IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jeners/v17y2024i2p428-d1319807.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Impact of Viscoelasticity on Sand-Carrying Ability of Viscous Slickwater and Its Sand-Carrying Threshold in Hydraulic Fractures

Author

Listed:
  • Xianzhu Han

    (Development Company, Xinjiang Oilfield Company, PetroChina, Karamay 834000, China)

  • Junlin Wu

    (National Key Laboratory of Petroleum Resources and Engineering, China University of Petroleum, Beijing 102249, China)

  • Yongjun Ji

    (Engineering Research Institute of Xinjiang Oilfield Company, PetroChina, Karamay 834000, China)

  • Jinjun Liu

    (Development Company, Xinjiang Oilfield Company, PetroChina, Karamay 834000, China)

  • Yang Liu

    (Development Company, Xinjiang Oilfield Company, PetroChina, Karamay 834000, China)

  • Bobo Xie

    (Engineering Research Institute of Xinjiang Oilfield Company, PetroChina, Karamay 834000, China)

  • Xianjiang Chen

    (Development Company, Xinjiang Oilfield Company, PetroChina, Karamay 834000, China)

  • Hui Yin

    (Development Company, Xinjiang Oilfield Company, PetroChina, Karamay 834000, China)

  • Tianbo Liang

    (National Key Laboratory of Petroleum Resources and Engineering, China University of Petroleum, Beijing 102249, China)

Abstract

Viscous slickwater has a higher viscosity and better sand-carrying ability than conventional slickwater at the same concentration. At a concentration of 0.4 wt.%, the viscosity of the viscous slickwater is 4.7 times that of the conventional slickwater. It is generally believed that viscosity is one of the main influencing factors on the sand-carrying ability of the fluid. However, this study has shown that the good sand-carrying ability of the viscous slickwater is more attributed to its viscoelasticity. Through rheology and sand-carrying tests, it has been found that the viscoelastic properties vary when fluids have the same viscosity; this then leads to a significant difference in the settling rate of sand and the sand-carrying threshold of the fluid in a fracture at a certain flow rate. The routine method of characterizing the viscoelastic property of the slickwater was to observe the cross point of the elastic modulus (G′) and viscous modulus (G″) curves. The smaller the frequency of the cross point, the better the viscoelastic property of the fluid. However, it has been found in experiments that even when the cross point is the same, there is still a significant difference in the sand-carrying ability of fluids. Therefore, sand-carrying experiments are conducted under a similar cross point and different magnitudes of modulus, of which the results indicate that as the elastic modulus increases, the settling rate of sand decreases. The flow rate threshold occurring as sand settles obtained from laboratory experiments is compared with the field condition during hydraulic fracturing. From laboratory experiments, the threshold of inner-fracture flow rate that prevents the sand settling is found to be 8.02 m/min for 0.6 wt.% viscous slickwater with a sand ratio of 30%. In the field operation, the operation conditions meet the sand-carrying threshold obtained from laboratory experiments. Observations from the field test confirm the applicability of the threshold plot proposed according to laboratory measurements, which can provide guidance for optimizing the fracturing scheme in the field.

Suggested Citation

  • Xianzhu Han & Junlin Wu & Yongjun Ji & Jinjun Liu & Yang Liu & Bobo Xie & Xianjiang Chen & Hui Yin & Tianbo Liang, 2024. "Impact of Viscoelasticity on Sand-Carrying Ability of Viscous Slickwater and Its Sand-Carrying Threshold in Hydraulic Fractures," Energies, MDPI, vol. 17(2), pages 1-18, January.
  • Handle: RePEc:gam:jeners:v:17:y:2024:i:2:p:428-:d:1319807
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/17/2/428/pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/17/2/428/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jeners:v:17:y:2024:i:2:p:428-:d:1319807. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.