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Experimental Study of Friction Reducer Flows in Microfracture
Fuel
  • Yongpeng Sun
  • Qihua Wu
  • Mingzhen Wei, Missouri University of Science and Technology
  • Baojun Bai, Missouri University of Science and Technology
  • Yinfa Ma, Missouri University of Science and Technology
Abstract

Tight formations with extremely low matrix permeabilities, such as gas shale, can produce at economical rates is due to the inborn fissures and fractures introduced during hydraulic stimulation. These microfractures have much more contact area with the matrix and therefore hold the majority of the productivity potential of shale gas. Slickwater fracturing has been proved to be an effective method by which to increase the recovery of shale gas reservoirs. And friction reducer is the primary component of this fluid. However, the flow characteristics of this solution in microfractures are not clear. Micro-sized fluidic chip was used to represent the microfracture. Friction reducer solution is a shear thinning fluid. Rather than reducing flowing friction, with 0.075 vol% of this fluid flowing in a 1000 μm height, 50 μm width and 4.14 cm length microfracture, the injection pressure increased more than 50%. The impact of the solution concentration was found to be more obvious at low velocities. If a flowback additive is considered for slickwater fracturing, its performance at low velocity or low shear rate would be critical. At the same shear rate, the apparent viscosity is higher in large microfractures. At the same velocity, large microfractures display higher residual resistance factors. Through the analysis of fluid emulsion particle size and gas shale matrix pore size, this friction reducer solution will not go into the matrix pores easily, but can block the pore entrance on fracture face to prevent the fluid from leak off and help pressure build up during slickwater fracturing.

Department(s)
Geosciences and Geological and Petroleum Engineering
Second Department
Chemistry
Keywords and Phrases
  • Flow behavior,
  • Friction reducer,
  • Microfracture,
  • Shale gas,
  • Slickwater fracturing,
  • Emulsification,
  • Fluid dynamics,
  • Percolation (fluids),
  • Shale,
  • Shear deformation,
  • Tribology,
  • Hydraulic stimulations,
  • Low matrix,
  • permeability,
  • Micro-fracture,
  • Residual resistance factor,
  • Solution concentration
Document Type
Article - Journal
Document Version
Citation
File Type
text
Language(s)
English
Rights
© 2014 Elsevier Ltd, All rights reserved.
Publication Date
9-1-2014
Publication Date
01 Sep 2014
Disciplines
Citation Information
Yongpeng Sun, Qihua Wu, Mingzhen Wei, Baojun Bai, et al.. "Experimental Study of Friction Reducer Flows in Microfracture" Fuel Vol. 131 (2014) p. 28 - 35 ISSN: 0016-2361
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/yinfa-ma/100/