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

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2025362215-A1
Application number	US-202519290168-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Aug 4, 2025
Priority date	Sep 9, 2022
Publication date	Nov 27, 2025
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

What is 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.

Assignees

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

Inventors

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

Classifications

• G06T2207/10024

  Color image · CPC title

• C09K2208/28

  Friction or drag reducing additives · CPC title

• G06T2207/20132

  Image cropping · CPC title

• 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