Experimental Study on the Backflow Mechanism of Proppants in Induced Fractures and Fiber Sand Control Under the Condition of Large-Scale and Fully Measurable Flow Field

The proppant backflow in the process of flowback has a great significant effect on gas field development. Therefore, the study of proppant backflow is of great significance for the development and production of gas wells. At present, the physical simulation methods for proppant backflow mainly include the tube perforation model, the slot model, an API standard flow tester, and a large-scale flowback apparatus. The current experimental methods are unable to observe the backflow of proppants during the process of the flowback test. In addition, the only characterization parameter for proppant backflow is the liquid flow rate corresponding to the sand discharge in the diversion chamber called critical velocity, which is too simple and single to accurately characterize the movement state of proppants during the flowback process. In this paper, a physical simulation method of proppant backflow in fractures based on the measurement of flow field was proposed. It can realize the observation and fine description of the proppant backflow state and movement rule. In addition, the process of proppant backflow can be quantitatively described by a multidimensional characterization parameter. The research shows that (1) the proppant backflow is closely related to the shape of the sand bank formed during the proppant placement and the irregular voids formed; (2) the fiber increases the strength of the proppant pack significantly; (3) the critical velocity with fiber increased by 2.25 times compared with the critical velocity without fiber, the optimum fiber concentration was 0.8%, and the fiber length was 12 mm; (4) the full fiber injection was selected as the best injection mode by the experiment; and (5) the whole process of flowback can be divided into two stages. In the strong fluid shear stage, the effect of fiber sand control is more significant. However, when the flowback enters the stage of slow erosion, the difference in the sand control effect under different parameters is no longer significant.