Abstract：Numerical tests with parallel finite element method(FEM) are conducted to investigate the hydraulic fracturing. The fracture initiation，propagation and associated traversing，twisted fractures are numerically obtained，which indicate that the finite element model has potential applications to a larger range of complicated hydraulic fracturing problems. As the proposed method is used to conduct the numerical simulation of hydraulic fracturing，the three-dimensional fractures can be achieved directly without any artificial assumption on the initiation and propagation of fractures. Numerical results，including the pore pressure field，fracture shape and size，show that the mechanical parameters of strata have an important influence on the fracture mode. The traversing fractures are prone to emergence if the producing zone is thin or the difference of rock mechanical parameters is relatively great. The traversing fractures are prone to induce the failure of hydraulic fracturing. The twisted fractures are mainly caused by in-situ stress distribution，stratum characteristic and the heterogeneous characteristics of rock at mesoscopic level. The investigation can provide significantly meaningful guides for the design of hydraulic fracture engineering in practice.
