Numerical study on the interaction of solid grains with fluid in the production of natural resources

The sanding is recognized as one of the main problems in producing hydrocarbon resources. Although it is important to predict the occurrence of the sanding during production, the prediction or countermeasure still remains to be established. In this study, we conduct numerical simulation of fluid-solid multi-phase flow in order to investigate the factors which affect the occurrence of the sanding. Our numerical model is a fluid path consists of a set of planar plates of a finite length filled by fluid and a mound of small solid grains. A fluid flow is produced by the pressure gradient with different magnitudes between the both end of the path. We found that a few small grains leave the mound with a high pressure gradient whereas no floating grains were observed with a low pressure gradient. We also observed a reasonable change in the flow velocity and relative permeability when the floating of small grains occurs. This result indicates that the sanding can be detected by observing the time variation of flow rate during production.