Unconventional reservoirs are characterized by low porosity, low permeability, and limited hydrocarbon abundance, making them economically unviable for production under natural conditions. Large-scale hydraulic fracturing has emerged as a critical technology for enabling the effective development of these resources. The three-dimensional development of platform wells employs batch drilling and batch fracturing techniques. By implementing simultaneous fracturing or zipper fracturing approaches, the process achieves well placement, fracturing, and fracture placement in a single step, thereby reducing costs and improving operational efficiency. Platform well fracturing (PWF) involves numerous parameters that require optimization, and the underlying physical processes are highly complex, presenting significant challenges to the design and control of fracturing strategies. To address these challenges, this study focuses on the following aspects: (1) identifying key parameters in PWF and reviewing prior optimization efforts that use production capacity and net present value as objective functions; (2) systematically comparing numerical simulation methods for modeling fracture propagation and simulating production performance, highlighting their role in linking fracturing parameters to objective functions; (3) evaluating the strengths and limitations of single-factor analysis, orthogonal experimental design, and intelligent automatic optimization methods, and proposing a high-dimensional intelligent optimization workflow for fracturing design; (4) examining the technological challenges of PWF and suggesting future directions for its development. This study provides valuable insights into the selection of optimization methods for PWF schemes and offers guidance for advancing the technology’s development, contributing to more efficient and effective resource recovery from unconventional reservoirs.

A series of true axial hydraulic fracturing experiments were conducted to understand the complex hydraulic fracture initiation and propagation behavior of multilayered rocks. Moreover, a new and convenient grid measurement method was presented to describe hydraulic fracturing effectiveness. The experimental results revealed that transverse vertical and non-planar axial fractures could be created in the hydraulic fracturing of multilayered rocks. Moreover, the fracture area scanning results by the grid measurement method match the results indicated by the traditional Geomagic method. The fracture behavior close to the layer contact determines how complex the produced fishbone structure fracture system is. Near the hole zones, secondary axial and deviated transverse fractures were found due to multiple layers. The fracture system can be managed by modifying the fracturing treatment parameters. Low-principle horizontal stress contrast and low-viscosity fracturing fluid can produce complicated fractures, and an increase in perforation numbers can make the fracture more complex and produce abnormally high breakdown pressure. Larger fracture areas benefit from high perforation rates and pump rates, but larger fracture areas may not always benefit from a decreased fracturing fluid viscosity. The breakdown pressure was the highest for the samples with two sets of oriented perforations, and the stress shadowing effect should be considered in the multiple fracture treatment. The increase in the pump rate generates a more complex fracture path in the horizontal well despite the fracturing fluid types but also yields a high breakdown pressure. The increased fracturing fluid viscosity can constrain the random fracture extension, which is beneficial for decreasing the near-wellbore tortuosity. The occurrence of shear fracture along the interface in a multilayered formation could be a risk for proppant injection and placement.