Stress Analysis of Hollow Proppant Based on Finite Element Method

Proppant is a key material used to support underground fractures in oil and gas reservoir stimulation. At present, the density of most proppant is so large that the settle velocity is fast, which lead to the poor transportability in the fracturing process. The ideal proppant should have a lower density, such as hollow proppant. The hollow structure reduces the proppant density, improving the proppant transportability, but affects the proppant other performances such as strength and hardness. In order to improve the problem, it is necessary to optimize the hollow structure. This paper briefly introduces the hollow proppant, and uses the finite element method to analyze the stress characteristics of proppant with different hollow radius and wall thickness. The effect of hollow structure on the proppant density, strength and hardness is discussed. The results show that: (1) the density of hollow proppant is mainly influenced by the hollow radius, (2) the stress characteristic of hollow proppant is different from solid proppant, (3) the strength of hollow proppant increases with the increase of wall thickness and hollow radius, (4) the embedded depth of hollow proppant shows linear positive correlation with the proppant size.