Apparatus and method for determining the static proppant-settling-velocity in fracturing fluids

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2024085300-A1
Application number	US-202217941633-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Sep 9, 2022
Priority date	Sep 9, 2022
Publication date	Mar 14, 2024
Grant date	—

Abstract

A method to determine the velocity of static proppant settling in fracturing fluids. The proppant carrying capability of different friction reducer products can be compared, so the appropriate friction reducer product can be selected for hydraulic fracturing operations. The effect of friction reducer concentrations in the fracturing fluids, the salinity and hardness of the fracturing fluids, and the proppant size on the velocity of static proppant settling can be studied to optimize the chemical structures of the friction reducers in the process of synthesis and optimize the hydraulic fracturing operation, e.g. to determine the proper concentration of friction reducers according to the salinity and proppant size.

First claim

That claimed is:

1 . An apparatus for measuring proppant settling velocities comprising:
a transparent container filled with a fracturing fluid; a camera to record a plurality of images over an interval; and a computer to analyze the plurality of images from the camera.

2 . The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the transparent container is a circle, triangle, square, or hexagon shape.

3 . The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the fracturing fluid further comprises:
a proppant; and
a friction reducer.

4 . The apparatus of claim 3 wherein the proppant is between 8 and 140 mesh and is present in the fracturing fluid in concentrations between about 0.25 lbm/gal and 6 lbm/gal.

5 . The apparatus of claim 3 wherein the friction reducer is a polyacrylamide-based friction reducer and is present in the fracturing fluid at concentrations between about 0.01 gpt and 30 gpt.

6 . The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the plurality of images are taken at intervals from about 1 second to about 6 hours.

7 . The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the computer further comprises an image analysis software.

8 . The apparatus of claim 7 wherein the image analysis software is ImageJ.

9 . The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the fracturing fluid further comprises:
a guar-based linear gel.

10 . A method of determining settling height of a proppant comprising:
placing a fracturing fluid with the proppant and a friction reducer in a transparent container; taking a plurality of images over a period of time with predetermined intervals; uploading the plurality of images to a computer; and analyzing the images, by the computer, to determine a settling height of the proppant.

11 . The method of claim 10 further comprising:
cropping the uploaded plurality of images before the analysis.

12 . The method of claim 10 wherein the analysis of the plurality of images is a color threshold measure to determine saturation values of the plurality of images.

13 . The method of claim 12 further comprising:
generating saturation histograms from the analysis of the plurality of images.

14 . The method of claim 10 wherein the analysis of the plurality of images is a brightness analysis.

15 . The method of claim 10 wherein the settling height and a settling time is determined by one or more macros.

16 . A method of determining a settling velocity of a proppant in a fracturing fluid comprising:
taking a plurality of images of the proppant in the fracturing fluid over time; analyzing the plurality of images to determine a settling height for each of the plurality of images; and determining the settling velocity by finding a first period of time with a constant change in settling height for each time period.

17 . The method of claim 16 wherein analyzing the plurality of images further comprises performing a color threshold measure to determine saturation values of the plurality of photos.

18 . The method of claim 16 wherein the plurality of images are taken at intervals from about 1 second to about 6 hours.

19 . The method of claim 16 further comprising:
identifying a second period with accelerating settling velocities to exclude from the settling velocity calculation.

20 . The method of claim 16 further comprising:
identifying a third period with decelerating settling velocities to exclude from the settling velocity calculations.

Assignees

• Cnpc Usa Corp
• Beijing Huamei Inc
• China Nat Petroleum Corp

Inventors

• Huang Jiangshui
• Lin Lijun
• LIN Genyao
• Liu Fuchen
• Li Jianshen

Classifications

• C09K8/80

  Compositions for reinforcing fractures, e.g. compositions of proppants used to keep the fractures open · CPC title

• G01N15/04 Primary

  Investigating sedimentation of particle suspensions · CPC title

• C09K8/68 Primary

  containing organic compounds · CPC title

• G06T7/60

  Analysis of geometric attributes · CPC title

• G06T7/90

  Determination of colour characteristics · CPC title