An Integrated Transport Model for Ball-Sealer Diversion in Vertical and 
Horizontal Wells

Li, Xiaohe; Chen, Zhongming; Chaudhary, Saleem; Novotny, Rudolf

doi:10.2523/96339-ms

Cited by 1 publication

(4 citation statements)

References 0 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…The velocity of a ball sealer after its dropping increases very fast and achieves terminal velocity in the vertical borehole within a few seconds in this example (Figure 6). This agrees well with Li’s model (Li et al., 2005). The positive direction of the resistance force acting on the ball sealer is consistent with the flowing direction of the fracturing fluid, which accelerates the ball sealer down to the well bottom.…”

Section: Case Analysissupporting

confidence: 92%

“…If the flow field of fracturing fluid containing particles is not perturbed by the particles (Li et al., 2005), the ball sealer velocity in the axial direction is where V ball and V fluid are the velocities of the ball sealer and fracturing fluid, respectively, m/s. V slip is the slip velocity, which is also the relative velocity between the ball and fluid, m/s.…”

Section: Forces Of Ball Transportationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Haider and Levenspiel (1989) provided explicit equations for the drag coefficient and terminal velocity. Li et al. (2005) developed a ball-sealer simulator for dealing with transportation from the surface until seating on the perforations using a Lagrangian particle tracking method.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…(2005) developed a ball-sealer simulator for dealing with transportation from the surface until seating on the perforations using a Lagrangian particle tracking method. The drag coefficient and borehole inclination angle affect the diverting behaviour of ball sealers (Li et al., 2005). Glasbergen and Buijse (2006) assumed that a ball sealer will seat once it is close enough to a perforation.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 3 more Smart Citations

Ball sealer tracking and seating of temporary plugging fracturing technology in the perforated casing of a horizontal well

Wan

Lü

Feng

et al. 2021

Energy Exploration & Exploitation

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Multistaged temporary plugging fracturing in horizontal wells is an emerging technology to promote uniform fracture propagation in tight reservoirs by injecting ball sealers to plug higher-flux perforations. The seating mechanism and transportation of ball sealers remain poorly understood. In this paper, the sensitivities of the ball sealer density, casing injection rate and perforation angle to the seating behaviors are studied. In a vertical wellbore section, a ball sealer accelerates very fast at the beginning of the dropping and reaches a stable state within a few seconds. The terminal velocity of a non-buoyant ball is greater than the fluid velocity, while the terminal velocity of a buoyant ball is less than the fluid velocity. In the horizontal wellbore section, the terminal velocity of a non-buoyant or buoyant ball is less than the fracturing fluid flowing velocity. The ball sealer density is a more critical parameter than the casing injection rate when a ball sealer diverts to a perforation hole. The casing injection rate is a more critical parameter than the ball sealer density when a ball sealer seats on a perforation hole. A buoyant ball sealer associated with a high injection rate of fracturing fluid is highly recommended to improve the seating efficiency.

show abstract

Section: Case Analysissupporting

confidence: 92%

Section: Forces Of Ball Transportationmentioning

confidence: 99%