Fracturing-Fluid Flowback Simulation with Consideration of Proppant Transport in Hydraulically Fractured Shale Wells

Involving the fluid-particle hydrodynamic process and hydraulically created fracture network, fracturing-fluid flowback in hydraulically fractured shale wells is a complex transport behavior. However, there is limited research on investigating the influence of proppant transport on the fracturing-fluid flowback behavior and flowback data analysis. In this paper, a flowback model is developed to simulate the flowback behaviors of the carrying fluid and proppant from the recompacted fracture system in shale wells. The development of fluid pressure and proppant concentration profiles of the fractured shale well are presented. The fluid and proppant fluxes among the hydraulic primary fracture and the induced fracture are also calculated. The influences of proppant consideration or not, proppant density, proppant size, fracturing-fluid viscosity, and fracturing-fluid density on the flowback behavior are investigated. The simulation results are useful for fracturing-fluid optimization in the design phase. Finally, two field cases from the Longmaxi Formation, Southern Sichuan Basin, China are used for matching the actual flowback data with the model results. The results prove that the proppant transport has influence on the flowback behavior to some degree and should be considered in the flowback model for a rather elaborate flowback analysis and post-treatment fracture evaluation.