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

Fernández, Matías E.; Sánchez, M.; Pugnaloni, Luis A.

doi:10.1016/j.petrol.2018.10.007

Cited by 40 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 17 publications

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“…In this way, the aspect ratios of the primary and secondary fractures in this slot system are identical to the real vertical fracture and natural fracture, respectively. Please note that the slot aperture is set to that of a real fracture since the proppants used in the tests are those in the field, which keeps the ratio of the proppant size to the fracture aperture [14].…”

Section: Scaling Designmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Liu and Sharma [12] used the Shields number S to indicate whether the bed loading proppant transport is dominant. Moreover, Fernández et al [14] included other dimensionless quantities (e.g., the Buoyancy number Bu and the Stokes-to-Froude ratio St/Fr 2 ) to scale the experimental parameters. In this study, Re f and Re p were used to scale the kinematic characteristics, and S was used to scale the dynamic characteristics.…”

Section: Scaling Designmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The first term on the right side of Equation (14) denotes the effect of gravity on the particle motion. The second one represents the effect of drag force, in which FD can be expressed by Equation (16).…”

Section: Governing Equationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Using water as the fracturing fluid, mixing sand at a certain volume ratio, and pumping the slurry at one end of the slot, the proppants were found to settle on the slot bottom and a sand dune was formed [10]. Many researchers have devoted their efforts to exploring the inherent relation between the dune development and factors such as flow rate [10], fluid rheology [14], proppant properties [13], fracture width [12], and fracture surface roughness [15]. Patankar et al [16] and Wang et al [17] even fitted correlations to predict the equilibrium dune height.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Three points are presented and discussed here. Firstly, most of the previous experiments just focused on the final dune geometry (e.g., equilibrium dune height [10,11,17]) or placement area [14] in the slot, and few systematically and quantitatively characterized the dynamic evolution of a sand dune in the slot system. Secondly, the fracture length in the configuration is limited.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 4 more Smart Citations

Experimental and Numerical Study on Proppant Transport in a Complex Fracture System

Zhang

et al. 2020

Energies

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Slickwater fracturing can create complex fracture networks in shale. A uniform proppant distribution in the network is preferred. However, proppant transport mechanism in the fracture network is still uncertain, which restricts the optimization of sand addition schemes. In this study, slot flow experiments are conducted to analyze the proppant placement in the complex fracture system. Dense discrete phase method is used to track the particle trajectories to study the transport mechanism into the branch. The effects of the pumping rate, sand ratio, sand size, and branch angle and location are discussed in detail. Results demonstrate that: (1) under a low pumping rate or coarse proppant conditions, the dune development in the branch depends on the dune geometry in the primary fracture, and a high proportion of sand can transport into the branch; (2) using a high pumping rate or fine proppants is beneficial to the uniform placement in the fracture system; (3) sand ratio dominates the proppant placement in the branch and passing-intersection fraction of a primary fracture; (4) more proppants may settle in the near-inlet and large-angle branch due to the size limit. Decreasing the pumping rate can contribute to a uniform proppant distribution in the secondary fracture. This study provides some guidance for the optimization of proppant addition scheme in the slickwater fracturing in unconventional resources.

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Section: Scaling Designmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Scaling Designmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Governing Equationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Experimental and Numerical Study on Proppant Transport in a Complex Fracture System

Zhang

et al. 2020

Energies

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Three‐dimensional visualization experimental study on proppant transportation and placement in the Hi‐way channel hydraulic fracturing technique

Xiang¹,

2023

Energy Science & Engineering

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The pattern of placement of the proppant in the fracture determines the stimulation and success of the surgery. Using a three‐dimensional visual parallel plate fracture model capable of simulating fracture height, length, and variable fracture width, we experimentally investigate the impact of fiber loading, fracture fluid viscosity, sand concentration, pulse time, perforation pattern, and injection rate on proppant transport, placement pattern, and access rate. Experimentally and visually, the migration process and the morphology of the proppant placement in the fracture were assessed. The formation laws of stable support columns and well‐shaped high conductivity fracture channels in fractures have been elucidated. Experimental results show that increasing the fiber concentration improves the channel rate and the proppant mass is large and stable. The channel rate increases with the viscosity of the fracturing fluid, and it is difficult to form a perfect channel when the viscosity is small. If the constructive displacement is too slight or too large, it will not favor the formation of a Hi‐way channel in the fracture. The optimal design displacement is 4.5 m3/min. When the proppant concentration is low, the passage rate is large, but the stability of proppant mass is poor under the scour of large displacement, the conductivity is low under the high closure pressure, the proppant concentration is too high, the suspension is difficult, the settlement rate is large, and it is difficult to form a large passage. The current column and the passage rate are larger for pulse times of 15–20 s. Cluster perforations are better than large continuous perforations. The higher the number of clusters in the same number of holes, the higher the channel rate. The formation laws of stable support pillars and well‐shaped high conductivity fracture channels in fractures have been elucidated, which can be useful for efficient stimulation of oil and gas reservoirs.

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

Cited by 40 publications

References 17 publications

Experimental and Numerical Study on Proppant Transport in a Complex Fracture System

Experimental and Numerical Study on Proppant Transport in a Complex Fracture System

Three‐dimensional visualization experimental study on proppant transportation and placement in the Hi‐way channel hydraulic fracturing technique

Experimental investigation of proppant clustering in intersected fractures

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