Reservoir Evaluation and Development ›› 2020, Vol. 10 ›› Issue (4): 39-44.doi: 10.13809/j.cnki.cn32-1825/te.2020.04.006

• Methodological and Theory • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Physical simulation of proppant transportation in artificial fractures of coal seam

LI Xiaogang1(),SHU Dongkun1,ZHANG Ping2,YANG Zhaozhong1()   

  1. 1. State Key Laboratory of Reservoir Geology and Development Engineering, Southwest Petroleum University, Chengdu, Sichuan 610500, China
    2. China United Coalbed Methane Company, Beijing 100011, China
  • Received:2019-10-22 Online:2020-08-26 Published:2020-08-07
  • Contact: YANG Zhaozhong E-mail:swpuadam@126.com;yzzycl@vip.sina.com

Abstract:

In order to explore the influence of proppant settlement on the laying form of sand in coal seam cracks, the physical simulation is used to study the rules of proppant settlement and migration based on the previous researches. The visual physical simulation device of proppant transportation can directly and conveniently simulate the proppant placement in the fractures. Fully considering the in-site fracturing construction and the similarity of Reynolds number, the experiment for the influence of single factor change on the sand laying form of proppant is designed. The equilibrium height and time are used as the characterization parameters. In the early stage, the proppant settlement and migration rules of different pump injection displacement, sand ratio and proppant particle sizes are quantitatively analyzed by single crack. In the later stage, a branch crack is added to analyze the rules of proppant settlement and migration in the main crack and branch crack under the condition of different particle sizes of proppant. The results show that the smaller the pump displacement is, the higher the equilibrium height of sand dike will be if the sand ratio and particle size are larger and larger, and the longer the equilibrium time will be if the sand ratio and particle size are smaller and smaller; the distribution rule of branch crack is similar to that of main crack, the equilibrium height is lower than that of main fracture, and the equilibrium time is longer.

Key words: coal seam, cracks, proppant, law of settlement and migration, physical simulation

CLC Number: 

  • TE371