TY  - EJOU
AU  - Wang, Daobing 
AU  - Zheng, Cheng 
AU  - Yu, Bo 
AU  - Sun, Dongliang 
AU  - Weng, Dingwei 
AU  - He, Chunming 
AU  - Wang, Meng 

TI  - Numerical	Simulation	of	Diverter	Materials	in	Hydraulic	Fractures	 During	Refracturing
T2  - The International Conference on Computational \& Experimental Engineering and Sciences

PY  - 2023
VL  - 26
IS  - 4
SN  - 1933-2815

AB  - Refracturing	has	become	an	important	technique	for	increasing	hydrocarbon	production due	to	the	low	oil	
prices.	During	refracturing,	the	granular	diverter	materials	are	injected	to	temporarily	seal	old	fractures	in	
subsurface.	These	diverter	materials	are	usually	carried	by	the	fracturing	fluid,	which	is	a	typical	solid-fluid	
flow	in	 the	fracture [1-3].	Therefore,	we	need	 to	thoroughly	understand	 the	 flow	mechanism	of	diverter	
materials	in	hydraulic	fractures,	which	is	the	key	to	the	success	of	refracturing	treatment.<br/>
Using	the	Euler-Lagrange	method, this	paper	presents	a	multiphase	model	to	numerically	simulate	the	flow	
process	of	diverter	materials	in	hydraulic	fracturing [4-6].	Two-way	coupling	algorithm	is	adopted	to	solve	
the	particle	flow	and	fluid	flow	in	fractures.	The	fracture	geometry	is	constructed	by	CT	scanning	technique,	
which can	represent	fracture	roughness	in	our	model.	Key	factors	such	as	fracture	roughness,	injection	rate,	
reservoir	temperature	are	analyzed	in	detail.	Our	numerical	results	are	as	follows:<br/>
1.	Particle velocity	is	not	the	main	factor	affecting	the	migration	process	of	diverter	materials in	fractures,	
but	the	particle	diameter,	particle	volume	fraction	and	viscosity	of	carrier	fluid	have	great	influence	on	the	
migration	process of	diverter	materials in	both	smooth	fractures	and	rough	fractures.<br/>
2. Changing	 the particle	 diameter	 can	 control	 the	 particle	migration velocity in	 the	 fracture	 to	a	 certain	
extent.	A high	particle	volume	fraction	leads	to	a	decrease	in	the	average	force	on	the	particles. The	rough	
fracture	surface	is	the	main	factor	affecting	the	average	force	on	the	particles. The	high	viscosity	fluid	causes	
the	average	force	on	the	particles increase. The	particle	velocity	and	average	force	in	rough	fractures	are	
higher	than	those	in	smooth	fractures.<br/>
3. When	 the	 fracture	wall	 temperature	rises	by	300	K,	 the	average	movement	velocity of	particles	in	 the	
hydraulic fractures	increases	by	nearly	60%,	and	the	interaction	force	between	particles	increases	by	more	
than	19.2	times;	with	the	increase	of	mass	concentration of	diverter	materials,	the	interaction	force	between	
particles	also	becomes larger;	when	turbulent	flow	occurs	in	the	fracture,	the	velocity	and	interaction	force	
of	particles	increase	sharply.
KW  - diverter;	refracturing;	multiphase	flow	model;	fracture	flow

DO  - 10.32604/icces.2023.09205