. Therefore, any of
the three mutually perpendicular principal stress components in 3D stress space should not be neglected in the
modeling. Rock will exhibit different failure conditions under
different stress paths. In previous studies, the Mohre
Coulomb criterion, which neglects the effect of the

Please cite this article in press as: Pan P, et al., Geomechanical modeling of CO2 geological storage: A review, Journal of Rock Mechanics and
Geotechnical Engineering (2016), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jrmge.2016.10.002

10

P. Pan et al. / Journal of Rock Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering xxx (2016) 1e12

intermediate principal stress, is widely used to determine

whether the rock mass yields or not. However, many studies
have shown that both the intermediate and minimum
principal stresses greatly affect the mechanical behavior of
rock mass (Mogi, 2007; Pan et al., 2012b,c). Therefore, in the
assessment of rock mass stability in GCS, a yield criterion
considering both the intermediate and minimum principal
stresses is recommended.
(4) Although the induced seismicity has been extensively studied by researchers, challenges in assessing the induced
seismicity risk in CO2 storage still exist. Due to geophysical
characterization and monitoring limitations, there are very
large uncertainties in the inputs of the modeling (White and
Foxall, 2016). Therefore, novel strategies are necessary for
reducing and/or circumventing these uncertainties (Wei
et al., 2016b).
(5) A true geomechanical model for CO2 storage requires complete knowledge of the geometrical and physical properties
and parameters of the fractured rock masses. In other words,
if the modeling is to incorporate the main components of the
rock realitydthe fractures, inhomogeneity, anisotropy and
inelasticity, including failureda more extensive model and a
more extensive rock mass characterization are required.
However, the great uncertainties of geological conditions in
GCS make this complete knowledge impossible. Thus, the
challenge is to know how to develop an adequate model. This
will rest on a scientic foundation and require empirical
judgments supported by accumulated experiences through
long-term practices (Jing, 2003).
The above issues or challenges cannot cover all points of difculty in geomechanical modeling in GCS. Other issues, such as the
large-scale computational capacity, the scale and time effects, longterm behavior of rock mass, the evaluation of geological and engineering uncertainties, and the determination of in situ stress, are
also the major concerns and should be further studied for the longterm storage of CO2.
Conict of interest
The authors wish to conrm that there are no known conicts of
interest associated with this publication and there has been no
signicant nancial support for this work that could have inuenced its outcome.
Acknowledgements
This work was nically supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 41272349 and 51322906) and
Key Research Program of Frontier Sciences, Chinese Academy of
Sciences (Grant No. QYZDB-SSW-DQC029).
References
Abdelaziz Y, Hamouine A. A survey of the extended nite element. Computers &
Structures 2008;86(11e12):1141e51.
Adachi J, Siebrits E, Peirce A, Desroches J. Computer simulation of hydraulic fractures. International Journal of Rock Mechanics and Mining Sciences 2007;44(5):
739e57.
Alain T, Vincent R. Hydro-mechanical upscaling of a fractured rockmass using a 3D
numerical approach. In: Stephanson O, editor. Elsevier Geo-Engineering Book
Series, vol. 2. Elsevier; 2004. p. 275e80.
Apps JA, Zheng L, Zhang Y, Xu T, Birkholzer JT. Evaluation of potential changes in
groundwater quality in response to CO2 leakage from deep geologic storage.
Transport in Porous Media 2010;82(1):215e46.
Atkinson GM, Eaton DW, Ghofrani H, Walker D, Cheadle B, Schultz R,
Shcherbakov R, Tiampo K, Gu J, Harrington RM, Liu Y, van der Baan M, Kao H.
Hydraulic fracturing and seismicity in the western Canada sedimentary basin.

Seismological
Research
Letters
2016;87(5).
http://dx.doi.org/10.1785/
0220150263.
Bachu S. CO2 storage in geological media: role, means, status and barriers to
deployment. Progress in Energy and Combustion Science 2008;34(2):254e
73.
Belytschko T, Black T. Elastic crack growth in nite elements with minimal
remeshing. International Journal for Numerical Methods in Engineering
1999;45(5):601e20.
Belytschko T, Lu YY, Gu L. Element free Galerkin methods. International Journal for
Numerical Methods in Engineering 1994;37(2):229e56.
Benson SM, Cole DR. CO2 sequestration in deep sedimentary formations. Elements
2008;4(5):325e31.
Benzley SE. Representation of singularities with isoparametric nite elements. International Journal for Numerical Methods in Engineering 1974;8(3):537e45.
Bickle MJ. Geological carbon storage. Nature Geoscience 2009;2(12):815e8.
Birkholzer JT, Zhou Q. Basin-scale hydrogeologic impacts of CO2 storage: capacity
and regulatory implications. International Journal of Greenhouse Gas Control
2009;3(6):745e56.
Bissell RC, Vasco DW, Atbi M, Hamdani M, Okwelegbe M, Goldwater MH. A full eld
simulation of the In Salah gas production and CO2 storage project using a
coupled geo-mechanical and thermal uid ow simulator. Energy Procedia
2011;4:3290e7.
Blum P, Mackay R, Riley MS, Knight JL. Performance assessment of a nuclear waste
repository: upscaling coupled hydro-mechanical properties for far-eld transport analysis. International Journal of Rock Mechanics and Mining Sciences
2005;42(5e6):781e92.
Bower KM, Zyvoloski G. A numerical model for thermo-hydro-mechanical coupling
in fractured rock. International Journal of Rock Mechanics and Mining Sciences
1997;34(8):1201e11.
Budyn E, Zi G, Mos N, Belytschko T. A method for multiple crack growth in brittle
materials without remeshing. International Journal for Numerical Methods in
Engineering 2004;61(10):1741e70.
Byerlee J. Friction of rocks. Pure and Applied Geophysics 1978;116(4e5):615e26.
Cappa F, Rutqvist J. Impact of CO2 geological sequestration on the nucleation of
earthquakes. Geophysical Research Letters 2011b;38(17). http://dx.doi.org/
10.1029/2011GL048487.
Cappa F, Rutqvist J. Impact of CO2 geological sequestration on the nucleation of
seismic fault ruptures. In: Proceedings of the 45th US Rock Mechanics/Geomechanics Symposium. American Rock Mechanics Association; 2011c.
Cappa F, Rutqvist J. Modeling of coupled deformation and permeability evolution
during fault reactivation induced by deep underground injection of CO2. International Journal of Greenhouse Gas Control 2011a;5(2):336e46.
Cappa F, Rutqvist J. Seismic rupture and ground accelerations induced by CO2 injection
in the shallow crust. Geophysical Journal International 2012;190(3):1784e9.
Carcione JM, Da Col F, Currenti G, Cantucci B. Modeling techniques to study CO2injection induced micro-seismicity. International Journal of Greenhouse Gas
Control 2015;42:246e57.
Chiaramonte L, Zoback M, Friedmann J, Stamp V, Zahm C. Fracture characterization
and uid ow simulation with geomechanical constraints for a CO2eEOR and
sequestration project Teapot Dome Oil Field, Wyoming, USA. Energy Procedia
2011;4:3973e80.
Chiaramonte L, Zoback MD, Friedmann J, Stamp V. Seal integrity and feasibility of
CO2 sequestration in the Teapot Dome EOR pilot: geomechanical site characterization. Environmental Geology 2008;54(8):1667e75.
Cruse TA. Boundary element analysis in computational fracture mechanics.
Springer; 1988.
Dahi Taleghani A. Analysis of hydraulic fracture propagation in fractured reservoirs:
an improved model for the interaction between induced and natural fractures.
PhD Thesis. The University of Texas at Austin; 2009.
Damjanac B, Gil I, Pierce M, Sanchez M, Van As A, McLennan J. A new approach to
hydraulic fracturing modeling in naturally fractured reservoirs. In: The 44th US
Rock Mechanics Symposium and 5th US-Canada Rock Mechanics Symposium.
American Rock Mechanics Association; 2010.
De Pater CJ, Beugelsdijk LJL. Experiments and numerical simulation of hydraulic
fracturing in naturally fractured rock. In: Alaska Rocks 2005, the 40th US
Symposium on Rock Mechanics (USRMS). American Rock Mechanics Association; 2005.
Deng H, Dai Z, Jiao Z, Stauffer PH, Surdam RC. Simulation of CO2 sequestration
at Rock Spring uplift, Wyoming: heterogeneity and uncertainties in storage
capacity, injectivity and leakage. Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL);
2011.
Fei WB, Li Q, Wei XC, Song RR, Jing M, Li XC. Interaction analysis for CO2 geological
storage and underground coal mining in Ordos Basin, China. Engineering Geology 2015;196:194e209.
Ferronato M, Gambolati G, Janna C, Teatini P. Geomechanical issues of anthropogenic CO2 sequestration in exploited gas elds. Energy Conversion and Management 2010;51(10):1918e28.
Figueiredo B, Tsang CF, Rutqvist J, Bensabat J, Niemi A. Coupled hydro-mechanical
processes and fault reactivation induced by CO2 Injection in a three-layer
storage formation. International Journal of Greenhouse Gas Control 2015;39:
432e48.
Fjaer E, Holt RM, Horsrud P, Raaen AM, Risnes R. Petroleum related rock mechanics.
2nd ed. Elsevier; 2008.
Fu P, Johnson SM, Carrigan CR. An explicitly coupled hydro-geomechanical model
for simulating hydraulic fracturing in arbitrary discrete fracture networks.

Please cite this article in press as: Pan P, et al., Geomechanical modeling of CO2 geological storage: A review, Journal of Rock Mechanics and
Geotechnical Engineering (2016), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jrmge.2016.10.002

P. Pan et al. / Journal of Rock Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering xxx (2016) 1e12
International Journal for Numerical and Analytical Methods in Geomechanics
2013;37(14):2278e300.
Gifford LN, Hilton P. Stress intensity factors by enriched nite elements. Engineering
Fracture Mechanics 1978;10(3):485e96.
Goerke UJ, Park CH, Wang W, Singh AK, Kolditz O. Numerical simulation of multiphase hydromechanical processes induced by CO2 injection into deep saline
aquifers. Oil & Gas Science and Technology e Revue dIFP Energies nouvelles
2011;66(1):105e18.
Gonzlez-Albuixech VF, Giner E, Tarancn JE, Fuenmayor FJ, Gravouil A. Domain
integral formulation for 3D curved and non-planar cracks with the extended
nite element method. Computer Methods in Applied Mechanics and Engineering 2013;264:129e44.
Goodarzi S, Settari A, Keith D. Geomechanical modeling for CO2 storage in Nisku
aquifer in Wabamun Lake area in Canada. International Journal of Greenhouse
Gas Control 2012;10:113e22.
Goodman RE. Methods of geological engineering in rock discontinuities. St. Paul:
West Publishers; 1975.
Gor GY, Stone HA, Prvost JH. Fracture propagation driven by uid outow from a
low-permeability aquifer. Transport in Porous Media 2013;100(1):69e82.
Guvanasen V, Chan T. Upscaling the thermohydromechanical properties of a fractured rock mass using a modied crack tensor theory. In: Stephanson O, editor.
Elsevier Geo-Engineering Book Series, vol. 2. Elsevier; 2004. p. 251e6.
Hamidi F, Mortazavi A. A new three dimensional approach to numerically model
hydraulic fracturing process. Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering
2014;124:451e67.
Hawkes CD, McLellan P, Bachu S. Geomechanical factors affecting geological storage
of CO2 in depleted oil and gas reservoirs. Journal of Canadian Petroleum
Technology 2005;44(10):52e61.
Henshell RD, Shaw KG. Crack tip nite elements are unnecessary. International
Journal for Numerical Methods in Engineering 1975;9(3):495e507.
Holloway S, Savage D. The potential for aquifer disposal of carbon dioxide in the UK.
Energy Conversion and Management 1993;34(9e11):925e32.
Huang ZQ, Winterfeld PH, Xiong Y, Wu YS, Yao J. Parallel simulation of fully-coupled
thermal-hydro-mechanical processes in CO2 leakage through uid-driven
fracture zones. International Journal of Greenhouse Gas Control 2015;34:39e51.
Jaeger JC, Cook NGW, Zimmerman RW. Fundamentals of rock mechanics. 4th ed.
Oxford, UK: Wiley-Blackwell; 2007.
Ji L, Settari A, Sullivan RB. A novel hydraulic fracturing model fully coupled with
geomechanics and reservoir simulation. SPE Journal 2009;14(3):423e30.
Jiao YY, Zhang HQ, Zhang XL, Li HB, Jiang QH. A two-dimensional coupled hydromechanical discontinuum model for simulating rock hydraulic fracturing. International Journal for Numerical and Analytical Methods in Geomechanics
2015;39(5):457e81.
Jing L. A review of techniques, advances and outstanding issues in numerical
modelling for rock mechanics and rock engineering. International Journal of
Rock Mechanics and Mining Sciences 2003;40(3):283e353.
Johnson JW, Nitao JJ, Morris JP. Reactive transport modeling of cap-rock integrity
during natural and engineered CO2 storage. In: Thomas DC, editor. Carbon dioxide capture for storage in deep geologic formations, vol. 2. Amsterdam:
Elsevier; 2005. p. 787e813.
Kanamori H, Anderson DL. Theoretical basis of some empirical relations in seismology. Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America 1975;65(5):1073e95.
Kano Y, Funatsu T, Nakao S, Kusunose K, Ishido T, Lei X, Tosha T. Analysis of changes
in stress state and fault stability related to planned CO2 injection at the Tomakomai offshore site. Energy Procedia 2014;63:2870e8.
Keating EH, Fessenden J, Kanjorski N, Koning DJ, Pawar R. The impact of CO2 on
shallow groundwater chemistry: observations at a natural analog site and implications for carbon sequestration. Environmental Earth Sciences 2010;60(3):
521e36.
Keith D, Lavoie R. An overview of the Wabamun area CO2 sequestration project
(WASP). Energy Procedia 2009;1(1):2817e24.
Koltermann CE, Gorelick SM. Heterogeneity in sedimentary deposits: a review of
structure-imitating, process-imitating, and descriptive approaches. Water Resources Research 1996;32(9):2617e58.
Langenbruch C, Shapiro S. Gutenberg-Richter relation originates from Coulomb
stress uctuations caused by elastic rock heterogeneity. Journal of Geophysical
Research: Solid Earth 2014;119(2):1220e34.
Lei X, Funatsu T, Ma S, Liu L. A laboratory acoustic emission experiment and numerical simulation of rock fracture driven by a high-pressure uid source.
Journal of Rock Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering 2016;8(1):27e34.
Lei X, Ma S, Chen W, Pang C, Zeng J, Jiang B. A detailed view of the injection-induced
seismicity in a natural gas reservoir in Zigong, southwestern Sichuan Basin,
China. Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth 2013;118(8):4296e311.
Li Q, Wu Z, Bai Y, Yin X, Li X. Thermo-hydro-mechanical modeling of CO2 sequestration system around fault environment. Pure and Applied Geophysics
2006;163(11):2585e93.
Li Q, Wu Z, Li X, Ohsumi T, Koide H. Numerical simulation on crust deformation due
to CO2 sequestration in deep aquifers. Journal of Applied Mechanics 2002;5:
591e600.
Liu J, Pereira GG, Liu Q, Regenauer-Lieb K. Computational challenges in the analyses
of petrophysics using microtomography and upscaling: a review. Computers &
Geosciences 2016;89:107e17.
Lucier A, Zoback M, Gupta N, Ramakrishnan T. Geomechanical aspects of CO2
sequestration in a deep saline reservoir in the Ohio River Valley region. Environmental Geosciences 2006;13(2):85e103.

11

Mathias SA, Hardisty PE, Trudell MR, Zimmerman RW. Screening and selection of
sites for CO2 sequestration based on pressure buildup. International Journal of
Greenhouse Gas Control 2009;3(5):577e85.
Meyer BR, Bazan LW. A discrete fracture network model for hydraulically induced
fractures-theory, parametric and case studies. In: SPE Hydraulic Fracturing
Technology Conference. Society of Petroleum Engineers; 2011.
Minnebo H, Van Hoof T, Lani F. Damage to fracture in 3D with XFEM. In: The 5th
International Conference on Advanced Computational Methods in Engineering
(ACOMEN 2011). University of Lige; 2011.
Mogi K. Experimental rock mechanics. London: Taylor & Francis/A.A.Balkema; 2007.
Morris JP, Hao Y, Foxall W, McNab W. In Salah CO2 storage JIP: hydromechanical
simulations of surface uplift due to CO2 injection at In Salah. Energy Procedia
2011a;4:3269e75.
Morris JP, Detwiler RL, Friedmann SJ, Vorobiev OY, Hao Y. The large-scale geomechanical and hydrogeological effects of multiple CO2 injection sites on formation stability. International Journal of Greenhouse Gas Control 2011b;5(1):
69e74.
Morris JP, Hao Y, Foxall W, McNab W. A study of injection-induced mechanical
deformation at the In Salah CO2 storage project. International Journal of
Greenhouse Gas Control 2011c;5(2):270e80.
Morris JP, Rubin MB, Block GI, Bonner MP. Simulations of fracture and fragmentation of geologic materials using combined FEM/DEM analysis. International
Journal of Impact Engineering 2006;33:463e73.
Morrow CA, Moore DE, Lockner DA. The effect of mineral bond strength and
adsorbed water on fault gouge frictional strength. Geophysical Research Letters
2000;27(6):815e8.
Morrow CA, Radney B, Byerlee J. Frictional strength and the effective pressure law of
montmorillonite and illite clays. International Geophysics 1992;51:69e88.
Nasehi MJ, Mortazavi A. Effects of in-situ stress regime and intact rock strength
parameters on the hydraulic fracturing. Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 2013;108:211e21.
Newman JC. An improved method of collocation for the stress analysis of cracked
plates with various shaped boundaries. Washington, D.C.: National Aeronautics
and Space Administration; 1971.
 ov V. ComprehenNe
zerka V, Sl
zkov Z, Tesrek P, Plach T, Frankeov D, Petrn
sive study on mechanical properties of lime-based pastes with additions of
metakaolin and brick dust. Cement and Concrete Research 2014;64:17e29.
Niemeijer A, Di Toro G, Grifth WA, Bistacchi A, Smith SAF, Nielsen S. Inferring
earthquake physics and chemistry using an integrated eld and laboratory
approach. Journal of Structural Geology 2012;39:2e36.
Nisitani H. Body force method for determination of stress intensity factors. Journal
of Aerospace Sciences and Technologies 1985;37:21e41.
Nordbotten JM, Celia MA. Geological storage of CO2: modeling approaches for largescale simulation. John Wiley & Sons; 2011.
Olivella S, Carrera J, Gens A, Alonso EE. Nonisothermal multiphase ow of brine and
gas through saline media. Transport in Porous Media 1994;15(3):271e93.
Olivella S, Gens A, Carrera J, Alonso EE. Numerical formulation for a simulator
(CODE_BRIGHT) for the coupled analysis of saline media. Engineering Computations 1996;13(7):87e112.
Oliver J, Huespe AE, Pulido MDG, Chaves E. From continuum mechanics to fracture
mechanics: the strong discontinuity approach. Engineering Fracture Mechanics
2002;69(2):113e36.
Ouellet A, Brard T, Desroches J, Frykman P, Welsh P, Minton J, Pamukcu Y, Hurter S,
Schmidt-Hattenberger C. Reservoir geomechanics for assessing containment in
CO2 storage: a case study at Ketzin, Germany. Energy Procedia 2011;4:3298e
305.
Pan PZ, Feng XT, Zhou H. Development and applications of the elasto-plastic cellular
automaton. Acta Mechanica Solida Sinica 2012b;25(2):126e43.
Pan PZ, Yan F, Feng XT. Modeling the cracking process of rocks from continuity to
discontinuity using a cellular automaton. Computers & Geosciences 2012a;42:
87e99.
Pan PZ, Feng XT, Hudson JA. The inuence of the intermediate principal stress on rock
failure behaviour: a numerical study. Engineering Geology 2012c;124:109e18.
Pan PZ, Rutqvist J, Feng XT, Yan F. Modeling of caprock discontinuous fracturing
during CO2 injection into a deep brine aquifer. International Journal of Greenhouse Gas Control 2013;19:559e75.
Pan PZ, Rutqvist J, Feng XT, Yan F. An approach for modeling rock discontinuous
mechanical behavior under multiphase uid ow conditions. Rock Mechanics
and Rock Engineering 2014a;47(2):589e603.
Pan PZ, Rutqvist J, Feng XT, Yan F. TOUGH-RDCA modeling of multiple fracture interactions in caprock during CO2 injection into a deep brine aquifer. Computers
& Geosciences 2014b;65:24e36.
Pan PZ, Rutqvist J, Feng XT, Yan F, Jiang Q. A discontinuous cellular automaton
method for modeling rock fracture propagation and coalescence under uid
pressurization without remeshing. Rock Mechanics and Rock Engineering
2014c;47(6):2183e98.
Pereira FLG, Roehl D, Paulo Laquini J, Oliveira MFF, Costa AM. Fault reactivation case
study for probabilistic assessment of carbon dioxide sequestration. International Journal of Rock Mechanics and Mining Sciences 2014;71:310e9.
Preisig M, Prevost JH. Coupled multi-phase thermo-poromechanical effects. Case
study: CO2 injection at In Salah, Algeria. International Journal of Greenhouse
Gas Control 2011;5(4):1055e64.
Prevost JH. Dynaow: a nonlinear transient nite element analysis program.
Princeton: Department of Civil Engineering, School of Engineering and Applied
Science, Princeton University; 1981.

Please cite this article in press as: Pan P, et al., Geomechanical modeling of CO2 geological storage: A review, Journal of Rock Mechanics and
Geotechnical Engineering (2016), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jrmge.2016.10.002

12

P. Pan et al. / Journal of Rock Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering xxx (2016) 1e12

Rabczuk T, Bordas S, Zi G. On three-dimensional modelling of crack growth using

partition of unity methods. Computers & Structures 2010;88(23e24):1391e411.
Rashid MM. The arbitrary local mesh replacement method: an alternative to
remeshing for crack propagation analysis. Computer Methods in Applied Mechanics and Engineering 1998;154(1e2):133e50.
Ringrose PS, Mathieson AS, Wright IW, Selama F, Hansen O, Bissell R, Saoula N,
Midgley J. The In Salah CO2 storage project: lessons learned and knowledge
transfer. Energy Procedia 2013;37:6226e36.
Rodriguez AA, Klie H, Sun S, Gai X, Wheeler MF, Florez H. Porous media upscaling of
hydraulic properties: full permeability tensor and continuum scale simulations.
In: SPE/DOE Symposium on Improved Oil Recovery. Society of Petroleum Engineers; 2006.
Rohmer J, Bouc O. A response surface methodology to address uncertainties in cap
rock failure assessment for CO2 geological storage in deep aquifers. International Journal of Greenhouse Gas Control 2010;4(2):198e208.
Rohmer J, Seyedi DM. Coupled large scale hydromechanical modelling for caprock
failure risk assessment of CO2 storage in deep saline aquifers. Oil & Gas Science
and Technology e Revue dIFP Energies nouvelles 2010;65(3):503e17.
Rozhko AY. Role of seepage forces on seismicity triggering. Journal of Geophysical
Research: Solid Earth 2010;115(B11). http://dx.doi.org/10.1029/2009JB007182.
Rutqvist J. The geomechanics of CO2 storage in deep sedimentary formations.
Geotechnical and Geological Engineering 2012;30(3):525e51.
Rutqvist J, Birkholzer JT, Tsang CF. Coupled reservoir-geomechanical analysis of the
potential for tensile and shear failure associated with CO2 injection in multilayered reservoir-caprock systems. International Journal of Rock Mechanics and
Mining Sciences 2008;45(2):132e43.
Rutqvist J, Cappa F, Rinaldi AP, Godano M. Modeling of induced seismicity and
ground vibrations associated with geologic CO2 storage, and assessing their
effects on surface structures and human perception. International Journal of
Greenhouse Gas Control 2014;24:64e77.
Rutqvist J, Tsang CF. A study of caprock hydromechanical changes associated with
CO2-injection into a brine formation. Environmental Geology 2002;42(2):296e
305.
Rutqvist J, Vasco DW, Myer L. Coupled reservoir-geomechanical analysis of CO2
injection and ground deformations at In Salah, Algeria. International Journal of
Greenhouse Gas Control 2010;4(2):225e30.
Rutqvist J, Wu YS, Tsang CF, Bodvarsson G. A modeling approach for analysis of
coupled multiphase uid ow, heat transfer, and deformation in fractured
porous rock. International Journal of Rock Mechanics and Mining Sciences
2002;39(4):429e42.
Saffer DM, Marone C. Comparison of smectite- and illite-rich gouge frictional
properties: application to the updip limit of the seismogenic zone along subduction megathrusts. Earth and Planetary Science Letters 2003;215(1e2):219e
35.
Scholz CH. Earthquakes and friction laws. Nature 1998;391(6662):37e42.
Selvadurai APS. Heave of a surcial rock layer due to pressures generated by
injected uids. Geophysical Research Letters 2009;36(14). http://dx.doi.org/
10.1029/2009GL038187.
Soltanzadeh H, Hawkes CD. Assessing fault reactivation tendency within and surrounding porous reservoirs during uid production or injection. International
Journal of Rock Mechanics and Mining Sciences 2009;46(1):1e7.
Sorai M, Lei X, Nishi Y, Ishido T, Nakao S. CO2 geological storage. In: Handbook of
climate change mitigation and adaptation. Springer; 2015. p. 1e54.
Stanchits S, Mayr S, Shapiro S, Dresen G. Fracturing of porous rock induced by uid
injection. Tectonophysics 2011;503(1e2):129e45.
Stazi FL, Budyn E, Chessa J, Belytschko T. An extended nite element method with
higher-order elements for curved cracks. Computational Mechanics 2003;31(1):
38e48.
Streit JE, Hillis RR. Estimating fault stability and sustainable uid pressures for
underground storage of CO2 in porous rock. Energy 2004;29(9e10):1445e56.
Sukumar N, Chopp DL, Mos N, Belytschko T. Modeling holes and inclusions by level
sets in the extended nite-element method. Computer Methods in Applied
Mechanics and Engineering 2001;190(46e47):6183e200.
Sun AY, Zeidouni M, Nicot JP, Lu Z, Zhang D. Assessing leakage detectability at
geologic CO2 sequestration sites using the probabilistic collocation method.
Advances in Water Resources 2013;56:49e60.
Torres SAG, Castao JDM. Simulation of the hydraulic fracture process in two dimensions using a discrete element method. Physical Review E 2007;75(6):
066109.
Urpi L, Rinaldi AP, Rutqvist J, Cappa F, Spiers CJ. Dynamic simulation of CO2-injection-induced fault rupture with slip-rate dependent friction coefcient. Geomechanics for Energy and the Environment 2016;7:47e65.
Vidal-Gilbert S, Nauroy JF, Brosse E. 3D geomechanical modelling for CO2 geologic
storage in the Dogger carbonates of the Paris Basin. International Journal of
Greenhouse Gas Control 2009;3(3):288e99.
Vidal-Gilbert S, Tenthorey E, Dewhurst D, Ennis-King J, Van Ruth P, Hillis R. Geomechanical analysis of the Naylor eld, Otway Basin, Australia: implications for

CO2 injection and storage. International Journal of Greenhouse Gas Control

2010;4(5):827e39.
Viegas G, Abercrombie RE, Kim WY. The 2002 M5 Au Sable Forks, NY, earthquake
sequence: source scaling relationships and energy budget. Journal of
Geophysical Research: Solid Earth 2010;115(B7). http://dx.doi.org/10.1029/
2009JB006799.
Vilarrasa V, Bolster D, Olivella S, Carrera J. Coupled hydromechanical modeling of
CO2 sequestration in deep saline aquifers. International Journal of Greenhouse
Gas Control 2010;4(6):910e9.
Vilarrasa V, Carrera J, Olivella S. Hydromechanical characterization of CO2 injection
sites. International Journal of Greenhouse Gas Control 2013;19:665e77.
Vitek V. Plane strain stress intensity factors for branched cracks. International
Journal of Fracture 1977;13(4):481e501.
Vorobiev O. Discrete and continuum methods for numerical simulations of nonlinear wave propagation in discontinuous media. International Journal for
Numerical Methods in Engineering 2010;83(4):482e507.
Wang M, Feng YT, Wang CY. Numerical investigation of initiation and propagation
of hydraulic fracture using the coupled Bonded Particle-Lattice Boltzmann
Method.
Computers
&
Structures
2016.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/
j.compstruc.2016.02.014.
Wang W, Kolditz O. Object-oriented nite element analysis of thermo-hydro- mechanical (THM) problems in porous media. International Journal for Numerical
Methods in Engineering 2007;69(1):162e201.
Wei X, Li Q, Li X, Niu Z. Modeling the hydromechanical responses of sandwich
structure faults during underground uid injection. Environmental Earth Sciences 2016a;75(16):1155. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s12665-016-5975-9.
Wei X, Li Q, Li X, Sun Y. Impact indicators for caprock integrity and induced seismicity in CO2 geosequestration: insights from uncertainty analyses. Natural
Hazards 2016b;81(1):1e21.
Weng X, Kresse O, Cohen CE, Wu R, Gu H. Modeling of hydraulic-fracture-network
propagation in a naturally fractured formation. SPE Production & Operations
2011;26(4):368e80.
White JA, Foxall W. Assessing induced seismicity risk at CO2 storage projects: recent
progress and remaining challenges. International Journal of Greenhouse Gas
Control 2016;49:413e24.
Wiprut D, Zoback MD. Fault reactivation and uid ow along a previously dormant
normal fault in the northern North Sea. Geology 2000;28(7):595e8.
Yamamoto K, Takahashi K. Importance of the geomechanics for the safety of CO2
geologic sequestration. In: Proceedings of the 3rd Asian Rock Mechanics
Symposium. Kyoto, Japan. Rotterdam: Millpress; 2004.
Zeng J, Li H, Zhang D. Numerical simulation of proppant transport in hydraulic
fracture with the upscaling CFD-DEM method. Journal of Natural Gas Science
and Engineering 2016;33:264e77.
Zhang R, Winterfeld PH, Yin X, Xiong Y, Wu YS. Sequentially coupled THMC model
for CO2 geological sequestration into a 2D heterogeneous saline aquifer. Journal
of Natural Gas Science and Engineering 2015a;27:579e615.
Zhang Y, Langhi L, Schaubs PM, Piane CD, Dewhurst DN, Stalker L, Michael K.
Geomechanical stability of CO2 containment at the South West Hub Western
Australia: a coupled geomechanical-uid ow modelling approach. International Journal of Greenhouse Gas Control 2015b;37:12e23.
Zheng L, Apps JA, Zhang Y, Xu T, Birkholzer JT. On mobilization of lead and arsenic in
groundwater in response to CO2 leakage from deep geological storage. Chemical
Geology 2009;268(3e4):281e97.

Dr. Pengzhi Pan obtained his B.S. and M.S. degrees in

Engineering Mechanics and Solid Mechanics from Wuhan
University of Technology, Ph.D. degree in Rock Engineering
from the Institute of Rock and Soil Mechanics (IRSM),
Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) in 2006. Then he
worked at IRSM as an Assistant Professor, and was promoted to Associate Professor in 2009, and Professor in
2013. In 2011e2012, he worked at Lawrence Berkeley
National Laboratory (LBNL) as a Visiting Scholar in the
modeling of coupled thermo-hydro-mechano-chemical
(THMC) processes in geological media. His research is
currently focused on continuumediscontinuum numerical
methods to simulate rock nonlinear fracturing process
with and without consideration of coupled THMC processes in geological media. He developed a series of comprehensive successive numer2D
ical codes (e.g. EPCA , EPCA3D, RDCA, TOUGH-RDCA) with a combination of multidiscipline and theories. The codes have been applied to a wide range of geomechanics
and geotechnical engineering, including the stability analysis of subsurface rock engineering, geological disposal of high-level nuclear waste and geological sequestration of
CO2, etc., to understand the underlying failure mechanism and coupling process in
complex geological systems.

Please cite this article in press as: Pan P, et al., Geomechanical modeling of CO2 geological storage: A review, Journal of Rock Mechanics and
Geotechnical Engineering (2016), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jrmge.2016.10.002