A review on proppant transport modelling

Proppant transport is a critical physical process in hydraulic fracturing which has been extensively used for reservoir stimulation in petroleum engineering. Proppants injected together with fracturing fluid provide structural support to the stimulated fracture network and prevent them from closing after flowback. Hence, the final proppant distribution in fracture networks affects directly the effectiveness of hydraulic fracturing. Owing to the limitation and high cost of well logging, computational modelling has been increasingly used to study proppant transport, where different assumptions and numerical models have been employed often without rigorous validation or justification. This work presents a comprehensive review on proppant transport modelling, from relevant physics to numerical approaches, aiming to provide an unbiased global picture of the-state-of-theart studies, inspire new insights, and promote the development of innovative and reliable computational models for proppant transport.