A New Concept of Sand Production Prediction: Theory and Laboratory Experiments

Abstract

SummaryConventional theories of sand production prediction distinguish between compressive (shear) cavity (perforation, borehole) failure, induced by a combination of in-situ stress and drawdown, and tensile cavity failure, induced by the near-cavity pore pressure gradient. In this paper we show, using a global criterion for strain localization around the cavity (i.e., cavity failure), that in most cases the preference for either compressive or tensile cavity failure only depends on the cavity size and on the constitutive properties of the rock, and not on effective near-cavity stress or the pore pressure gradient. It is shown that "large" cavities (e.g., boreholes) always fail in compression rather than in tension failure. Only for sufficiently small cavities (e.g., perforations) in weak, moist sandstones, is compressive failure supressed and tensile failure possible. The above results deviate significantly from previous sand production prediction concepts. They are further supported by laboratory sand production experiments with large cavities, in which sand failure was only observed for near-cavity effective stresses above a certain threshold, independent of applied drawdown (i.e., flow rate). The experiments exhibited no correlation between the (non) occurrence of sand production and drawdown.From these results, it may be concluded that the primary role of fluid flow in sand production is the transport of loose sand (debris) resulting from compressive failure, rather than failure of the intact sandstone itself.