Modeling Fluid Injection Induced Seismicity with a Cohesive-Frictional Model

A porous-mechanical material model characterized by parallel planar micro-structures is employed to simulate an in situ induced seismicity experiment conducted on a natural fault [3]. In the experiment, a localized fluid injection with a prescribed flux history activates a two-phase slip event along the fault surface, i. e., an initial aseismic motion followed by a seismic event with a sudden amplification of the sliding. Using a porous brittle damage material model embedded with cohesive-frictional interfaces to describe the behavior of the fault and of the surrounding rock [1], we aim at predicting the main observations of the experiment.