Erosion behavior in large-scale hydraulic fracturing for shale gas production

THE PROBLEM
The technology of large-scale hydraulic fracturing, which is characteristic of injecting fracturing fluids with particles/proppants into rocks and reservoirs, is often used for shale gas production. Serous wear of materials such as tubing and string as well as fracturing tool are caused by the liquid and solid slurry flow, especially when flow velocity and solid particle concentration are high. The consequence of facility failure due to erosion damage can be severe causing great economic and environmental losses. Predicting erosion severity and location is important for determining replacement frequency and workover costs of facility replacement parts and components.
The achievement of the goal requires accurately describing the particle motion within the tubing and, particularly, the particle-wall interactions in non-Newtonian fracturing fluids. Combined with the numerical simulation, the experimental characterization of the erosion behavior of the tubing materials by the direct impact test and the wear testing of the actual devices under controlled conditions provides further insight into erosion process and allows the reliability of the predictive models to be assessed.