An Investigation into Proppant Dynamics in Hydraulic Fracturing

Abstract

Effective proppant placement during hydraulic fracturing is essential to obtain maximum stimulation effectiveness. Understanding proppant placement requires the understanding of the time and space dependent dynamics of proppant motion in fluids, which include the phenomena of proppant transport, bridging, settling, and resuspension. This paper proposes a laboratory test method that can be used to investigate any aspect of proppant dynamics in a variety of channel configurations and fracturing fluids. 3D printing technology is used to rapidly manufacture channel flow devices of various dimensions. After a 3D printer is available, such manufacturing is extremely inexpensive with rapid turn-around times. These channels, in conjunction with laboratory scale pumps and blenders, are used to investigate proppant transport and bridging, settling, and resuspension in various fracturing fluids. Several different channel configurations, ranging from uniform width to uniform tapered, are used to investigate the dynamics of small and large diameter proppants with fluids ranging from water to linear gels. The results from these experiments are compared with numerical models for validation, and in some cases, calibration of model inputs, that can ultimately lead to improved fracturing treatment design and understanding. In addition, the paper provides a comparison to existing data (Patankar et al. 2002) to validate settling and resuspension models.

Dynamic bridging of proppant particles in a hydraulic fracture

“…: where α w -the coefficient of friction at the fracture wall. Thus, when conditions (20) and (22) the particles decelerate and a bridge is formed. We introduce the parameter D by the formula:…”

Proppant transport in a scaled vertical planar fracture: Vorticity and dune placement

“…Ferández et al [18] did not exceed 0.1 m/s in fluid velocity in a small cell (although they did use small injection perforations). Ray et al [19] focused on the bridging phenomenon using a small scale cell, but they worked at low fluid velocities of about 0.01 m/s. One important aspect for the flow pattern is the actual height of the fracture.…”

Investigating the Impacts of Nonuniform Proppant Distribution and Fracture Closure on Well Performance in Shale Gas Reservoirs

“…Limitation of the formation environment makes direct monitoring of fracturing slurry flow impossible. Currently, a series of lab-scale experimental models built by transparent glass plates have been applied to search rules of sanding patterns (Tong and Mohanty, 2016;Ray, 2017;Tong et al, 2018). This kind of laboratory-based research and analysis is difficult to be directly applied to oilfield scale prediction, and thus numerical simulation becomes a feasible choice.…”