METHOD AND APPARATUS AND PROGRAM STORAGE DEVICE FOR FRONT TRACKING IN HYDRAULIC FRACTURING SIMULATORS

A method and system and program storage device is adapted to continuously update a perimeter of a fracture footprint created in an Earth formation when a fracturing fluid fractures the formation penetrated by a wellbore. Two embodiments of a Volume of Fluid (VOF) software, adapted to be stored in a memory of a computer system, will locate the position of a fracture perimeter during the evolution of that fracture when the software is executed by the processor of the computer system. The two embodiments, called the ‘Marker VOF (MVOF)’ and the ‘Full VOF (FVOF)’ software, will continuously update the perimeter of the fracture footprint by updating a Fill Fraction for each tip element. The MVOF software will use a fill fraction mass balance integral equation to update the Fill Fraction for each tip element, and the FVOF software will use an integrated form of fluid flow equations to update the Fill Fraction for each tip element.