Natural gas hydrates are considered
as a potential energy resource.
However, the characteristics of hydrate-bearing sediments lead to
production difficulty. Field tests of gas production from hydrate
reservoirs are frequently interrupted on the basis of sand production.
The particle size of the reservoir could affect the mechanical model
of gravel migration during hydrate dissociation. The reservoir particle
size has a certain impact on the strength of hydrate reservoirs. In
this study, sand production behaviors in methane hydrate reservoirs
with different particle size quartz sands were investigated by a novel
experimental apparatus, and the experiments on hydrate dissociation
via depressurization were conducted to investigate the relationship
between the particle size and reservoir damage. The experimental results
indicate that there is a certain particle size beneficial for particle
migration. The larger particle size leads to a small area of active
sand, and the smaller particle size leads to a small amount of particle
migration. In this work, the reservoir with a median particle size
of 118.417 μm experienced the largest amount of sand production.
Meanwhile, the particle migration behaviors in the hydrate reservoirs
with different particle sizes are analyzed. To avoid sand production,
for large-particle porous media reservoirs, the position of the opening
of the wellbore should be in the upper layer of the reservoir, whereas
for small-particle porous media reservoirs, the position of the opening
of the wellbore should be in the bottom layer of the reservoir.
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