Numerical simulation of limited-entry multi-cluster fracturing in horizontal well
摘要:Limited-entry technique has become one of the primary engineering approaches to promote even growth of multiple fractures in hydraulic fracturing. In this paper, we developed a three dimensional (3D) hydro mechanical coupling finite element model to investigate the simultaneous growth of multiple fractures during the multi-stage/multi-cluster fracturing of horizontal wells. The focus is to elaborate the effect of entry friction on the growth of fractures initiated from multiple perforation clusters. To this end, we developed a new element to account for the local pressure drop due to perforation entry friction and thus to dynamically partition the flow of the fracturing fluid among multiple fractures. The effectiveness of this element was validated by two element-level test examples. Propagation of the hydraulic fractures was modeled by using a zero-thickness cohesive element, which can simulate the fracture propagation and fluid flow within the fractures in a completely coupled manner. With this 3D model, parametric studies were performed to illustrate the impact of perforation parameters and stress shadowing on the simultaneous propagation of fractures from multiple perforation clusters within a stage. Results indicate that a sufficiently large perforation pressure drop can counteract the stress shadowing among the multiple fractures and can help to equalize the length of multiple fractures. The differences of down-hole pressures among cases with different perforation parameters are too small to be detected in the field, which indicates that it is hard to tell from the pressure record alone whether or not all the fractures are equally growing. It is also found that the smaller variance of fracture lengths, the bigger total area of the fractures.
关键字:Hydraulic fracturing Multi-cluster fracturing Limited-entry technique Numerical modeling Stress shadowing Fracturing fluid partitioning
ISSN号:0920-4105
卷、期、页:卷: 152 页: 443-455
发表日期:2017-04-01
期刊分区(SCI为中科院分区):三区
收录情况:SCI(科学引文索引印刷版),ESI(基本科学指标数据库),EI(工程索引),SCIE(科学引文索引网络版)
发表期刊名称:JOURNAL OF PETROLEUM SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING
通讯作者:李扬,曹文科,王鹏飞,侯友林
第一作者:邓金根,刘伟,闫伟,冯永存
论文类型:期刊论文
论文概要:李扬,邓金根,刘伟,闫伟,冯永存,曹文科,王鹏飞,侯友林,Numerical simulation of limited-entry multi-cluster fracturing in horizontal well,JOURNAL OF PETROLEUM SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING,2017,卷: 152 页: 443-455
论文题目:Numerical simulation of limited-entry multi-cluster fracturing in horizontal well