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As the SAGD steam chamber and production performance in heavy oil reservoirs under fluvial sedimentation environment are heavily impacted by reservoir heterogeneity, an innovative strategy was proposed in this study coupling rock dilation and multi-lateral wells in SAGD projects to break the mud barriers and achieve uniform steam chamber growth. True tri-axial experiments and numerical simulation were designed to validate the feasibility of this strategy, based on which the branches of the SAGD well pairs were designed and the operational parameters were optimized for different geologic heterogeneity conditions. The tri-axial experiment results indicate that the rock formations in the heavy oil reservoirs of the F oilfield exhibit significant shear dilation effects under low confinement pressure conditions, with a volumetric dilation capacity of up to 7%. The branches should be deployed in an interleaved manner, with a horizontal displacement of 20 m and a vertical displacement of 6 m. The optimal results are achieved when the branches intersect the interbeds, allowing for enhanced steam chamber conformance and enlarged volume. Dilation zones of 3–8 m can be created above the steam-injection horizontal wells and around the branches in the reservoir during the dilation of SAGD steam chambers. The maximum volume of dilation fluid used for hydraulic dilation is suggested to be less than 2000 m3. This strategy has been validated as being successful in the pilot SAGD well pair in the F oilfield, China, with the SAGD preheating time reduced by 50% and an incremental oil rate of 4.5 tones/day, indicating encouraging potentials in similar heavy oil reservoirs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]