Coupling schemes for modeling hydraulic fracture propagation using the XFEM

► We propose two novel XFEM-based schemes to couple the equations governing hydraulic fracture propagation. ► The first scheme uses the XFEM to resolve the Neumann to Dirichlet (ND) map with O(h2) accuracy and is suitable for fluid fronts that lag behind the fracture front. ► The second scheme uses a mixed XFEM formulation to enable singular tip asymptotic behavior to be combined with the O(h2) ND map. ► The coupled XFEM algorithms yield solutions that show excellent agreement with published reference solutions.