Simulation study of sanding region prediction in unconsolidated reservoir with frac-pack. Issue 2 (January 2021) - Li, Mingzhong
Abstract: Frac-packing has been widely used in the development of unconsolidated sandstone reservoirs because it can meet the needs of stimulation and sand control. In this work, the induced stress generated by the artificial fracture was taken into consideration to simulate the geo-structure of a frac-packing well. The fluid-structure coupling model was utilized to solve the reservoir stress distribution, and the critical equivalent plastic strain was introduced to determine whether the element was damaged. Using the proposed model, the comparison between gravel packing and frac-packing on the critical sanding velocity and sanding region distribution were carried out. Sensitivity analysis of parameters that may affect the sanding of frac-packing well, such as Young's modulus, fracture width and length were conducted as well. The simulation results showed that frac-packing is an effective sand control technique which can reduce the reservoir sanding significantly.