A new CFD approach for proppant transport in unconventional hydraulic fractures.

Suri, Yatin; Islam, Sheikh Zahidul; Hossain, Mamdud

Abstract

For hydraulic fracturing design in unconventional reservoirs, the existing proppant transport models ignore the fluid leak-off effect from the fracture side wall and the effect of fracture roughness. In this paper, a model is proposed using three-dimensional computational fluid dynamics approach with fluid leak-off rate defined along the fracture length and considering the effect of fracture roughness on proppant distribution. Based on the simulation results, it is recommended that neglecting the fracture roughness in the proppant transport model can result in over predicting the proppant bed length and underpredicting the proppant suspension layer by 10–15%. Furthermore, neglecting the fluid leak-off effect can result in under predicting the proppant bed height by 10–50% and over predicting the proppant suspension layer by 10–50%. This study has enhanced the understanding of the proppant-fracturing fluid interaction phenomenon by accounting detailed physics to optimise the hydraulic fracturing design.

Citation

SURI, Y., ISLAM, S.Z. and HOSSAIN, M. 2019. A new CFD approach for proppant transport in unconventional hydraulic fractures. Journal of natural gas science and engineering [online], 70, article number 102951. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jngse.2019.102951

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Jul 26, 2019
• Online Publication Date: Jul 30, 2019
• Publication Date: Oct 31, 2019
• Deposit Date: Aug 9, 2019
• Publicly Available Date: Jul 31, 2020
• Journal: Journal of natural gas science and engineering
• Print ISSN: 1875-5100
• Electronic ISSN: 2212-3865
• Publisher: Elsevier
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 70
• Article Number: 102951
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jngse.2019.102951
• Keywords: Proppant transport; Hydraulic fracturing; Computational fluid dynamics; Discrete element method; Fluid leak-off; Fracture roughness
• Public URL: https://rgu-repository.worktribe.com/output/325138
• Contract Date: Aug 9, 2019