Multi-Size Proppant Pumping Schedule of Hydraulic Fracturing: Application to a MP-PIC Model of Unconventional Reservoir for Enhanced Gas Production

Siddhamshetty, Prashanth; Mao, Shaowen; Wu, Kan; Kwon, Joseph Sang-Il

doi:10.3390/pr8050570

Multi-Size Proppant Pumping Schedule of Hydraulic Fracturing: Application to a MP-PIC Model of Unconventional Reservoir for Enhanced Gas Production

Journal Article · Tue May 12 00:00:00 EDT 2020 · Processes

DOI:https://doi.org/10.3390/pr8050570· OSTI ID:1799400

Siddhamshetty, Prashanth ^[1]; Mao, Shaowen ^[2]; Wu, Kan ^[2]; ^[2]

Texas A & M Univ., College Station, TX (United States); OSTI
Texas A & M Univ., College Station, TX (United States)

Slickwater hydraulic fracturing is becoming a prevalent approach to economically recovering shale hydrocarbon. It is very important to understand the proppant’s transport behavior during slickwater hydraulic fracturing treatment for effective creation of a desired propped fracture geometry. The currently available models are either oversimplified or have been performed at limited length scales to avoid high computational requirements. Another limitation is that the currently available hydraulic fracturing simulators are developed using only single-sized proppant particles. Motivated by this, in this work, a computationally efficient, three-dimensional, multiphase particle-in-cell (MP-PIC) model was employed to simulate the multi-size proppant transport in a field-scale geometry using the Eulerian–Lagrangian framework. Instead of tracking each particle, groups of particles (called parcels) are tracked, which allows one to simulate the proppant transport in field-scale geometries at an affordable computational cost. Then, we found from our sensitivity study that pumping schedules significantly affect propped fracture surface area and average fracture conductivity, thereby influencing shale gas production. Motivated by these results, we propose an optimization framework using the MP-PIC model to design the multi-size proppant pumping schedule that maximizes shale gas production from unconventional reservoirs for given fracturing resources.

View Accepted Manuscript (DOE)

Research Organization:: American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE), New York, NY (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE)

Grant/Contract Number:: EE0007888

OSTI ID:: 1799400

Journal Information:: Processes, Journal Name: Processes Journal Issue: 5 Vol. 8; ISSN PROCCO; ISSN 2227-9717

Publisher:: MDPICopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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42 ENGINEERING
Engineering
MP-PIC model
hydraulic fracturing
model reduction
multi-size proppant pumping schedule
unconventional reservoirs

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