Simulation of the transport and placement of multi-sized proppant in hydraulic fractures using a coupled CFD-DEM approach

The productivity of fractured wells is mainly governed by propped fractures, so it is of significant importance to find out where the injected proppants go during hydraulic fracturing treatments, as this is essential to scheduling proppant injection in fracturing design. Using a coupled CFD-DEM model, the transport and placement of multi-sized proppants in fractures in vertical and horizontal wells were systematically investigated, and the effects of having multi-sized particles relative to uniformly-sized ones on the proppant placement were quantitatively characterized. When a proppant-laden fluid is injected into a fracture in vertical wells, a small proppant bank quickly forms. The injected large and small proppant particles are almost uniformly mixed, with just a small-proppant region at the back side of the bank. In comparison in horizontal wells, a proppant dune first forms near the wellbore in a fracture, and the large proppant particles are more likely to accumulate near the wellbore while the small particles are transported deeper into the fracture. The main transport mechanisms of proppant particles are settlement and fluidization, which cause a three-layer flow pattern (stationary proppant bed, fluidization layer and clean fluid layer) to form. In addition, vortex is also an important proppant transport mechanism, especially in a fracture in horizontal wells, where the vortex drags the injected proppant particles to different locations causing a dual-dune profile. The effect of fracture tip screen-out on the proppant placement was investigated. Screen-out can significantly change the flow field in a fracture and this will subsequently affect final proppant placement. Ultimately, the process of graded proppant injection was realistically modeled, which shows small proppants to be transported deeper into the fracture, while large proppants accumulate near the wellbore.