Comprehensive proppant settling model in hydraulic fractures of unconventional gas reservoir considering multifactorial
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ORIGINAL PAPER
Comprehensive proppant settling model in hydraulic fractures of unconventional gas reservoir considering multifactorial influence Chuanzhi Cui 1 & Zhen Wang 1 & Zhongwei Wu 1 & Xiangzhi Cheng 2 & Yinzhu Ye 2 Received: 5 December 2019 / Accepted: 29 July 2020 / Published online: 11 August 2020 # Saudi Society for Geosciences 2020
Abstract Thus far, hydraulic fracturing has played a crucial role in improving the production of unconventional gas resources. During hydraulic fracturing, the proppant is pumped into an artificial fracture with a low-viscosity fracturing fluid. Then, the proppant settles and makes the artificial fracture open. Therefore, the investigation of proppant settling in the hydraulic fracture is important for the development of unconventional gas reservoirs. This paper proposes a comprehensive mathematical model for quantitatively evaluating the proppant settling rate in the hydraulic fracture of unconventional gas reservoirs. In particular, the model considers the effects of fracture width, proppant size, proppant concentration, fluid viscosity, and flow regime. The model is verified by the experimental data and models found in literatures, and the effects of key parameters (e.g., fluid viscosity, concentration, fracture wall, proppant size, and flow regime) on the settling rate are analyzed. The results show that, with increasing fracture width or decreasing proppant diameter, the dimensionless settling rate increases. By contrast, fluid viscosity has a small effect on the dimensionless settling rate. In addition, the increase of proppant concentration results in a decrease in the dimensionless settling rate. The proppant concentration is the main factor affecting the settling rate, followed by the flow regime, the ratio of proppant diameter to fracture width, and the fluid viscosity. This work can provide a theoretical basis for the study of proppant placement in fractures of unconventional gas reservoirs. Additionally, the developed model can be easily incorporated into fracture simulators to simulate proppant transport. Keywords Unconventional gas reservoir . Hydraulic fracture . Settling rate . Proppant transport . Slickwater
Introduction Hydraulic fracturing technology has been extensively used to the development of unconventional resources (Aimene et al. 2019; Fazelipour 2011; Guo et al. 2019; Jiang et al. 2019; Wu et al. 2018, 2019, 2020; Sheng et al. 2019, 2020; Rui et al. 2018). During the injection of fracturing fluid, the proppant is injected into the fracture together with the slickwater and flows toward the fracture toe. When the injection of fracturing Responsible Editor: Santanu Banerjee * Zhongwei Wu [email protected] 1
College of Petroleum Engineering, China University of Petroleum (East China), No. 66 Changjiang West Road, Qingdao 266580, Shangdong, People’s Republic of China
2
Research Institute of Petroleum Exploration & Development, PetroChina, Beijing 100083, China
fluid is stopped, the hydraulic fracture in the unconventional gas reservoir closes and i
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