Modeling of fiber bridging in fluid flow for well stimulation applications

Accurate acid placement constitutes a major concern in matrix stimulation because the acid tends to penetrate the zones of least resistance while leaving the low-permeability regions of the formation untreated.Degradable materials(fibers and solid particles)have recently shown a good capability as fluid diversion to overcome the issues related to matrix stimulation.Despite the success achieved in the recent acid stimulation jobs stemming from the use of some products that rely on fiber flocculation as the main diverting mechanism,it was observed that the volume of the base fluid and the loading of the particles are not optimized.The current industry lacks a scientific design guideline because the used methodology is based on experience or empirical studies in a particular area with a particular product.It is important then to understand the fundamentals of how acid diversion works in carbonates with different diverting mechanisms and diverters.Mathematical modeling and computer simulations are effective tools to develop this understanding and are efficiently applied to new product development,new applications of existing products or usage optimization.In this work,we develop a numerical model to study fiber dynamics in fluid flow.We employ a discrete element method in which the fibers are represented by multi-rigid-body systems of interconnected spheres.The discrete fiber model is coupled with a fluid flow solver to account for the inherent simultaneous interactions.The focus of the study is on the tendency for fibers to flocculate and bridge when interacting with suspending fluids and encountering restrictions that can be representative of fractures or wormholes in carbonates.The trends of the dynamic fiber behavior under various operating conditions including fiber loading,flow rate and fluid viscosity obtained from the numerical model show consistency with experimental observations.The present numerical investigation reveals that the bridging capability of the fiber–fluid system can be enhanced by increasing the fiber loading,selecting fibers with higher stiffness,reducing the injection flow rate,reducing the suspending fluid viscosity or increasing the attractive cohesive forces among fibers by using sticky fibers.

Constructing quasi-vertical fiber bridging behaviors of aramid pulp at interlayer of laminated basalt fiber reinforced polymer composites to improve flexural performances

Basalt Fiber Reinforced Polymer(BFRP)composites have huge potential application respects for some civil fields due to enough strength/modulus to weight and low cost by replacing carbon fiber composites.Aiming at the issues in the Resin-Rich Region(RRR)and Interfacial Transition Region(ITR)of fiber reinforced polymer composites,the characteristic Aramid Pulp(AP)fibers with micro-fiber trunk and nano-fiber branches were manufactured into multiple non-woven ultra-thin interleaving at the interlayers of BFRP composites via compression molding to reinforce the flexural strengths and elastic moduli.AP fibers were introduced into RRR to form interleaving at the interlayer,the brittle epoxy adhesive layer was improved and enabled to avoid cracking under a low external load.Free fiber branches of AP were also embedded into BF layer to construct quasi-vertical fiber bridging behaviors in ITR,stronger mechanical interlocking was created to prevent crack propagation along the bonding interface of BF/epoxy.Three-point bending testing results showed the interleaving film with 4 g/m^(2)AP exhibited the best effect among various areal densities and yielded average 315.75 MPa in flexural strength and 21.38 GPa in elastic modulus,having a 63.4%increment and a 47.1%increment respectively compared with the bases.Overall,the simple and low-cost AP interleaving is confirmed as an effective method in improving interlayer structure and flexural performance of BFRP composites,which may be considered to manufacture high-performance laminated fiber reinforced polymer composites in civil aviation industry.

DYNAMIC CRACK MODELS ON PROBLEM OF BRIDGING FIBER PULL-OUT OF COMPOSITE MATERIALS

An elastic analysis of an internal central crack with bridging fibers parallel to the free surface in an infinite orthotropic anisotropic elastic plane was performed. A dynamic model of bridging fiber pull-out of composite materials was presented. Resultingly the fiber failure is governed by maximum tensile stress, the fiber breaks and hence the crack extension should occur in self-similar fashion. By the methods of complex functions, the problem studied can be transformed into the dynamic model to the Reimann-Hilbert mixed boundary value problem, and a straightforward and easy analytical solution is presented. Analytical study on the crack propagation subjected to a ladder load and an instantaneous pulse loading is obtained respectively for orthotropic anisotropic body. By utilizing the solution, the concrete solutions of this model are attained by ways of superposition.

ANALYSIS ON SMALL SCALE BRIDGING IN FIBROUS MONOLITHIC CERAMICS

Based on shear lag model of interface between fiber and matrix, a new formula that relates the crack opening displacement and bridging force in fibrous monolithic ceramics was constructed under the framework of small scale bridging. This formula was applied to predict the fracture resistance or R-curve response of a three-point bending specimen made of fibrous monolithic ceramics. A parametric investigation on the influences of fiber volume fraction, fiber radius, characteristics of constituents, BN's fracture toughness and specimen's geometry on the bridging forces and fracture resistance in Si3N4/BN composite was carried out. The upper and lower limits of the R-curve of Si3N4/BN in small scale bridging were derived. This research revealed the role played by the above parameters in the fracture toughness of fibrous monolithic ceramics.

A low-cost and high-strength basalt/carbon fiber reinforced polymer improved by imitating tree-root micro/nano aramid short fiber

The high-strength Basalt Carbon Fiber Reinforced Polymer(BCFRP)composites had been manufactured by guiding Imitating Tree-root Micro/Nano Aramid Short Fiber(ITMNASF)into the interlayer of Basalt Fiber(BF)and Carbon Fiber(CF)plies to form thin interleaving,and various mass proportions of IT-MNASF were designed to discuss the reinforcing effect on the BCFRP heterogeneous composites.The results of three points bending tests showed that flexural strength and energy absorption of 4wt%IT-MNASF reinforced BCFRP heterogeneous composites had been improved by 32.4%and 134.4%respectively compared with that of unreinforced specimens.The 4wt%IT-MNASF reinforced BCFRP specimens showed both a greater strength and a lower cost(reduced by 31%around)than that of plain CFRP composites.X-ray micro-computed tomography scanning results exhibited that the delamination-dominated failure of plain BCFRP composites was changed into multi-layer BF and CF fabrics damage.The reinforcing mechanism revealed that the introduced IT-MNASF could construct quasi-vertical fiber bridging,and it was used as"mechanical claws"to grasp adjacent fiber layers for creating a stronger mechanical interlocking,and this effectively improved resin-rich region and interfacial transition region at the interlayers.The simple and effective IT-MNASF interleaving technique was very successful in low-cost and high-strength development of BCFRP heterogeneous composites.

ANALYSIS ON BUCKLING AND POSTBUCKLING OF DELAMINATION IN 3D COMPOSITES

In this paper, the problem of axisymmetric buckling and postbuckling of a circular thin-film delamination bridged by through-thickness fiber tows in 3D composites is presented. An iterative procedure based on Taylor's series expansion is used to generate a family of nondimensionalized postbuckling solutions of the above problem by von Karman's nonlinear plate theory. Attention is focused, herein, on the effects of the bridge force of through-thickness fibers on the buckling and postbuckling behavior of the delamination. It is found that fiber bridge not only increases the ability of resisting delamination buckling and postbuckling, but also brings on the jump of the delamination deflection mode during the postbuckling phase. Consequently the behavior of the composite structure with delamination is greatly improved, such as increasing the residual strength and prolonging the service life.

Structural Performance of Light Weight Multicellular FRP Composite Bridge Deck Using Finite Element Analysis

Fiber reinforced polymer （FRP） composite materials having advantages such as higher strength to weight than conventional engineering materials, non-corrosiveness and modularization, which should help engineers to obtain more efficient and cost effective structural materials and systems. Currently, FRP composites are becoming more popular in civil engineering applications. The objectives of this research are to study performance and behavior of light weight multi-cellular FRP composite bridge decks （both module and system levels） under various loading conditions through finite element modeling, and to validate analytical response of FRP composite bridge decks with data from laboratory evaluations. The relative deflection, equivalent flexural rigidity, failure load （mode） and load distribution factors （LDF） based on FE results have been compared with experimental data and discussed in detail. The finite element results showing good correlations with experimental data are presented in this work.