A coupled CFD-DEM numerical study of proppant transport in hydraulic fracture and natural fracture

Abstract

Based on computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and discrete element method (DEM), the factors affecting proppant transport law in hydraulic fracture and natural fracture are analyzed. The results indicated that the smaller the angle between hydraulic fracture and natural fracture, and the larger the width of natural fracture, the more proppants enter the natural fracture. As the viscosity of the fracturing fluid increases, the length of the “no proppant zone” in fracture is longer, and the proppant particles can be transported to a farther position. Proppant will quickly reach the fracture tip and be screened out under too high injection rate.

Keywords:

• CFD-DEM
• hydraulic fracture
• natural fracture
• numerical simulation
• proppant transport

Acknowledgments

The authors wish to thank the State Key Laboratory of Oil and Gas Reservoir Geology and Exploitation at Southwest Petroleum University, for providing the experimental platform and simulation software.

Additional information

Funding

This research was funded by National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant number 51704251), National Science and Technology Major Project of the Ministry of Science and Technology of China (grant number 2016ZX05006002), and National Science Fund for Distinguished Youth Scholars (grant number 51525404).