Migration of variable density proppant particles in hydraulic fracture in coal-bed methane reservoir

The well performance in Coal-Bed Methane (CBM) reservoir is highly dependent on the conductivity of hydraulic fracture created to increase well production rate and contact area with the reservoir. Aimed at improving the effective fracture length of hydraulic fracture in CBM reservoir and the seam proppant concentration, the objective of this paper is to investigate the migration of variable density proppant particles in hydraulic fracture and seams using numerical modeling and simulation. In the proposed model, the interaction among fracture proppant particles distributed in a pseudo fluid model is taken into consideration. Comparison between the model calculation and field radioactive tracing logging interpretation shows that the proposed model is accurate and reliable in applications. Additionally, we carried out the sensitivity study on the viscosity of fracking fluid, fracture area, proppant density, injection rate and other factors. It is shown that, with the condition of a confining pressure of 69 MPa and an ambient temperature of 90 °C, the crush value of nutshell proppant is less than 2%, which meets the field application requirements. Furthermore, with the increase of both fracturing fluid viscosity and injection rate, the propped effective fracture length increases, and lead to a more uniform distribution of proppants. The increase in proppant particle diameter, inversely, results in a decrease in the effective fracture length. As for variable-density proppant, the effective crack support length would be longer than the single ceramic proppant, and the particle distribution of the case with variable density is more uniform.