A Gel-Based Solidification Technology for Large Fracture Plugging

Fault fractures usually have large openings and considerable extension. Accordingly, cross-linked gel materials aregenerally considered more suitable plugging agents than water-based gels because the latter often undergo contaminationvia formation water, which prevents them from being effective over long times. Hence, in this study, aset of oil-based composite gels based on waste grease and epoxy resin has been developed. These materials havebeen observed to possess high compressive strength and resistance to the aforementioned contamination, therebyleading to notable increase in plugging success rate. The compressive strength, thickening time, and resistance toformation water pollution of these gels have been evaluated indoors. The results show that the compressivestrength of the gel can reach 11 MPa;additionally, the related gelation time can be controlled to be more than3 h, thereby providing a safe construction time;Invasion of formation water has a small effect on the gel strengthand does not shorten the thickening time. All considered performance indicators of the oil-based gel confirm itssuitability as a plugging agent for fault fractures.

Dynamic plugging regulating strategy of pipeline robot based on reinforcement learning

Pipeline isolation plugging robot (PIPR) is an important tool in pipeline maintenance operation. During the plugging process, the violent vibration will occur by the flow field, which can cause serious damage to the pipeline and PIPR. In this paper, we propose a dynamic regulating strategy to reduce the plugging-induced vibration by regulating the spoiler angle and plugging velocity. Firstly, the dynamic plugging simulation and experiment are performed to study the flow field changes during dynamic plugging. And the pressure difference is proposed to evaluate the degree of flow field vibration. Secondly, the mathematical models of pressure difference with plugging states and spoiler angles are established based on the extreme learning machine (ELM) optimized by improved sparrow search algorithm (ISSA). Finally, a modified Q-learning algorithm based on simulated annealing is applied to determine the optimal strategy for the spoiler angle and plugging velocity in real time. The results show that the proposed method can reduce the plugging-induced vibration by 19.9% and 32.7% on average, compared with single-regulating methods. This study can effectively ensure the stability of the plugging process.

Plugging behaviors of temporary plugging particles in hydraulic fractures

Using the visualized experimental device of temporary plugging in hydraulic fractures, the plugging behaviors of temporary plugging particles with different sizes and concentrations in hydraulic fractures were experimentally analyzed under the conditions of different carrier fluid displacements and viscosities. The results show that the greater the carrier fluid viscosity and displacement, the more difficult it is to form a plugging layer, and that the larger the size and concentration of the temporary plugging particle, the less difficult it is to form a plugging layer. When the ratio of particle size to fracture width is 0.45, the formation of the plugging layer is mainly controlled by the mass concentration of the temporary plugging particle and the viscosity of the carrier fluid, and a stable plugging layer cannot form if the mass concentration of the temporary plugging particle is less than 20 kg/m^(3)or the viscosity of the carrier fluid is greater than 3 mPa·s. When the ratio of particle size to fracture width is 0.60, the formation of the plugging layer is mainly controlled by the mass concentration of the temporary plugging particle, and a stable plugging layer cannot form if the mass concentration of the temporary plugging particle is less than 10 kg/m^(3). When the ratio of particle size to fracture width is 0.75, the formation of the plugging layer is basically not affected by other parameters, and a stable plugging layer can form within the experimental conditions. The formation process of plugging layer includes two stages and four modes. The main controlling factors affecting the formation mode are the ratio of particle size to fracture width, carrier fluid displacement and carrier fluid viscosity.

Numerical Analysis of Dynamical Effects Associated with a Plugging String in a Horizontal Well

The finite element method has been applied to simulate the dynamics of a water plugging string in a complex horizontal well of a low-permeability oilfield.The force associated with the pipe string and the packer has been determined under the sucking action of the oil well pump.Such analysis has been conducted for a real drilling well,taking into account the process of lifting,lowering,unblocking and water plugging.Comparison between field measured data and simulation data indicates that the model is reliable and accurate.The packer creep effect under different pressure differences has also been investigated in the framework of the same model.

Complex fracture propagation model and plugging timing optimization for temporary plugging fracturing in naturally fractured shale

In this paper,a viscoelasticity-plastic damage constitutive equation for naturally fractured shale is deduced,coupling nonlinear tensile-shear mixed fracture mode.Dynamic perforation-erosion on fluid re-distribution among multi-clusters are considered as well.DFN-FEM(discrete fracture network combined with finite element method)was developed to simulate the multi-cluster complex fractures propagation within temporary plugging fracturing(TPF).Numerical results are matched with field injection and micro-seismic monitoring data.Based on geomechanical characteristics of Weiyuan deep shale gas reservoir in Sichuan Basin,SW China,a multi-cluster complex fractures propagation model is built for TPF.To study complex fractures propagation and the permeability-enhanced region evolution,intersecting and competition mechanisms between the fractures before and after TPF treatment are revealed.Simulation results show that:fracture from middle cluster is restricted by the fractures from side-clusters,and side-clusters plugging is benefit for multi fractures propagation in uniformity;optimized TPF timing should be delayed within a higher density or strike of natural fractures;Within a reservoir-featured natural fractures distribution,optimized TPF timing for most clustered method is 2/3 of total fluid injection time as the optimal plugging time under different clustering modes.

Experimental study of the temporary plugging capability of diverters to block hydraulic fractures in high-temperature geothermal reservoirs

The effective plugging of artificial fractures is key to the success of temporary plugging and diverting fracturing technology,which is one of the most promising ways to improve the heat recovery efficiency of hot dry rock.At present,how temporary plugging agents plug artificial fractures under high temperature remains unclear.In this paper,by establishing an improved experimental system for the evaluation of temporary plugging performance at high temperature,we clarified the effects of high temperature,injection rate,and fracture width on the pressure response and plugging efficiency of the fracture.The results revealed that the temporary plugging process of artificial fractures in hot dry rock can be divided into four main stages:the initial stage of temporary plugging,the bridging stage of the particles,the plugging formation stage,and the high-pressure dense plugging stage.As the temperature increases,the distribution distance of the temporary plugging agent,the number of pressure fluctuations,and the time required for crack plugging increases.Particularly,when the temperature increases by 100℃,the complete plugging time increases by 90.7%.

Optimization of the Plugging Agent Dosage for High Temperature Salt Profile Control in Heavy Oil Reservoirs

After steam discharge in heavy oil reservoirs,the distribution of temperature,pressure,and permeability in different wells becomes irregular.Flow channels can easily be produced,which affect the sweep efficiency of the oil displacement.Previous studies have shown that the salting-out plugging method can effectively block these channels in high-temperature reservoirs,improve the suction profile,and increase oil production.In the present study,the optimal dosage of the plugging agent is determined taking into account connection transmissibility and inter-well volumes.Together with the connectivity model,a water flooding simulation model is introduced.Moreover,a non-gradient stochastic disturbance algorithm is used to obtain the optimal plugging agent dosage,which provides the basis for the high-temperature salting-out plugging agent adjustment in the field.

Fatigue Life Analysis of Coiled Tubing in Deep Well Jet Plugging Removal

The coiled tubing plugging has become the main means of plugging in gas Wells in Xinjiang. These Wells are deep and have high pressure, which can easily affect the fatigue life of the operating coiled tubing. In order to improve the life of coiled tubing in high-pressure gas Wells, this paper studies the plugging conditions of coiled tubing in high-pressure ultra-deep Wells. Firstly, the cross section deformation of coiled tubing under high internal pressure is analyzed. Secondly, the factors influencing the fatigue life of coiled tubing and the influence of surface damage on the fatigue life of coiled tubing were studied. Finally, the mechanism of furrow damage caused by coiled tubing and the main measures to reduce furrow damage are analyzed. The following suggestions are made to improve the life of coiled tubing: select the right material and the right size coiled tubing;Use appropriate measures to prevent premature coiled tubing failure and reduce operating costs.

APPLICATIONS AND MANUFACTURE OF THE MICROSCALE LONG-OPTICAL-PATH ELECTROCHEMICAL CELL WITH A PLUG-IN THIN-LAYER ELECTRODE

The construction and characteristics of a microscale long-optical-path electrochemi- cal cell with a plug-in thin-layer electrode are described.Using ferricyanide as the test species,the thermodynamic parameters of electron transfer processes are determined at car- bon,plantinum,and gold electrodes.

Influence of Incomplete Soil Plugs on Bearing Capacities of Bucket Foundations in Clay

Due to the uneven seabed and heaving of soil during pumping,incomplete soil plugs may occur during the installation of bucket foundations,and the impacts on the bearing capacities of bucket foundations need to be evaluated.In this paper,the contact ratio(the ratio of the top diameter of the soil plug to the diameter of the bucket)and the soil plug ratio(the ratio of the soil heave height to the skirt height)are defined to describe the shape and size of the incomplete soil plug.Then,finite element models are established to investigate the bearing capacities of bucket foundations with incomplete soil plugs and the influences of the contact ratios,and the soil plug ratios on the bearing capacities are analyzed.The results show that the vertical bearing capacity of bucket foundations in homogeneous soil continuously improves with the increase of the contact ratio.However,in normally consolidated soil,the vertical bearing capacity barely changes when the contact ratio is smaller than 0.75,while the bearing capacity suddenly increases when the contact ratio increases to 1 due to the change of failure mode.The contact ratio hardly affects the horizontal bearing capacity of bucket foundations.Moreover,the moment bearing capacity improves with the increase of the contact ratio for small aspect ratios,but hardly varies with increasing contact ratio for aspect ratios larger than 0.5.Consequently,the reduction coefficient method is proposed based on this analysis to calculate the bearing capacities of bucket foundations considering the influence of incomplete soil plugs.The comparison results show that the proposed reduction coefficient method can be used to evaluate the influences of incomplete soil plug on the bearing capacities of bucket foundations.

Experimental investigation of enhancement of carbon dioxide foam stability, pore plugging, and oil recovery in the presence of silica nanoparticles

The influence of surface-modified silica(SiO_2) nanoparticles on the stability and pore plugging properties of foams in porous media was investigated in this study. The pore plugging ability of foams was estimated from the pressure drop induced during foam propagation in porous media. The results clearly showed that the modified Si02 nanoparticlestabilized foam exhibited high stability, and the differential pressure increased in porous media by as much as three times.The addition of SiO_2 nanoparticles to the foaming dispersions further mitigated the adverse effect of oil toward the foam pore plugging ability. Consequently, the oil recovery increased in the presence of nanoparticles by approximately 15%during the enhanced oil recovery experiment. The study suggested that the addition of surface-modified silica nanoparticles to the surfactant solution could considerably improve the conventional foam stability and pore plugging performance in porous media.

Analysis and Online Diagnosis on Plugging Fault of Servo Valve in Electro-hydraulic Regulating System of Steam Turbine

Through the study on the output signals of the electro-hydraulic regulating system in the thermal power plant, a novel method for online diagnosis of the plugging fault in the servo valve is presented. With the use of the AMESIM software, the changes of the piston displacement, the oil pressure, the magnitude attenuation and the phase lag of the system under different plugging states are studied after simulation. Besides, the influences of the symmetrical and unsymmetrical plugging on the system are also compared and the characteristic table is given. The duo-neural network is put forward to achieve an online diagnosis on the plugging fault of the servo valve. The first level of network helps to make the qualitative diagnosis of the plugging position while the second level is for the quantitative diagnosis of the degree of the plugged position. The research results show that plugging at different positions exerts different influences on the performance of the system. The unsymmetrical plugging mainly affects the regulation time while the symmetrical plugging leads to great changes in the magnitude attenuation and the phase lag.

Thermo-sensitive polymer nanospheres as a smart plugging agent for shale gas drilling operations

Emulsifier-free poly（methyl methacrylate-styrene） [P（MMA-St）] nanospheres with an average particle size of 100 nm were synthesized in an isopropyl alcoholwater medium by a solvothermal method. Then, through radical graft copolymerization of thermo-sensitive mono- mer N-isopropylacrylamide （NIPAm） and hydrophilic monomer acrylic acid （AA） onto the surface of P（MMA- St） nanospheres at 80 ℃, a series of thermo-sensitive polymer nanospheres, named SD-SEAL with different lower critical solution temperatures （LCST）, were prepared by adjusting the mole ratio of NIPAm to AA. The products were characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, transmission electron microscopy, thermogravimetric analysis, particle size distribution, and specific surface area analysis. The temperature-sensitive behavior was studied by light transmittance tests, while the sealing performance was investigated by pressure transmission tests with Lungmachi Formation shales. The experimental results showed that the synthesized nanoparticles are sensitive to temperature and had apparent LCST values which increased with an increase in hydrophilic monomer AA. When the temperature was higher than its LCST value, SD- SEAL played a dual role of physical plugging and chemical inhibition, slowed down pressure transmission, and reduced shale permeability remarkably. The plugged layer of shale was changed to being hydrophobic, which greatly improved the shale stability

Effect of the distributor plugging ways on fluidization quality and particle stratification in air dense medium fluidized bed

Gas-solid fluidized bed separation is a highly efficient and clean technique for coal separation,and can effectively remove ash and sulfur contained gangue minerals from coal.However,the fine coal plugging distributor often leads to uneven fluidization and affects the separation effect.In this paper,different plugging ways were designed to study their effects on the fluidization characteristics and particle mixing.It was found that when the plugging phenomenon occurs,the minimum fluidization velocity of the fluidized bed gradually decreases as the plugging area enlarges.The difference between the top and the bottom of the bed minimum fluidization velocity increases accordingly,and a“stagnation phenomenon”occurs in the bed.The standard deviation of pressure fluctuations at the top of the bed is smaller than that at the bottom of the bed,which is the opposite of normal conditions.As the area of the plugging increases,the dead zone on the side wall of the fluidized bed significantly increases.The size of the dead zone is rapid reducing at the initial stage.It was noticed that the stratification of the low-density products is particularly affected by plugging,whereas the stratification of high-density products is not obviously influenced by certain conditions.

LEAKAGE-PLUGGING WHILE DRILLING AND PLUGGING AGENTS

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Effects of fluid flow rate and viscosity on gravel-pack plugging and the optimization of sand-control wells production

Series of experiments were performed to simulate the invasion of formation sand into and the plugging process of gravel-pack at different viscosities and flowing rates of fluid.Two types of formation sands with the medium size of 0.10 mm and 0.16 mm and the quartz sand and ceramsite of 0.6-1.2 mm were used in the experiments.A new viscosity-velocity index(the product of fluid viscosity and velocity)was put forward to characterize the influencing mechanism and law of physical property and flow condition of formation fluid on gravel-pack plugging,and a new method to optimize the production rate of wells controlling sand production with gravel-packing was proposed.The results show that the permeability of formation sand invaded zone and final permeability of plugged gravel-pack have negative correlations with viscosity and flow velocity of fluid,the higher the flow velocity and viscosity,the lower the permeability of formation sand invaded zone and final permeability of plugged gravel-pack will be.The flow velocity and viscosity of fluid are key factors affecting plugging degree of the gravel zone.The viscosity-velocity index(v-v index)can reflect the flow characteristics of fluid very well and make it easier to analyze the plugging mechanism of gravel zone.For different combinations of fluid viscosity and flow velocity,if the v-v index is the same or close,their impact on the final gravel permeability would be the same or close.With the increase of the v-v index,the permeability of plugged gravel zone decreases first,then the reduction rate slows down till the permeability stabilizes.By optimizing production and increasing production step by step,the optimal working scheme for sand-control well can reduce the damage to gravel-pack zone permeability caused by sand-carrying fluid effectively,and increase well productivity and extend the sand control life.

Study of a plugging microbial consortium using crude oil as sole carbon source

A microbial consortium named Y4 capable of producing biopolymers was isolated from petroleum-contaminated soil in the Dagang Oilfield, China. It includes four bacterial strains： Y4-1 （Paenibacillus sp.）, Y4-2 （Actinomadura sp.）, Y4-3 （Uncultured bacterium clone） and Y4-4 （Brevibacillus sp.）. The optimal conditions for the growth of the consortium Y4 were as follows： temperature about 46 ℃, pH about 7.0 and salinity about 20.0 g/L. The major metabolites were analyzed with gas chromatographymass spectrometry （GC-MS）. A comparison was made between individual strains and the microbial consortium for biopolymer production in different treatment processes. The experimental results showed that the microbial consortium Y4 could produce more biopolymers than individual strains, and the reason might be attributed to the synergetic action of strains. The biopolymers were observed with optical and electron microscopes and analyzed by paper chromatography. It was found that the biopolymers produced by the microbial consortium Y4 were insoluble in water and were of reticular structure, and it was concluded that the biopolymers were cellulose. Through a series of simulation experiments with sand cores, it was found that the microbial consortium Y4 could reduce the permeability of reservoir beds, and improve the efficiency of water flooding by growing biomass and producing biopolymers. The oil recovery was enhanced by 3.5% on average. The results indicated that the consortium Y4 could be used in microbial enhanced oil recovery and play an important role in bioremediation of oil polluted environments.

Development and Performance Evaluation of Self-Generating Enhanced Foam Water Plugging System

For the waterflooding of late development on an offshore oilfield has become worse, and some wells group has entered into high water cut-off period, water plugging work becomes particularly important. Due to the limited construction of offshore oilfield, space water supply difficulties, and stability of plugging agent, self-generating enhanced foam has been designed as the aimed block plugging system. The formula is determined as: 23.25% of NH4Cl + 30% of NaNO2 + 0.1% of catalyst + 0.6% of COSL-3 foaming agent + 0.25% of HS-type HPAM foam stabilizer. Measurement point of pipe with permeability of 0.5 μm2 and 2 μm2 has been used in the plugging and EOR experiments. The experiments show that this system has the selective plugging effect for the heterogeneous formation, especially for middle and posterior part of high permeability formation, and the recovery rate of low permeability pipe is enhanced up to 32.15%.

Development of degradable pre-formed particle gel(DPPG)as temporary plugging agent for petroleum drilling and production

Temporary plugging agent(TPA)is widely used in many fields of petroleum reservoir drilling and production,such as temporary plugging while drilling and petroleum well stimulation by diverting in acidizing or fracturing operations.The commonly used TPA mainly includes hard particles,fibers,gels,and composite systems.However,current particles have many limitations in applications,such as insufficient plugging strength and slow degradation rate.In this paper,a degradable pre-formed particle gel(DPPG)was developed.Experimental results show that the DPPG has an excellent static swelling effect and self-degradation performance.With a decrease in the concentration of total monomers or cross-linker,the swelling volume of the synthesized DPPG gradually increases.However,the entire self-degradation time gradually decreases.The increase in 2-acrylamide-2-methylpropanesulfonic acid(AMPS)in the DPPG composition can significantly increase its swelling ratio and shorten the self-degradation time.Moreover,DPPG has excellent high-temperature resistance(150°C)and high-salinity resistance(200,000 mg/L NaCl).Core displacement results show that the DPPG has a perfect plugging effect in the porous media(the plugging pressure gradient was as high as 21.12 MPa),and the damage to the formation after degradation is incredibly minor.Therefore,the DPPG can be used as an up-and-coming TPA in oil fields.

A bull-heading water control technique of thermo-sensitive temporary plugging agent

Aimed at the disadvantages of secondary damage to oil layers caused by the conventional bull-heading water control technique, a thermo-sensitive temporary plugging agent for water control was synthesized by water solution polymerization and applied in the field with a new secondary temporary plugging technique. The optimization and performance evaluation of thermo-sensitive temporary plugging agent were carried out through laboratory experiments. The optimized formula is as follows:(6%-8%) acrylamide +(0.08%-0.12%) ammonium persulfate +(1.5%-2.0%) sepiolite +(0.5%-0.8%) polyethylene glycol diacrylate. The thermo-sensitive temporary plugging agent is suitable for formation temperatures of 70-90 ?C, it has high temporary plugging strength(5-40 k Pa), controllable degradation time(1-15 d), the apparent viscosity after degradation of less than 100 m Pa?S and the permeability recovery value of simulated cores of more than 95%. Based on the research results, secondary temporary plugging technique was used in a horizontal well in the Jidong Oilfield. After treatment, the well saw a drop of water cut to 27%, and now it has a water cut of 67%, its daily increased oil production was 4.8 t, and the cumulative oil increment was 750 t, demonstrating that the technique worked well in controlling water production and increasing oil production.