Experimental Investigation of the Impact of Particle Size on Its Distribution within a Horizontal Wellbore

Fracture conductivity is directly affected by an uneven proppant distribution, which affects the productivity of a well. The distributions of 40/70 mesh white sand compared to 100 mesh brown sand in a horizontal wellbore were investigated in this study. The apparatus used to conduct these tests was a 30 ft-long transparent horizontal wellbore with three perforation clusters. The proppant distribution was examined experimentally by injecting slurries at three different injection rates ranging from 20 to 75 gpm. The proppant concentration of both sands increased for each test from 0.5 to 2 ppg. The proppant concentrations and injection rates were used with multiple perforation configurations (orientations) including extreme limited entry perforations. The results confirmed that the injection rates significantly affected the proppant distributions across the different perforation clusters. Even distribution of the 40/70 mesh sand can be obtained using a 1 shot per foot (SPF) top perforation design. The 100 mesh sand was evenly distributed using a 4 SPF perforation configuration. The settling percentage was calculated for each experiment to determine the quantity of 40/70 mesh and 100 mesh sand settled at the bottom of the horizontal wellbore. A carrier fluid can suspend the sand more effectively with a higher injection rate, reducing the average sand settling to 2% in the case of the 100 mesh sand compared with approximately 8% for the 40/70 mesh sand at similar injection rates. This research confirms the need to use a 100 mesh at high injection rates to reduce sand settling during the hydraulic fracturing process.