Experimental investigation of proppant flow and transport dynamics through fracture intersections

Ma, Wenpei; Perng, Justin; Tomac, Ingrid

doi:10.1016/j.gete.2020.100232

Cited by 11 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 22 publications

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“…Basiuk et al 24 used a CNC router to machine acrylic panels to simulate the rough surface of the fractures. Ma et al 25 designed intersecting plexiglass channels to simulate more complex fractures and experimentally studied the effect of intersecting angles on proppant transport.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Numerical Study on Proppant Transport in Supercritical Carbon Dioxide under Different Fracture Shapes: Flat, Wedge-Shaped, and Bifurcated

Xie

Kang

et al. 2022

Energy Fuels

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As a new type of waterless technology, supercritical carbon dioxide fracturing has been widely studied by scholars in recent years, and the migration characteristics of the corresponding proppant in supercritical carbon dioxide still need further research. In this paper, the Eulerian–Eulerian computational fluid dynamics method was used to study the transport capacity of supercritical carbon dioxide, and the UDF method was used to simulate the physical parameters of supercritical carbon dioxide. In view of the deficiencies of previous studies, the special cases of wedge-shaped fractures and bypass fractures are considered, and the influence of large-span pressure and temperature on migration is first analyzed in plane fractures, which makes this study more complete. The results show that: (1) compared with slickwater, the proppant transport channel in supercritical carbon dioxide is 30% smaller at 305 K and 10 MPa. (2) The transport capacity of supercritical carbon dioxide increases with the increase of pressure and decreases with the increase of temperature. But when the pressure or temperature is too high, they have little effect on it. (3) In wedge-shaped fractures, the proppant stack height and length increase initially as the shrinkage rate of fracture width (the ratio of the fracture reduced width to the fracture length) increases. However, as the fracture width ratio increases, the maximum proppant stack height decreases in the later stage. (4) In bifurcated fractures, with the increase of bypass angle, the area of proppant in the bypass zone tends to decrease. The width of the bypass inlet has little effect on the proppant settlement in the bypass. This study further understands the migration law of proppant in supercritical carbon dioxide in fractures.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Numerical Study on Proppant Transport in Supercritical Carbon Dioxide under Different Fracture Shapes: Flat, Wedge-Shaped, and Bifurcated

Xie

Kang

et al. 2022

Energy Fuels

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Experimental investigation of proppant clustering in intersected fractures

Tomac

2021

J Petrol Explor Prod Technol

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This paper investigates the dynamics of proppant agglomerations during flow and transport within fractures intersected at the angles typical for the joint of pre-existing and newly formed fractures. The study considers variations and coupling of fluid flow rates, proppant volumetric concentrations, fluid dynamic viscosities and fracture intersection angles. Proppants are widely used during hydraulic fracturing to keep fractures open and enhance reservoir permeability. This study uses plexiglas experimental slots and visual analysis for identifying particle displacements. Geo-Particle Image Velocimetry–Reliability-Guided (GeoPIV-RG) method tracks particle movements among images by comparing the reference and subsequent snapshots at the point and time of interest. Results of this study show that the proppant volumetric concentration and the fluid flow rate are closely correlated with each other for affecting proppant flow, transport, and agglomeration formation. Increasing the proppant volumetric concentration generally promotes particle agglomeration, with different extent when coupled with the fluid flow rate. Proppant volumetric concentration affects the size, shape, and distribution of particle clusters. Increasing the fluid flow rate increases the occurrence of particle agglomerates at low proppant volumetric concentration; however, this trend is absent under high proppant volumetric concentrations. Sizes and shapes of proppant agglomerates change as the fluid flow rate changes. Changes of fracture intersection angle minimally affect shape, size and distance between proppant agglomerates and clusters. Furthermore, increasing the fluid dynamic viscosity strongly promotes proppant agglomeration. Although fluid dynamic viscosity changes do not affect the shape and size of particle clusters, the distance between adjacent clusters decreases at higher fluid dynamic viscosity.

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Particle transport in fractured geo-energy reservoirs considering the effect of fluid inertia and turbulent flow: A Review

Edirisinghe,

Perera,

Elsworth

et al. 2024

Journal of Rock Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering

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Experimental investigation of proppant flow and transport dynamics through fracture intersections

Cited by 11 publications

References 22 publications

Numerical Study on Proppant Transport in Supercritical Carbon Dioxide under Different Fracture Shapes: Flat, Wedge-Shaped, and Bifurcated

Numerical Study on Proppant Transport in Supercritical Carbon Dioxide under Different Fracture Shapes: Flat, Wedge-Shaped, and Bifurcated

Experimental investigation of proppant clustering in intersected fractures

Particle transport in fractured geo-energy reservoirs considering the effect of fluid inertia and turbulent flow: A Review

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