Radial wells can be used to guide the propagation of hydraulic fractures in order to connect the natural fractures or caves in unconventional reservoirs and improve the recovery of oil and gas resources. Fracturing technology of radial wells has been preliminarily applied and developed in low permeability and shallow reservoirs

but its mechanism is still not very clear. Therefore

the basic principle of FEMM（Finite Element-Meshfree Method） is introduced. Besides

based on the FEMM and the field data

the radial well fracturing model with different well angles is established

and the effect of different azimuth angles on fracture propagation of radial well fracturing is studied. The results show that by using FEMM

it can be verified that radial wells play a guiding role in hydraulic fracturing. In addition

the hydraulic fracture firstly propagates along the direction of radial wells. After extending a certain distance

it turns to the direction of maximum horizontal stress. The bigger the angle between the radial wells and the horizontal maximum principal stress

and the shorter the length of fracture extending along the radial wells

the weaker the guiding ability of radial wells will be. The research results contribute to the application of radial well fracturing technology.