Journal
ENERGIES
Volume 11, Issue 3, Pages -Publisher
MDPI
DOI: 10.3390/en11030557
Keywords
shale; anisotropy; bedding orientation; fracture propagation; supercritical CO2 (SCO2)
Categories
Funding
- National Natural Science Foundation of China [41572310, 41227901]
- Strategic Priority Research Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences [XDB10030301, XDB10030304]
- National Science and Technology Major Project [2016ZX05034-003]
Ask authors/readers for more resources
The process of hydraulic fracturing makes use of a liquid to fracture reservoir rocks for the exploitation of unconventional resources. Hence, it is vital to understand the processes that produce the fracture networks that occur during hydraulic fracturing. A shale reservoir is one of the largest unconventional resources and it displays obvious anisotropic characteristics due to its inherent sedimentary structures. The viscosity and flow ability of the fracturing fluid plays an important role in this process. We conducted a series of hydraulic fracturing tests on shale cores (from the southern Sichuan Basin) using freshwater and supercritical CO2 (SCO2) as fracturing fluids to investigate the different modes of fracture propagation. The pump pressure curves that we obtained during the fracturing experiment show how the shale responded to each of the fracturing fluids. We examined the influence of the anisotropic characteristics on the propagation of hydraulic fractures by conducting a series of hydraulic fracturing experiments on the shale cores using different bedding orientations. The bedding orientation of the shale had a profound influence on the fracture propagation when using either freshwater or a SCO2 fluid. The breakdown pressure of the shale core was affected not only by the bedding orientation but also by the fracturing fluid. A macroscopic observation of the fractures revealed different fracture geometries and propagation patterns. The results demonstrated that the anisotropic structures and the fracturing fluids could influence the path of the hydraulic fracture.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available