Experimental Study to Quantify Fracture Propagation in Hydraulic Fracturing Treatment

Abstract

Hydraulic fracturing plays an important role in the commercial development of unconventional oil and gas, which is directly related to the production of oil and gas wells. An accurate evaluation is critical for hydraulic fracturing, but it is urgent to propose a quantitative assessment of hydraulic fracturing fracture propagation for realizing hydraulic fracturing fracture propagation and multiposition permeability measurement under an in situ stress environment. Herein, a true triaxial stress loading and permeability testing device was designed and fabricated, and a permeability evaluation model was established under various states, which can realize the accurate measurement of multiple faces and the total permeability of tight specimens before and after hydraulic fracturing. It can directly measure permeability under the conditions of the true triaxial fracture propagation experiment. The comparative experimental result shows that the new technique can quantitatively evaluate the fracture propagation experiment of true triaxial hydraulic fracturing. The overall permeability and the directional permeability of the five faces were obtained, and the fracture propagation was evaluated by comparing the change in permeability. The test permeability error rate is within ±10%. Furthermore, a more refined evaluation of hydraulic fracturing fracture propagation can be carried out based on the fracture observation and AE event results. The research results provide a new strategy for a more quantitative and refined evaluation of fracture propagation and help to optimize the parameters of hydraulic fracturing.

An advanced hydraulic fracturing technique: Pressure propagation and attenuation mechanism of step rectangular pulse hydraulic fracturing

“…[1][2][3][4] Pulse hydraulic fracturing has been widely proven to increase rock fatigue damage and reservoir permeability by circulating injection fluid. [5][6][7][8][9] Wei et al 10 carried out physical experiments on fracture propagation and concluded that more fractures were generated around the wellbore by pulse hydraulic fracturing than by conventional hydraulic fracturing. Zhuang et al 11 found that the cyclic pulse water pressure could control the fracture propagation when studying the fracture propagation of granite under various pulse modes.…”

“…They use a large amount of proppant to prop up fractures and improve effective reservoir permeability 1–4 . Pulse hydraulic fracturing has been widely proven to increase rock fatigue damage and reservoir permeability by circulating injection fluid 5–9 . Wei et al 10 carried out physical experiments on fracture propagation and concluded that more fractures were generated around the wellbore by pulse hydraulic fracturing than by conventional hydraulic fracturing.…”

Influences of confining pressure and injection rate on breakdown pressure and permeability in granite hydraulic fracturing

“…Zhao et al 8 conducted research on the seepage behavior of fracture networks after hydraulic fracturing of shale and concluded that the seepage channels formed during the process can significantly enhance the permeability of shale. In addition, hydraulic fracturing is also used in the commercial development of oil and gas wells to increase production 9–11 . These findings demonstrate that hydraulic fracturing has a substantial impact on rock permeability.…”

“…In addition, hydraulic fracturing is also used in the commercial development of oil and gas wells to increase production. [9][10][11] These findings demonstrate that hydraulic fracturing has a substantial impact on rock permeability.…”

Experimental Study of the Fracture Network Expansion Mechanism and Three-Dimensional Reconstruction Characteristic of High-Rank Coal in Guizhou Province, China

“…In the aspect of hydraulic fracture morphology detection, acoustic emission (AE) technology and computed tomography (CT) scanning have been applied to hydraulic fracturing tests. Many scholars have obtained the spatial geometric shapes of fractures and porosity in samples through CT scanning technology. − Ju et al constructed heterogeneous sandstone and homogeneous sandstone models under hydraulic fracturing by using CT three-dimensional (3D) reconstruction and discussed the influence of the horizontal stress ratio on the spatial distribution and shape of fracturing fractures. Li et al used high-frequency AE to monitor true triaxial hydraulic fracturing of coal.…”