Numerical simulation of transport and placement of multi-sized proppants in a hydraulic fracture in vertical wells

Zhang, Guodong; Gutierrez, Marte; Li, Mingzhong

doi:10.1007/s10035-017-0718-5

Cited by 19 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 27 publications

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“…Many researchers [7,11,28,30] studied the effects of various factors, including the proppant diameter, proppant density, the viscosity of the fracturing fluid, injection rate, and sand ratio on the proppant distribution and equilibrium height of the sand bank. However, they did not consider the effects of the interaction parameters.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The discrete element method (DEM) [24] is a useful tool to simulate the behavior of particles, and it can be coupled with CFD to model the interaction between particles and the surrounding fluid. In recent years, the coupled CFD-DEM model was used to study fracturing fluid flow in fractures for its advantages of considering proppant-proppant, proppant-boundary, and proppant-fracturing fluid interactions [25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32]. Blyton et al [26] first used the coupled CFD-DEM model to simulate the motion of particles flowing with a fluid between fracture walls, and the simulations individually determined that particle trajectories such as particle-to-particle and particle-to-wall collisions occur.…”

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confidence: 99%

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Calibration of the Interaction Parameters between the Proppant and Fracture Wall and the Effects of These Parameters on Proppant Distribution

Liu

Zhang

2020

Energies

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Saltation and reputation (creep) dominate proppant transport rather than suspension during slickwater fracturing, due to the low sand-carrying capacity of the slickwater. Thus, the interaction parameters between proppants and fracture walls, which affect saltation and reputation, play a more critical role in proppant transport. In this paper, a calibration method for the interaction parameters between proppants and walls is built. A three-dimensional coupled computational fluid dynamics-discrete element method (CFD-DEM) model is established to study the effects of the interaction parameters on proppant migration, considering the wall roughness and unevenly distributed diameters of proppants. The simulation results show that a lower static friction coefficient and rolling friction coefficient can result in a smaller equilibrium height of the sand bank and a smaller build angle and drawdown angle, which is beneficial for carrying the proppant to the distal end of the fracture. The wall roughness and the unevenly distributed diameter of the proppants increase the collision between proppant and proppant or the wall, whereas the interactions have little impact on the sandbank morphology, slightly increasing the equilibrium height of the sandbank. low-viscosity fluid. Moreover, experiments on proppant transport in fracture networks [10,12,13] were mostly carried out to answer the debatable question of whether slickwater can transport proppants into secondary fractures or not. In addition to experimental research, computational fluid dynamics (CFD) methods were widely used to study proppant transport in fractures. The most common approach for modeling proppant transport is the Eulerian-Eulerian method in which the interaction between the particles and fluid is fully coupled [14][15][16][17][18][19]. In a recent study, Han et al. [20] used the Eulerian granular model to track proppant movement in various fractures for a better understanding of how proppant transport is influenced by fracture viscosity, proppant density, and pump rate. The second method is the Eulerian-Lagrangian model, which tracks individual particle movement with time and location with the Lagrangian framework and describes fluid flow with the Eulerian framework [21][22][23]. The discrete element method (DEM) [24] is a useful tool to simulate the behavior of particles, and it can be coupled with CFD to model the interaction between particles and the surrounding fluid. In recent years, the coupled CFD-DEM model was used to study fracturing fluid flow in fractures for its advantages of considering proppant-proppant, proppant-boundary, and proppant-fracturing fluid interactions [25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32]. Blyton et al. [26] first used the coupled CFD-DEM model to simulate the motion of particles flowing with a fluid between fracture walls, and the simulations individually determined that particle trajectories such as particle-to-particle and particle-to-wall collisions occur. Zhang et al. [28] used a two-dimensional coupled CFD-DEM model to study ...

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Calibration of the Interaction Parameters between the Proppant and Fracture Wall and the Effects of These Parameters on Proppant Distribution

Liu

Zhang

2020

Energies

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“…The fluid flow is modelled based on a finite difference solution of the modified Navier-Stokes equations in a regular finite difference grid, while DEM is used to simulate particles including the particle-particle and particle-wall interactions. The same model was also applied in simulating the transport and placement of multi-sized proppants in a hydraulic fracture in vertical wells (Zhang et al, 2017a). A sensitivity study of fluid viscosity, injection rate, and perforation positions is conducted.…”

Section: Cfd-demmentioning

confidence: 99%

A review on proppant transport modelling

Dias

Chen

2021

Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering

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“…The Eulerian-Eulerian [11][12][13][14], Eulerian-Lagrangian [4,15,16], and coupled CFD-DEM [5][6][7][17][18][19][20] models are commonly used for simulating proppant distribution in fractures. The Eulerian-Eulerian model treats particles as another fluid phase, and the interaction between the fluid and particles is calculated using the momentum exchange technique.…”

Section: Numerical Simulation Of Bed Load Proppant Transport In Fracturesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Quantitative Study on Bed Load Proppant Transport during Slickwater Hydraulic Fracturing

Liu

Zhang

et al. 2021

Lithosphere

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Bed load proppant transport is a significant phenomenon during slickwater hydraulic fracturing. However, the mechanism of bed load proppant transport is still unclear. In the present study, the proppant transport process during slickwater hydraulic fracturing was simulated with a coupled computational fluid dynamics- (CFD-) discrete element method (DEM) model, and the mechanism of the bed load proppant transport was analyzed. A model for calculating the mass flux of the bed load layer was proposed and verified with experimental results from the literature. The results show that bed load migration is an essential mechanism of proppant transport. When the shear force of fluid acting on the surface of the sand bank reaches the critical Shields number, the proppant in the upper layer of the sand bank begins to migrate in the form of bed load. The movement of the bed load layer increases the time for the sand bank to reach the equilibrium height. In addition, the mass flux of the bed load layer significantly affects the equilibrium height of the sand bank. The mass flux of the bed load layer decreases, and the equilibrium height increases as the proppant density, proppant diameter, or rolling friction coefficient and static friction coefficient of the proppant increase, but the mass flux of the bed load layer increases, and the equilibrium height decreases as the fluid viscosity increases.

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Numerical simulation of transport and placement of multi-sized proppants in a hydraulic fracture in vertical wells

Cited by 19 publications

References 27 publications

Calibration of the Interaction Parameters between the Proppant and Fracture Wall and the Effects of These Parameters on Proppant Distribution

Calibration of the Interaction Parameters between the Proppant and Fracture Wall and the Effects of These Parameters on Proppant Distribution

A review on proppant transport modelling

Quantitative Study on Bed Load Proppant Transport during Slickwater Hydraulic Fracturing

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