Modeling proppant flow in fractures using LIGGGHTS, a scalable granular simulator

Proppant flowback in fractures under confining pressures is not well understood and difficult to reproduce in a laboratory setting. Improper management of proppant flowback leads to flow restrictions near the well bore, poor fracture conductivity and costly production equipment damage. A simple, scalable model is developed using a discrete element method (DEM) particle simulator, to simulate representative cubic volumes consisting of fracture openings, fracture walls and the confining formation. The effects of fracture width, confining stress, fluid flow velocity and proppant cohesion are studied for a variety of conditions. Fracture width is found to be dependent on confining stress and fluid flow velocity while proppant production is also dependent on cohesion. Three regimes are observed, with complete fracture evacuation occurring at high flow rates and low confining stresses, fully packed fractures occurring at high confining stresses and open but mostly evacuated fractures occurring in-between. From these observations, a recommended flowback rate can be estimated for a given set of conditions. A slow and controlled well flowback is recommended to improve proppant pack stability. The rate ramp-up time is dependent on the leak-off coefficient.