Author : Ekrem Alagoz
Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 146 pages
Book Rating : 4.:/5 (127 download)
Book Synopsis Interaction of Fracturing Fluids with Shales by : Ekrem Alagoz
Download or read book Interaction of Fracturing Fluids with Shales written by Ekrem Alagoz and published by . This book was released on 2020 with total page 146 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In petroleum engineering, hydraulic fracturing has been developed to mitigate the crucial problem of the world's dwindling oil supplies. Thanks to hydraulic fracturing, engineers can create new artificial apertures with pressurized fluids. The process includes the high-pressure injection of a fracking fluid, which is basically water and proppants. Hydrocarbons will flow more freely after the flow back of water. Once the pumping of fracturing fluid is stopped, created fractures begin to close, as the stress increases. This has become a critical issue because closing these fractures results in a rapid decline in productivity of the well. The primary reason for proppant usage is to settle between fracture apertures and prop them open in order to increase oil and gas productivity. Proppant embedment is a crucial problem that causes many fractures to fail over time. Fractured well productivity can be dramatically reduced by severe proppant embedment due to a reduction in fracture aperture. Accordingly, understanding the proppant embedment phenomena is essential for hydraulic fracturing treatments. In this thesis, the mechanisms of proppant embedment have been investigated by quantifying the stress-dependent deformations (elastic and plastic) as well as the time-dependent deformation (creep). A set of constitutive equations were developed to account for elastic, plastic, and creep deformation during proppant embedment. Two new experimental apparatuses have been built and used to quantify the shale rock proppant deformation behavior (elastic, plastic, and creep) after exposure to various fracture fluid additives such as surfactants and clay stabilizers. Results show that proppant embedment primarily occurs due to plastic deformation followed by time-dependent creep deformation, while elastic deformation is small. The impact of different fracturing fluids and rock mineralogy on proppant embedment were also studied. Our results show that fluid chemistry substantially affects the amount of plastic deformation and creep. For example, KCI with a Clay Inhibitor was quite successful in reducing the proppant embedment. Shales with high clay-content embedded proppant at lower stresses and showed more plastic deformation. The test results show that 15% more clay-content shale samples experienced almost 50% more deformation. Chemical treatments fostered the best improvements or degradations in high clay-content shales