Effect of proppant sizes and injection modes on proppant transportation and distribution in the tortuous fracture model--颗粒学报PARTICUOLOGY

Li, J., Han, X., He, S., Wu, M., Huang, X., & Li, N. (2024). Effect of proppant sizes and injection modes on proppant transportation and distribution in the tortuous fracture model. Particuology, 84, 261-280. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/j.partic.2023.07.002

Effect of proppant sizes and injection modes on proppant transportation and distribution in the tortuous fracture model

Jun Li^a *, Xu Han^b, Siyuan He^c, Mingyi Wu^c, Xin Huang^d, Nianyin Li^a

a State Key Laboratory of Oil and Gas Reservoir Geology and Exploitation, Southwest Petroleum University, Chengdu, 610500, China
b Chongqing Industry Polytechnic College, Chongqing, 401120, China
c Sichuan Particles Energy and Technology Co., Ltd, Chengdu, 611630, China
d Engineering Technology Research Institute of PetroChina Southwest Oil and Gas Field Company, Chengdu, 610017, China

10.1016/j.partic.2023.07.002

Volume 84, January 2024, Pages 261-280

Received 16 March 2023, Revised 28 June 2023, Accepted 3 July 2023, Available online 17 July 2023, Version of Record 23 July 2023.

E-mail: lijunswpu@163.com

Highlights

• Proppant transport is studied in tortuous fractures with different proppant size combinations.

• Small-sized mono-proppant has the highest transport efficiency in tortuous fracture.

• Proppant packing structure is different with the different proppant size combinations.

• An optimized alternating injection mode is recommended in this study.

• Proppant injection sequence of different size combinations significantly affects the proppant packing pattern.

Abstract

Particle-fluid transport and placement mechanism in tortuous fracture played a crucial role in unconventional reservoirs. Currently, most studies focused on mono-size proppant with fluid transport processes in tortuous fractures. However, the mixture-size proppant with fluid movement mechanism in tortuous fracture was still uncommon. Therefore, this study designed and applied a series of experiments with a physical analog model of a tortuous fracture with 120° and 90°-angled bends and combined high-speed camera-based equipment. This experimental system was used to track different-mixture-sized proppant particle motion trajectories for a series of proppant injection schemes; The following conclusions were drawn from this study:1. The pile-up processes mechanism in all investigated schemes were similar and could be reduced to four main stages. 2. The packing structure at both sides of the fracture wall had different variation rates, which were controlled by the mix ratio (change from 1:1–1:5) of proppant size. 3. Some new packing patterns, such as Zebra Stripe, had occurred, controlled by the different proppant injection sequences. 4. Small-sized mono-proppant (30/50 mesh) had the highest transport efficiency in the tortuous fracture, followed by the mixed-sized multi-proppant (10/20 mesh:30/50 mesh), large-sized proppant (10/20 mesh) was the worst. 5. An optimized alternating injection mode was recommended as injecting small-sized proppant first (30/50 mesh) and followed by mixed-sized multi-proppant (10/20 mesh:30/50 mesh), which could contribute to obtaining the optimal both proppant packing height and travel distance in tortuous fracture.6. Two correlations were developed for predicting the proppant packing height and transportation distance.

Graphical abstract

Keywords

Tortuous fracture model; Mixed-sized proppant; Multi-sized proppant injection mode; Proppant motion and distribution; Packing mechanism

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