TY - JOUR

T1 - The influence of heterogeneous proppant pack on fracture closure and productivity

AU - Skopintsev, A. M.

AU - Dontsov, E. V.

AU - Baykin, A. N.

AU - Golovin, S. V.

N1 - Funding Information: We would like to acknowledge support of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation within the Grant No. 14.W03.31.0002 . Publisher Copyright: © 2022 Elsevier B.V.

PY - 2022/7

Y1 - 2022/7

N2 - Even though hydraulic fracturing is a common and well adopted well stimulation method in petroleum industry, there are still open scientific questions in the area, mainly due to complexity of the phenomena involved in the process. In this paper, we particularly address the problem of fracture closure and productivity in situations, when proppant distribution inside the fracture is strongly heterogeneous. This can happen, for instance, during pulsed injection, in which a pulse of clean fluid is alternated with a pulse of slurry with proppant. Such a combination leads to Saffman–Taylor instability and, consequently, to spatially heterogeneous distribution of proppant. To address the problem, a coupled hydraulic fracturing and proppant transport model is utilized to simulate proppant placement in a fracture. After that, a three-dimensional finite element model is used to compute fracture closure and fluid inflow or productivity. Several numerical examples with various pumping schedules are presented to better understand the influence of proppant heterogeneity on fracture closure and the resulting production. In addition, to get insights about the observed behavior, an analytical model for fracture closure between two proppant pillars is presented. The model provides a single dimensionless parameter that quantifies the degree of fracture closure between the pillars of proppant. Numerical results are analyzed and discussed in relation to this dimensionless number.

AB - Even though hydraulic fracturing is a common and well adopted well stimulation method in petroleum industry, there are still open scientific questions in the area, mainly due to complexity of the phenomena involved in the process. In this paper, we particularly address the problem of fracture closure and productivity in situations, when proppant distribution inside the fracture is strongly heterogeneous. This can happen, for instance, during pulsed injection, in which a pulse of clean fluid is alternated with a pulse of slurry with proppant. Such a combination leads to Saffman–Taylor instability and, consequently, to spatially heterogeneous distribution of proppant. To address the problem, a coupled hydraulic fracturing and proppant transport model is utilized to simulate proppant placement in a fracture. After that, a three-dimensional finite element model is used to compute fracture closure and fluid inflow or productivity. Several numerical examples with various pumping schedules are presented to better understand the influence of proppant heterogeneity on fracture closure and the resulting production. In addition, to get insights about the observed behavior, an analytical model for fracture closure between two proppant pillars is presented. The model provides a single dimensionless parameter that quantifies the degree of fracture closure between the pillars of proppant. Numerical results are analyzed and discussed in relation to this dimensionless number.

KW - Fracture closure

KW - Hydraulic fracture permeability

KW - Proppant distribution

KW - Saffman–Taylor instability

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85129458546&partnerID=8YFLogxK

UR - https://www.mendeley.com/catalogue/bacc92a1-d74f-3b93-b30e-dfdd415cf8a5/

U2 - 10.1016/j.petrol.2022.110494

DO - 10.1016/j.petrol.2022.110494

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:85129458546

VL - 214

JO - Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering

JF - Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering

SN - 0920-4105

M1 - 110494

ER -