The experimental and numerical study on proppant transportation in complex hydraulic fractures

Effective proppant placement and transportation efficiency in a hydraulic fracture system are the keys to increasing gas production of unconventional reservoirs, including shale gas. The fracture surfaces and shape are generally rough, leak-off and tortuous; however, often assumed to be smooth, no leak-off or simple straight fracture shape in the previous existing fracture models, which may generate unrealistic results and some critical phenomena may be omitted. Therefore, this thesis work aims to develop more realistic fracture models and uncover proppant transportation mechanisms, by means of experimental and simulation combined approaches. The proppant behavior, transportation efficiency and optimized key parameters are examined systematically.