Numerical simulation of proppant transport in hydraulic fractures

Roostaei, Morteza; Nouri, Alireza; Fattahpour, Vahidoddin; Chan, Dave

doi:10.1016/j.petrol.2017.11.044

Cited by 45 publications

(22 citation statements)

References 17 publications

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“…It is well known that the apparent viscosity of the mixture is higher than that of the pure fluid and a formula similar to Eq. (7) can be obtained introducing the effective viscosity of the mixture [7]:…”

Section: Concentration Transport Approachmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Comparison of Concentration Transport Approach and MP-PIC Method for Simulating Proppant Transport Process

Zeng¹,

Li²

2020

Progress in Fine Particle Plasmas

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In this work, proppant transport process is studied based on two popular numerical methods: multiphase particle-in-cell method (MP-PIC) and concentration transport method. Derivations of governing equations in these two frameworks are reviewed, and then similarities and differences between these two methods are fully discussed. Several cases are designed to study the particle settling and conveying processes at different fluid Reynolds number. Simulation results indicate that two physical mechanisms become significant in the high Reynolds number cases, which leads to big differences between the simulation results of the two methods. One is the gravity convection effect in the early stage and the other is the particle packing, which determines the shape of sandbank. Above all, the MP-PIC method performs better than the concentration transport approach because more physical mechanisms are considered in the former framework. Besides, assumptions of ignoring unsteady terms and transient terms for the fluid governing equations in the concentration transport approach are only reasonable when Reynolds number is smaller than 100.

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Section: Concentration Transport Approachmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Dontsov and Peirce [6] utilized a more accurate velocity retardation model based on their theoretical analysis. Roostaei et al [7] applied the WENO (weighted essentially nonoscillation) scheme to solve the concentration transport equation, which greatly reduces the numerical diffusion.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Comparison of Concentration Transport Approach and MP-PIC Method for Simulating Proppant Transport Process

Zeng¹,

Li²

2020

Progress in Fine Particle Plasmas

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“…To model particle migration, Eulerian and Lagrangian methods have been extensively applied in different scenarios. The Eulerian method accurately captures the macroscopic features of particle migration, [18][19][20] whereas the Lagrangian method can depict the local details of individual particle motions. [21][22][23][24][25][26] As a Lagrangian method, the discrete element method (DEM) provides a straightforward approach to numerically study particle migration, which can exactly reproduce the motion of individual particles.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Numerical simulation of particle plugging in hydraulic fracture by element partition method

Wang

Xin-yong

Zhao

et al. 2020

Num Anal Meth Geomechanics

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Summary Hydraulic fracturing (HF) treatment often involves particle migration and is applied for propping or plugging fractures. Particle migration behaviors, e.g., bridging, packing, and plugging, significantly affect the HF process. Hence, it is crucial to effectively simulate particle migration. In this study, a new numerical approach is developed based on a coupled element partition method (EPM). The EPM is used to model natural and hydraulic fractures, in which a fracture is allowed to propagate across an element, thereby avoiding remeshing in fracture simulations. To characterize the water flow process in a fracture, a fully hydromechanical coupled equation is adopted in the EPM. To model particle transportation in fractures with water flow, each particle is treated as a discrete element. The particles move in the fracture as a result of being dragged by fluid. Their movement, contact, and packing behaviors are simulated using the discrete element method. To reflect the plugging effect, an equivalent aperture approach is proposed. Using this method, the particle migration and its effect on water flow are well simulated. The simulation results show that this method can effectively reproduce particle bridging, plugging, and unblocking in a hydraulic fracture. Furthermore, it is demonstrated that particle plugging significantly affects water flow in a fracture and hence the propagation of hydraulic fracture. This method provides a simple and feasible approach for the simulation of particle migration in a hydraulic fracture.

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“…The natural fracture medium has the stress-sensitivity characteristic [5][6][7][8][9]. And along the extending direction, artificial fractures are mostly irregular [10,11] and the proppant distribution is uneven [12], so the artificial hydraulic fracture is variable conductivity. Although there are many researches on pressure analysis of multiple fractured horizontal wells, they rarely take the stress-sensitivity of natural fractures and the variable conductivity of artificial fractures into consideration, simultaneously.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Well Testing Model of Multiple Fractured Horizontal Well with Consideration of Stress-Sensitivity and Variable Conductivity in Tight Gas Reservoirs

Cui

Zhen

et al. 2018

Mathematical Problems in Engineering

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Multiple fractured horizontal wells have been widely used to develop unconventional tight gas reservoirs. Currently, many well testing models were established to study the performance of fractured horizontal wells in tight gas reservoirs. However, none of these models thoroughly takes stress-sensitivity of natural fractures and variable conductivity of artificial fractures into consideration. Based on the consideration of stress-sensitivity of natural fractures and variable conductivity of artificial fractures, a novel well testing model for fractured horizontal well in tight gas reservoirs is proposed. And the semianalytical solution of this new model is obtained by dividing the artificial fracture into different segments under the integrative methods of Laplace transformation, point source function, perturbation theory, superposition principle, and Stehfest numerical inversion. After validation, the semianalytical solution is consistent with that of Zerzar’s model (2004). Also, typical pressure and pressure derivative curves are plotted. According to typical curves, seven regimes can be derived, namely, bilinear flow, linear flow, early-time pseudoradial flow, biradial flow, intermediate-time pseudoradial flow, and pseudo-steady state interporosity flow, and late-time pseudoradial flow can be identified. In addition, this paper analyzes the impact on pressure and pressure derivative curves exerted by variable conductivity and stress-sensibility. The results show that variable conductivity mainly affects the early flow regimes, including bilinear flow, linear flow, and early-time radial flow, while the stress-sensitivity mainly affects the later flow regimes, including intermediate-time pseudoradial flow, pseudo-steady state interporosity flow, and late-time pseudoradial flow. The typical curves will ascend with the increasing of stress-sensitivity coefficient. The research provides a method for precise prediction of formation parameters and has a significant impact on the tight gas reservoir development.

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Numerical simulation of proppant transport in hydraulic fractures

Cited by 45 publications

References 17 publications

Comparison of Concentration Transport Approach and MP-PIC Method for Simulating Proppant Transport Process

Comparison of Concentration Transport Approach and MP-PIC Method for Simulating Proppant Transport Process

Numerical simulation of particle plugging in hydraulic fracture by element partition method

Well Testing Model of Multiple Fractured Horizontal Well with Consideration of Stress-Sensitivity and Variable Conductivity in Tight Gas Reservoirs

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