A comprehensive review of the proppant transportation in different simplified fracture models: Experimentation, modeling, and prospects

Abstract

Hydraulic fracturing technology is one of the important and extensively studied stimulation methods in rocks with low permeability, and has been widely used in the petroleum industry. During the process of this treatment, the proppant distribution and transportation in the fracture is crucial to maintain a path with high flow for the oil or natural gas, and due to the confining pressure, it could suspend the closed aperture of fracture. Thus, the optimization of the operational factors and controlling the proppant movement and settling in fracture determines the conductivity and production of oil or natural gas. Meanwhile, since the logging technology and micro-seismic technology is in its infancy, most literature in this regard concentrated on the proppant transportation and distribution mechanism in several simplified fracture models. Based on these simplified fracture models and different methodologies, the present study provides a critical review of the proppant movement and the operational factors in different simplified fracture models including the straight shape and single fracture with the smooth surface, straight shape and complex fracture with the smooth surface, straight shape fracture with the rough surface, straight shape fracture with the leak-off surface, wedge shape with the smooth surface, inclined shape fracture with the smooth surface, and tortuosity shape fracture with the smooth surface. So far, the published reports in this area provide different viewpoints about the proppant placement mechanisms in different simplified fracture models. In the present review, we discussed the gaps that were observed in these studies and presented the perspectives of proppant transportation in different types of fracture models with different methods, which were also mentioned in this paper.