Slick-water fracturing treatment is one of the most effective method to develop shale reservoir, which creates complex fracture system by connecting the pre-existing natural fractures. However, the proppant transport and placement behavior is quite different from that in conventional bi-wing fractures due to the low viscosity fluid system and intersections between fractures. The goal of this work is to simulate and understand the characteristic of proppant transport behavior in Complex Fractures network. A Eulerian multiphase model is introduced to simulate the transport and settling behavior in the hydraulic fracture network, which takes turbulence effects and friction stress between the proppant particles into consideration and fully couple the fluid phase with particle phase. Simulation work was conducted to investigate the control mechanism and influencing factors for proppant transportation from main fracture into secondary and tertiary fractures. The simulation results indicate that a small proppant dune quickly forms in the main fractures first, and almost no proppant enters the lower grade fracture until the proppant dune in the intersection reaches a specific height. With continuous injection of slurry fluid, majority of the proppant enters in the lower grade fracture which is controlled by gravity rolling from the dune in main fractures and fluid drag force, and the proppant settles quickly and gradually reach their own equilibrium height. Parametric study shows that smaller proppant density and particle size can also help proppant transport into secondary fractures and form a higher equilibrium height dune, resulting in larger effective propped area. Moreover, when the lower grade fracture is closer to the inlet entrance, the proppant is more likely to transport in, and the height of sand dunes formed in the fractures is higher. The proppant transport process in complex fracture systems is simulated by Eulerian Multiphase Model in this paper. This study extends the understanding of the process and mechanism of proppant transport in complex fracture system and controlling factors, which helps optimize hydraulic fracturing design in shale formation.
With the continuous development of unconventional oil and gas reservoirs, hydraulic fracturing has been widely applied in the industry for the enhancement of hydrocarbon recovery. 1,2 Proppants are pumped into and evenly distributed within the fractures in order to resist the closure pressure after pumping, generating highly conductive flow paths for the hydrocarbon. Therefore, production can be remarkably enhanced. 3,4 Maintaining a relatively high fracture conductivity is one of the key factors for successful fracturing. Moreover, many factors can contribute as damaging mechanisms to fracture conductivity, such as incomplete removal of gel residue, proppant embedment, and proppant crushing. 5
Fracturing stimulation in deep tight gas reservoir in Eastern Sichuan Basin China shows that natural fractures obviously affect the treatment pressure. Accurate determination of breakdown pressure in the presence of pre-existing fracture can assist engineers better manage expected fracture gradients. The available fracture models for breakdown pressure prediction did not consider possible failure mode of hydraulic fracture influenced by pre-existing fracture. In addition, Elsworth indicates that breakdown pressure is a strong function of fracturing fluid infiltration. Infiltration due to pre-existing fractures is non-negligible to breakdown pressure prediction. To overcome the limitation of current models, a model considering pre-existing fracture is applied to predict breakdown pressure. The stress distribution of pre-existing fracture intersected with perforation hole considering fluid infiltration is described based on stress distribution model of ellipsoid. The breakdown pressure prediction model is built considering uniform stress distribution and 3 possible failure mode, which are tensile failure of matrix, tensile failure of pre-existing fracture and shear failure of pre-existing fracture, described by corresponding failure criterion. Sensitivity studies are conducted to investigate the influence of pre-existing fracture dip angle, orientation and location on failure mode and breakdown pressure. It indicates that the distribution of pre-existing fracture has great effect on hydraulic fracture failure mode and corresponding breakdown pressure. The breakdown pressure (1) increases with increasing dip angle and decreases with increasing orientation when matrix fails, and (2) doesn't always show the same tendency when pre-existing fracture fails. The novel model is further verified against measured breakdown pressure from field fracturing treatment of M3 well in deep sandstone formation in eastern Sichuan Basin.
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