Proppant Flowback
Predicting Proppant Flowback
Proppant flowback can be detrimental to the conductivity of a wellbore fracture. Proppant flowback leads to reduced fracture width and can lead to fracture stimulation failure. Proppant flowback causes the oil and gas industry millions of dollars every year.
Objectives
- To determine mechanical properties of proppant pack for conventional and resin coated proppants under downhole stress and temperature conditions
- To determine what critical drawdown pressure proppant flowback occurs
- Evaluate different resin coated proppants at downhole pressure and temperature conditions
The Problem
Proppant flowback can occur with resin coated proppants having weak bonding strength.
The Solution
Measure resin coated and conventional proppant samples using triaxial and sonic testing under down hole stress conditions which provide the following information:
- Young’s modulus & Poisson’s ratio
- Confined compressive strength
- RCP bonding strength under stress or temperature conditions
- Sample cohesion for flowback prediction
- Coefficient of friction and angle of shear failure
The Results
Maximum wellbore draw down pressures based upon proppant properties.