Abstract
The roughness of fractures may play an important role in affecting the migration and placement of proppants during hydraulic fracturing operations. A series of proppant flow experiments were conducted in attempt to compare the proppant transport mechanisms in rough fractures against those in smooth fractures. We examine the migration of proppants in rough and vertical fractures and then quantitatively reveal the effect of roughness on the instantaneous proppants transport and final proppants placement. The proppants-transport behavior in the rough and vertical fractures was observed to be totally different from that in the smooth and vertical fractures. The proppants in a rough vertical fracture do not progress like the regular sand bank that commonly occurs in the smooth fracture, but rather as an irregular-shape sand cluster with fractal characteristics. In the rough and vertical fracture, the phenomenon of proppants bridging is visually observed. The roughness of the fracture model not only affects how much of the fracture area is being occupied by the proppants, but also affects how tightly the proppants fill up the fracture.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | 104446 |
| Journal | International Journal of Rock Mechanics and Mining Sciences |
| Volume | 134 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - Oct 2020 |
Bibliographical note
Publisher Copyright:© 2020 Elsevier Ltd
Funding
This research was conducted under T. Babadagli's NSERC Industrial Research Chair in Unconventional Oil Recovery (industrial partners are APEX Eng., Devon, Husky Energy, Petroleum Development Oman, Saudi Aramco, SIGNa Oilfield Canada, Total E&P Recherché Développement) and NSERC Discovery Grants (No: RES0011227 and NS PIN 05394 ) to T. Babadagli and H. Li, respectively. H. Huang is also grateful for the financial supports provided by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 51874240 , No. 51874242 ), the Key Research and Development Plan of Shannxi Province (No. 2020KW-027 ), as well as the Xi'an Shiyou University for supporting his stay at the University of Alberta. Also, K. Develi is thankful to the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TÜBİTAK) for his postdoctoral scholarship at University of Alberta through the BIDEP program. We gratefully acknowledge these supports. The authors also thank Mr. Gongjue Wei for the assistance in analyzing the experimental data. This manuscript is a revised version of the conference papers SPE 187520 34 and SPE 189892. 35 More experimental data and analysis have been added into the conference version. This research was conducted under T. Babadagli's NSERC Industrial Research Chair in Unconventional Oil Recovery (industrial partners are APEX Eng. Devon, Husky Energy, Petroleum Development Oman, Saudi Aramco, SIGNa Oilfield Canada, Total E&P Recherch? D?veloppement) and NSERC Discovery Grants (No: RES0011227 and NSPIN 05394) to T. Babadagli and H. Li, respectively. H. Huang is also grateful for the financial supports provided by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 51874240, No. 51874242), the Key Research and Development Plan of Shannxi Province (No. 2020KW-027), as well as the Xi'an Shiyou University for supporting his stay at the University of Alberta. Also, K. Develi is thankful to the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (T?B?TAK) for his postdoctoral scholarship at University of Alberta through the BIDEP program. We gratefully acknowledge these supports. The authors also thank Mr. Gongjue Wei for the assistance in analyzing the experimental data. This manuscript is a revised version of the conference papers SPE 18752034 and SPE 189892.35 More experimental data and analysis have been added into the conference version.
| Funders | Funder number |
|---|---|
| Husky Energy, Petroleum Development Oman | |
| Key Research and Development Plan of Shannxi Province | |
| Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada | |
| University of Alberta | |
| National Natural Science Foundation of China | 51874242, 51874240 |
| Türkiye Bilimsel ve Teknolojik Araştırma Kurumu | 18752034 |
| Saudi Aramco | RES0011227, NS PIN 05394 |
| Xi'an Shiyou University | |
| Shanxi Provincial Key Research and Development Project | 2020KW-027 |
Keywords
- Hydraulic fracturing
- Proppant transport
- Rough fracture
- Roughness effect
- Visualization study