Flow field characters near fracture entrance in supercritical carbon dioxide sand fracturing

To investigate the flow field near fracture entrance and promote the development of sand fracturing with carbon dioxide as the working fluid, numerical simulation of multiphase flow was conducted with a 3D geological model considering the compressibility of carbon dioxide. The flow field of carbon dioxide alone was firstly investigated to lay the foundation for the analysis of multiphase flow, and then comparative analysis was conducted on the flow field of both the injecting sand from the pipe and the annulus. The results show that jet fracture with carbon dioxide can achieve a 4.46 MPa pressure boost at the fracture tip compared to the annulus pressure, which theoretically validates the feasibility of the mentioned technology. Sand fracturing can achieve a higher pressure boost in the cavity, while it needs greater pump pressure at the surface. Injecting sand from the annulus could decrease the need for pump pressure by 6.62 MPa at the condition of injecting 25% carbon dioxide from the annulus simultaneously, while the pressure difference between the cavity tip and the annulus decreases as a result. © 2019 Society of Chemical Industry and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.