Proppant Crushing Mechanisms Under Reservoir Conditions: Insights into Long-Term Integrity of Unconventional Energy Production

Bandara, K.M.A.S.; Ranjith, P.G.; Rathnaweera, T.D.

doi:10.1007/s11053-018-9441-0

Cited by 25 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 78 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Roundness and sphericity refer to whether the shape of proppant particles is close to sphericity, while lower roundness and sphericity indicate that the particle shape is more irregular. The anti-crushing ability of proppant in fracturing operation refers to the ability of proppant particles to resist crushing and wear under high pressure 28,29 .…”

Section: Effect Of Sphericity On Anti-crushing Abilitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Study on automatic determination method of roundness and sphericity of proppant and its influence on fracture conductivity

Wang

Xiong

et al. 2023

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The performance of fracturing proppant is very important for reservoir hydraulic fracturing design, roundness and sphericity is an important index to evaluate the performance of proppant. The higher the average roundness-sphericity of the proppant, the stronger the anti-crushing ability, and the better the fracture support effect in the formation, the greater the conductivity and the better the reservoir reconstruction effect. The traditional manual visual method is subjective and inefficient; in this paper, a new method of calculating roundness and sphericity by using image processing technology combined with particle corner mean curvature radius-multiple linear regression is proposed. Compared with the traditional manual visual method, the maximum error of the measurement results is only 5%. The samples used in the study of the effect of proppant roundness and sphericity on fracture conductivity were screened by the new method. In the process of simulating the field fracturing construction scheme, it is found that the low roundness and sphericity caused by proppant breakage in the fracture will lead to the decrease of the gap between the particles to hinder the oil and gas flow and reduce the fracture conductivity. The proppant with high roundness and sphericity can effectively reduce the breakage rate of the proppant squeezed by the formation closure pressure in the fracture. At the same time, At the same time, few scholars have studied the relationship between roundness and sphericity on crushing rate and fracture conductivity. The experimental results provide a basis for field fracturing design proppant optimization, maintaining fracture conductivity and increasing production.

show abstract

Section: Effect Of Sphericity On Anti-crushing Abilitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Study on automatic determination method of roundness and sphericity of proppant and its influence on fracture conductivity

Wang

Xiong

et al. 2023

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…In petroleum engineering, developments in unconventional reservoir technologies and hydraulic fracturing have led to an increased interest in the study of the interactions of proppants, including their damage behavior [ 8 , 9 ] and the frictional response between proppants and rocks [ 10 , 11 , 12 ]. These problems involve, among other aspects, grain global crushing and embedment of the proppants, which influence fluid flow and the quality of the production process.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Study on the Failure Behavior of Sand Grain Contacts with Hertz Modeling, Image Processing, and Statistical Analysis

Kasyap

Senetakis

2021

Sensors

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The crushing behavior of particles is encountered in a large number of natural and engineering systems, and it is important for it to be examined in problems related to hydraulic fracturing, where proppant–proppant and proppant–rock interactions are essential to be modeled as well as geotechnical engineering problems, where grains may crush because the transmitted stresses at their contacts exceed their tensile strength. Despite the interest in the study of the crushing behavior of natural particles, most previous experimental works have examined the single-grain or multiple-grain crushing configurations, and less attention has been given in the laboratory investigation of the interactions of two grains in contact up to their failure as well as on the assessment of the methodology adopted to analyze the data. In the present study, a quartz sand of 1.18–2.36 mm in size was examined, performing a total of 244 grain-to-grain crushing tests at two different speeds, 0.01 and 1 mm/min. In order to calculate stresses from the measured forces, Hertz modeling was implemented to calculate an approximate contact area between the particles based on their local radii (i.e., the radius of the grains in the vicinity of their contact). Based on the results, three different modes of failure were distinguished as conservative, fragmentary, and destructive, corresponding to micro-scale, meso-scale, and macro-scale breakage, respectively. From the data, four different classes of curves could be identified. Class-A and class-B corresponded to an initially Hertzian behavior followed by a brittle failure with a distinctive (single) peak point. The occurrence of hardening prior to the failure point distinguished class-B from class-A. Two additional classes (termed as class-C and class-D) were observed having two or multiple peaks, and much larger displacements were necessary to mobilize the failure point. Hertz fitting, Weibull statistics, and clustering were further implemented to estimate the influence of local radius and elastic modulus values. One of the important observations was that the method of analysis adopted to estimate the local radius of the grains, based on manual assessment (i.e., eyeball fitting) or robust Matlab-based image processing, was a key factor influencing the resultant strength distribution and m-modulus, which are grain crushing strength characteristics. The results from the study were further compared with previously reported data on single- and multiple-grain crushing tests.

show abstract

“…Energy shortage is a major issue that restricts the economic development of various countries. − Both conventional and unconventional energy systems have received considerable attention in recent years. In particular, unconventional energy systems can effectively supplement conventional energy systems and play an important role in meeting the current energy demand. − Biogas is a combustible gas produced by the action of microorganisms .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Hydrate Phase Equilibria of Ternary Gas Mixtures with Tetrabutylammonium Bromide and Cyclopentane

et al. 2021

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

As unconventional natural gas and hydrate-based gas separation (HBGS) technology has attracted increasing attention, the safe and effective improvement of the reaction rate and separation effect of hydrates has also become the focus of extensive research. Tetrabutylammonium bromide (TBAB) and cyclopentane (CP) are common thermodynamic additives for promoting hydrate formation. To determine the effect of additives on the hydrate phase equilibria of multicomponent gas, the hydrate phase equilibrium conditions of a synthetic ternary gas mixture (CH 4 /CO 2 /N 2 = 0.5/ 0.4/0.1) were investigated in a solution prepared using CP and different concentrations of TBAB aqueous solutions (0.05, 0.1, 0.2, and 0.4 mass fractions) with a volume ratio of 0.308 (V/V). The promotion effect of the additives on mixed gas hydrate was weaker than that of pure CP, and the concentration of TBAB had a significant effect on the hydrate phase equilibrium of the system. The effect of TBAB could be neglected at a TBAB mass fraction of 0.05, and that of CP could be neglected at a TBAB mass fraction of 0.4. The results provide theoretical support for the HBGS technology.

show abstract

Proppant Crushing Mechanisms Under Reservoir Conditions: Insights into Long-Term Integrity of Unconventional Energy Production

Cited by 25 publications

References 78 publications

Study on automatic determination method of roundness and sphericity of proppant and its influence on fracture conductivity

Study on automatic determination method of roundness and sphericity of proppant and its influence on fracture conductivity

A Study on the Failure Behavior of Sand Grain Contacts with Hertz Modeling, Image Processing, and Statistical Analysis

Hydrate Phase Equilibria of Ternary Gas Mixtures with Tetrabutylammonium Bromide and Cyclopentane

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About