Cyclic Injection to Enhance Hydraulic Fracturing Efficiency: Insights from Laboratory Experiments
In hydraulic fracturing applications, there is substantial interest to reduce the formation breakdown pressure. Previous research results show that the cyclic injection method can be used to reduce that pressure. In this study, we conducted laboratory hydraulic fracturing experiments to apply cyclic...
| Main Authors: | , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Hindawi Limited
2020
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| Online Access: | https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/128827 |
| _version_ | 1826195040323502080 |
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| author | Kang, Hao Zhang, Jincai Fan, Xin Huang, Zhiwen |
| author2 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering |
| author_facet | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering Kang, Hao Zhang, Jincai Fan, Xin Huang, Zhiwen |
| author_sort | Kang, Hao |
| collection | MIT |
| description | In hydraulic fracturing applications, there is substantial interest to reduce the formation breakdown pressure. Previous research results show that the cyclic injection method can be used to reduce that pressure. In this study, we conducted laboratory hydraulic fracturing experiments to apply cyclic injection to reduce the breakdown pressures of very tight and strong sandstones. Experimental results show that using cyclic injection the average breakdown pressure was reduced by 18.9% in very tight sandstones and by 7.18% in normal sandstones. This indicates that the effect of cyclic injection is more significant for stronger and tighter rocks. The experiments also reveal that the rock tensile strength plays a more important role in the formation breakdown pressure with a rock strength factor of 2.85. This suggests that the breakdown pressure is higher than expected. In addition, we empirically related the breakdown pressure reduction and the injection pressure amplitude to the number of injection cycles. The curve fitting results imply that the effect of cyclic injection is more important if the number of cycles or the injection pressure amplitude is increased. Based on the results of this research, the in-situ formation breakdown pressure can be reduced by applying the cyclic injection method, and the breakdown pressure reduction is more significant as the number of cycles increases. |
| first_indexed | 2024-09-23T10:05:49Z |
| format | Article |
| id | mit-1721.1/128827 |
| institution | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-09-23T10:05:49Z |
| publishDate | 2020 |
| publisher | Hindawi Limited |
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| spelling | mit-1721.1/1288272022-09-26T15:42:31Z Cyclic Injection to Enhance Hydraulic Fracturing Efficiency: Insights from Laboratory Experiments Kang, Hao Zhang, Jincai Fan, Xin Huang, Zhiwen Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering In hydraulic fracturing applications, there is substantial interest to reduce the formation breakdown pressure. Previous research results show that the cyclic injection method can be used to reduce that pressure. In this study, we conducted laboratory hydraulic fracturing experiments to apply cyclic injection to reduce the breakdown pressures of very tight and strong sandstones. Experimental results show that using cyclic injection the average breakdown pressure was reduced by 18.9% in very tight sandstones and by 7.18% in normal sandstones. This indicates that the effect of cyclic injection is more significant for stronger and tighter rocks. The experiments also reveal that the rock tensile strength plays a more important role in the formation breakdown pressure with a rock strength factor of 2.85. This suggests that the breakdown pressure is higher than expected. In addition, we empirically related the breakdown pressure reduction and the injection pressure amplitude to the number of injection cycles. The curve fitting results imply that the effect of cyclic injection is more important if the number of cycles or the injection pressure amplitude is increased. Based on the results of this research, the in-situ formation breakdown pressure can be reduced by applying the cyclic injection method, and the breakdown pressure reduction is more significant as the number of cycles increases. 2020-12-14T22:48:02Z 2020-12-14T22:48:02Z 2020-12 2020-11 2020-12-13T08:00:10Z Article http://purl.org/eprint/type/JournalArticle 1468-8123 1468-8115 https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/128827 Hao Kang et al. “Cyclic Injection to Enhance Hydraulic Fracturing Efficiency: Insights from Laboratory Experiments,” Geofluids 2020 (December 2020): 8844293 © 2020 Hao Kang et al. en http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2020/8844293 Geofluids Attribution 4.0 International http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Copyright © 2020 Hao Kang et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. application/pdf Hindawi Limited Hindawi |
| spellingShingle | Kang, Hao Zhang, Jincai Fan, Xin Huang, Zhiwen Cyclic Injection to Enhance Hydraulic Fracturing Efficiency: Insights from Laboratory Experiments |
| title | Cyclic Injection to Enhance Hydraulic Fracturing Efficiency: Insights from Laboratory Experiments |
| title_full | Cyclic Injection to Enhance Hydraulic Fracturing Efficiency: Insights from Laboratory Experiments |
| title_fullStr | Cyclic Injection to Enhance Hydraulic Fracturing Efficiency: Insights from Laboratory Experiments |
| title_full_unstemmed | Cyclic Injection to Enhance Hydraulic Fracturing Efficiency: Insights from Laboratory Experiments |
| title_short | Cyclic Injection to Enhance Hydraulic Fracturing Efficiency: Insights from Laboratory Experiments |
| title_sort | cyclic injection to enhance hydraulic fracturing efficiency insights from laboratory experiments |
| url | https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/128827 |
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