Complex Fluids and Hydraulic Fracturing

Abstract

Nearly 70 years old, hydraulic fracturing is a core technique for stimulating hydrocarbon production in a majority of oil and gas reservoirs. Complex fluids are implemented in nearly every step of the fracturing process, most significantly to generate and sustain fractures, and transport and distribute proppant particles during and following fluid injection. An extremely wide range of complex fluids are used: naturally occurring polysaccharide and synthetic polymer solutions, aqueous physical and chemical gels, organic gels, micellar surfactant solutions, emulsions, and foams. These fluids are loaded over a wide range of concentration with particles of varying size, and aspect ratio, and are subjected to a extreme mechanical and environmental conditions. We describe the settings of hydraulic fracturing (framed by geology), fracturing mechanics and physics, and the critical role that non-Newtonian fluid dynamics and complex fluids plays in the hydraulic fracturing process.

Numerical methods for hydraulic fracture propagation: A review of recent trends

“…A large number of fracturing fluids used in practice have a non-Newtonian behavior; see Barbati et al (2016) for a review of fracturing fluids. Although liquefied gas is sometimes (but seldom) used, most of the fracturing fluids are polymer aqueous solutions.…”

Jeffery orbits in shear-thinning fluids

“…Pastes [1], paints [2], pulps [3], and ceramics [4], among many other chemical substances [5], contain suspensions of (anisotropic) particles. Suspensions of particles in complex fluids are widely used in the petroleum industry, from drilling muds used to drill wells [6], to viscoelastic carrier fluids that carry proppant particles used in hydraulic fracturing [7]. Biological fluids also carry nutrition [8], Bacillus species [9], and other mobile micro-organisms of mostly rod shape [10,11].…”

A semi-infinite hydraulic fracture driven by a shear-thinning fluid

“…Large research efforts have thus led to the development of various fluid types over the years, essentially trying to maximize fracture opening and minimize particles settling (Barbati et al 2016;Economides and Nolte 2000). Although other complex rheologies are sometimes encountered in practice (viscoelasticity, yield stress etc.…”