Paper: Hydraulic Fracture Treatment Design

In 1949, the first commercial hydraulic fracturing treatment was performed, thus initiating one of the most outstanding well stimulation procedures that the petroleum industry has ever known. During the past 16 years, much advancement have been made in the concepts of hydraulic fracturing theory. The purpose of this paper is not to clarify the concepts of hydraulic fracturing theory, but to present a sound design method of effectively employing the concepts. Discussion of theory will be confined to only that necessary to justify the method of design. The design procedure presented in this paper is limited to vertical fractures and presents a method of optimizing fracture treatment sizes.