Abstract
Slickwater fracturing fluid has been applied in unconventional fracturing as a substitute for guar gum fracturing fluid with considerable success. However, the poor sand-carrying performance of conventional slickwater is still a drawback. The performance of conventional slickwater can be improved by increasing the pumping speed (rate) to form a turbulent flow; however, friction loss is also increased. To solve this problem, a series of experiments were performed on a highly viscous friction reducer (HVFR) using an independently designed pipeline and visual fracture model, and an indoor evaluation method for viscous slickwater was established. The mechanism of improving the sand-carrying performance of slickwater was revealed based on macroscopic and microscopic experiments. The results show that the HVFR not only has the characteristics of easy gel-breaking and low damage but also good sand-carrying ability as a guar gum fracturing fluid. It also has perfect friction reduction performance as conventional slickwater, which is expected to be a substitute for conventional fracturing fluids. Moreover, this evaluation method can aid in the study of HVFRs.
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