Masters Theses

Keywords and Phrases

Hydraulic fracture; Investigation; Linear gel; Settling velocity; Static; Viscoelastic

Abstract

"Few studies have quantified proppant transport in static conditions using actual proppant and validated previously established correlation. The objective of this study is to investigate the rheological properties of the linear gel, and determine the effect of size, shape and specific gravity of the proppant, fracture walls and rheological properties of the fluid on the proppant settling velocity in static condition and validate the previously established correlation.

Shear viscosity and dynamic frequency sweep tests were performed to investigate the viscous and viscoelastic behaviour of the HPG linear gel with five different concentrations. Proppant settling experiments were conducted with different proppant types and sizes with two different setups, one with a large diameter transparent cylinder and another with a parallel plexiglass plate model which imposes wall effects. Parameters used during the experiments were inserted into previously established correlation and the calculated settling values were compared with the experimental ones to identify the best suitable correlation.

HPG linear gel behaved as non-Newtonian shear thinning fluid and showed very little elasticity for the angular frequency from 1 to 100 rad/sec. With increasing shear thinning behaviour of the linear gel it was found that the effect of proppant size, specific gravity and fracture walls got more pronounced. With increasing diameter and specific gravity of the proppant, the effect of viscosity of the unbounded fluid on the settling velocity decreased; however, it remained constant in the case of confined fracturing fluid. The correlation provided by Swanson (1967) and Liu and Sharma (2005) were identified as best suitable correlations based on this study for unbounded fracturing fluid and confined fracturing fluid respectively"--Abstract, page iii.

Advisor(s)

Imqam, Abdulmohsin

Committee Member(s)

Dunn-Norman, Shari
Britt, Larry K.

Department(s)

Geosciences and Geological and Petroleum Engineering

Degree Name

M.S. in Petroleum Engineering

Publisher

Missouri University of Science and Technology

Publication Date

Fall 2018

Pagination

xv, 116 pages

Note about bibliography

Includes bibliographical references (pages 110-115).

Rights

© 2018 Vismay Manishbhai Shah, All rights reserved.

Document Type

Thesis - Open Access

File Type

text

Language

English

Thesis Number

T 11441

Electronic OCLC #

1084480009

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