Laboratory Tests and Well Rate Models of Crushed Micro-Proppants to Improve Conductivity of Hydraulic Microfractures

This study proposes an innovative crushing rate evaluation method for micro-proppants by analyzing hydraulic crushing and steel crushing rates. The effectiveness of using micro-proppants to increase the drainage area of the micro-fractures network was also proved. Our results show that for micro-proppants, there occur two types of crushing evolution during the fracturing process. Under a load of 70 MPa, the hydraulic crushing rate is about 20%, while the steel crushing rate is more than 60%. The critical closure stress of micro-proppants is 50 MPa, which can be used to depths up to 4,200 m. Numerical simulation results showed that due to the presence of micro-proppants, the effectively propped area of the fracture network would sharply increase, accompanied by an over 40% increase in the initial hydrocarbon production rate. The later, steady production period will show a sustained increase of more than 20%.