CFD Simulation of Proppant Transportation and Settling in Water
Fracture Treatments

doi:10.11885/j.issn.1674-5086.2013.11.07.06

Abstract

Abstract:

Water hydraulic fracture treatments are widely used in of exploitation for tight gas reservoirs such as shale gas because
of its low cost and little damage to formation′s permeability. In the process of fracturing，turbulence effects，particle-particle and
particle-wall interactions are important factors which affect proppant transportation and settling behavior. Because conventional
proppant settlement calculation methods don′t consider the two-way coupling of fluid-solid and solid-solid，Euler-Euler twophase
flow model is established to study the proppant transportation and settling behavior in the process of water-fracturing.
Turbulence effects and friction stress between high concentration particles are taken into consideration to study the particlewall
interaction，and Johnson-Jackson boundary conditions are also considered. By using this model，the two-phase flow of
fracturing fluid and proppant in the slot under different inlet-velocity position，particle density are studied. The simulation
results coincide with experimental results well，which verifies the effectiveness of the model used. In the meanwhile，the effect
of these parameters to proppant transportation and settling law is also discussed in the paper.

Key words: water fracture treatments, proppant, transportation and settling, liquid-solid multiphase flow, two-fluid model

Zhang Tao1, Guo Jianchun1, Liu Wei2. CFD Simulation of Proppant Transportation and Settling in Water
Fracture Treatments[J]. 西南石油大学学报(自然科学版), DOI: 10.11885/j.issn.1674-5086.2013.11.07.06.

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