Influences of clean fracturing fluid viscosity and horizontal in-situ stress difference on hydraulic fracture propagation and morphology in coal seam

The viscosity of fracturing fluid and in-situ stress difference are the two important factors that affect the hydraulic fracturing pressure and propagation morphology. In this study, raw coal was used to prepare coal samples for experiments, and clean fracturing fluid samples were prepared using CTAB surfactant. A series of hydraulic fracturing tests were conducted with an in-house developed triaxial hydraulic fracturing simulator and the fracturing process was monitored with an acoustic emission instrument to analyze the influences of fracturing fluid viscosity and horizontal in-situ stress difference on coal fracture propagation. The results show that the number of branched fractures decreased, the fracture pattern became simpler, the fractures width increased obviously, and the distribution of AE event points was concentrated with the increase of the fracturing fluid viscosity or the horizontal in-situ stress difference. The acoustic emission energy decreases with the increase of fracturing fluid viscosity and increases with the increase of horizontal in situ stress difference. The low viscosity clean fracturing fluid has strong elasticity and is easy to be compressed into the tip of fractures, resulting in complex fractures. The high viscosity clean fracturing fluids are the opposite. Our experimental results provide a reference and scientific basis for the design and optimization of field hydraulic fracturing parameters.

Experimental investigation of propagation mechanisms and fracture morphology for coalbed methane reservoirs

Fracture propagation mechanisms in coalbed methane(CBM) reservoirs are very complex due to the development of the internal cleat system. In this paper, the characteristics of initiation and propagation of hydraulic fractures in coal specimens at different angles between the face cleat and the maximum horizontal principal stress were investigated with hydraulic fracturing tests. The results indicate that the interactions between the hydraulic fractures and the cleat system have a major effect on fracture networks. "Step-like’’ fractures were formed in most experiments due to the existence of discontinuous butt cleats. The hydraulic fractures were more likely to divert or propagate along the butt cleat with an increase in the angles and a decrease in the horizontal principal stress difference. An increase in the injection rate and a decrease in the fracturing fluid viscosity were more conducive to fracture networks. In addition, the influence on fracture propagation of the residual coal fines in the wellbore was also studied. The existence of coal fines was an obstacle in fracturing, and no effective connection can be formed between fractures. The experimental investigation revealed the fracture propagation mechanisms and can provide guidance for hydraulic fracturing design of CBM reservoirs.

A new approach for flow simulation in complex hydraulic fracture morphology and its application:Fracture connection element method

Efficient flow simulation and optimization methods of hydraulic fracture morphology in unconventional reservoirs are effective ways to enhance oil/gas recovery.Based on the connection element method(CEM)and distribution of stimulated reservoir volume,the complex hydraulic fracture morphology was accurately described using heterogeneous node connection system.Then a new fracture connection element method(FCEM)for fluid flow in stimulated unconventional reservoirs with complex hydraulic fracture morphology was proposed.In the proposed FCEM,the arrangement of dense nodes in the stimulated area and sparse nodes in the unstimulated area ensures the calculation accuracy and efficiency.The key parameter,transmissibility,was also modified according to the strong heterogeneity of stimulated reservoirs.The finite difference and semi-analytical tracking were used to accurately solve the pressure and saturation distribution between nodes.The FCEM is validated by comparing with traditional numerical simulation method,and the results show that the bottom hole pressure simulated by the FCEM is consistent with the results from traditional numerical simulation method,and the matching rate is larger than 95%.The proposed FCEM was also used in the optimization of fracturing parameters by coupling the hydraulic fracture propagation method and intelligent optimization algorithm.The integrated intelligent optimization approach for multi-parameters,such as perforation number,perforation location,and displacement in hydraulic fracturing is proposed.The proposed approach was applied in a shale gas reservoir,and the result shows that the optimized perforation location and morphology distribution are related to the distribution of porosity/permeability.When the perforation location and displacement are optimized with the same fracture number,NPV increases by 70.58%,which greatly improves the economic benefits of unconventional reservoirs.This work provides a new way for flow simulation and optimization of hydraulic fracture morphology of multi-fractured horizontal wells in unconventional reservoirs.

SOLIDIFICATION MICROSTRUCTURE AND FRACTURE MORPHOLOGY OF SiCp/ZA27 COMPOSITE

Solidification microstructure and mechanical property are explored.Furthermore,tensile fracture and microstructure are analyzed by using SEM and JXA 840A electron probe.The results indicate that SiC particles in SiCp/ZA27 composite are mainly distributed on interfaces or between dendrites and surrounded by primary α phase.The dendrite of α phase is fined by SiCp.The tensile strength at room temperature decreases with the increasing of SiCp addition.The tensile strength at elevated temperature increases with the addition of SiCp.The fracture of SiCp/ZA27 composites is the mixture of tough and brittle fracture.The carck is prone to extend along the interface and the region of dispersed shrinkage.

Morphology and Propagation of Hydraulic Fractures for CBM Wells

Objective As the most widely used and effective technique in reservoir reconstruction of unconventional natural gas,hydraulic fracturing has been achieved good effect in CBM development.It is important to note that coal seam is both source rock and reservoir,

Thermally-induced cracking behaviors of coal reservoirs subjected to cryogenic liquid nitrogen shock

The benefits of using cryogenic liquid nitrogen shock to enhance coal permeability have been confirmed from experimental perspectives.In this paper,we develop a fully coupled thermo-elastic model in combination with the strain-based isotropic damage theory to uncover the cooling-dominated cracking behaviors through three typical cases,i.e.coal reservoirs containing a wellbore,a primary fracture,and a natural fracture network,respectively.The progressive cracking processes,from thermal fracture initiation,propagation or cessation,deflection,bifurcation to multi-fracture interactions,can be well captured by the numerical model.It is observed that two hierarchical levels of thermal fractures are formed,in which the number of shorter thermal fractures consistently exceeds that of the longer ones.The effects of coal properties related to thermal stress levels and thermal diffusivity on the fracture morphology are quantified by the fracture fractal dimension and the statistical fracture number.The induced fracture morphology is most sensitive to changes in the elastic modulus and thermal expansion coefficient,both of which dominate the complexity of the fracture networks.Coal reservoir candidates with preferred thermal-mechanical properties are also recommended for improving the stimulation effect.Further findings are that there exists a critical injection temperature and a critical in-situ stress difference,above which no thermal fractures would be formed.Preexisting natural fractures with higher density and preferred orientations are also essential for the formation of complex fracture networks.The obtained results can provide some theoretical support for cryogenic fracturing design in coal reservoirs.

Microstructures and mechanical properties of Mg-Al-Sm series heat-resistant magnesium alloys

The microstructures and phase compositions of the as-cast and die-cast Mg-6.02Al-1.03 Sm, Mg-6.05Al-0.98Sm-0.56 Bi and Mg-5.95Al-1.01Sm-0.57 Zn alloys were investigated. Meanwhile, the tensile mechanical and flow properties were tested. The results show that the as-cast microstructure of Mg-6.02Al-1.03 Sm alloy is composed of δ-Mg matrix, discontinuous δ-Mg17Al12 phase and small block Al2 Sm phase with high thermal stability. Rod Mg3Bi2 phase precipitates when Bi is added, while the added metal Zn dissolves into δ-Mg matrix and δ-Mg17Al12 phase. The as-cast alloys exhibit the excellent tensile mechanical property. The tensile strength（δb） and elongation（δ） can reach 205-235 MPa and 8.5%-16.0% at ambient temperature, respectively. Meanwhile, they can also exceed 160 MPa and 14.0% at 423 K, respectively. The die-cast microstructures are refined obviously, and meanwhile the broken second phases distribute dispersedly. The die-cast alloys exhibit better tensile mechanical properties with the values of δb and δ of 240-285 MPa and 8.5%-16.5% at ambient temperature, respectively, and excellent flow property with the flow length of 1870-2420 mm. The die-cast tensile fractures at ambient temperature exhibit a typical character of ductile fracture.

Microstructure and mechanical properties of heat-treated Ti-5Al-2Sn-2Zr-4Mo-4Cr

The effects of heat treatment parameters on the microstructure,and mechanical properties and fractured morphology of Ti-5Al-2Sn-2Zr-4Mo-4Cr with the equiaxed,bi-modal and Widmanst？tten microstructures were investigated.The heating temperatures for obtaining the equiaxed,bi-modal and Widmanst？tten microstructures were 830,890 and 920 °C,respectively,followed by furnace cooling at a holding time of 30 min.The volume fraction of primary α phase decreased with increasing the heating temperature,which was 45.8% at 830 °C,and decreased to 15.5% at 890 °C,and then the primary α phase disappeared at 920 °C during furnace cooling.The variation of volume fraction of primary α phase in air cooling is similar to that in furnace cooling.The increase in heating temperature and furnace cooling benefited the precipitation and growth of the secondary α phase.The equiaxed microstructure exhibited excellent mechanical properties,in which the ultimate strength,yield strength,elongation and reduction in area were 1035 MPa,1011 MPa,20.8% and 58.7%,respectively.The yield strength and elongation for the bi-modal microstructure were slightly lower than those of the equiaxed microstructure.The Widmanst？tten microstructure exhibited poor ductility and low yield strength,while the ultimate strength reached 1078 MPa.The dimple fractured mechanism for the equiaxed and bi-modal microstructures proved excellent ductility.The coexistence of dimple and intercrystalline fractured mechanisms for the Widmanst？tten microstructure resulted in the poor ductility.

Effect of microstructure on impact toughness of magnesium alloys

Microstructures of as-cast and extruded ZK60-xRE （RE=Dy, Ho and Gd, x=0-5, mass fraction） alloys were investigated. Meanwhile, the impact toughness was tested and then the relationship was discussed. The results show that as-cast microstructure is refined gradually with increasing the RE content. Mg-Zn-RE new phase increases gradually, while MgZn2 phase decreases gradually to disappear. Second phase tends to distribute along grain boundary in continuous network. Extruded microstructure is refined obviously to reach the micron level. Broken second phase tends to distribute along the extrusion direction in zonal shape. Impact toughness value -nK increases from 9-17 J/cm2 for as-cast state to 26-54 J/cm2 for extruded state. With increasing the value of -nK, fracture macro-morphology changes from a rough plane via multi-plane with step to V-type plane; and from single radiation zone to two zones of fiber and shear lip, respectively. Fracture micro-morphology changes from the brittle fracture to the ductile fracture. Fine grain and few fine dispersed second phase can enhance the impact toughness of magnesium alloys effectively.

Effect of T7951 secondary aging treatment on crack propagation behavior of 7055 aluminum alloy

The crack propagation rates of T6 peak aging and T7951 secondary aging 7055 aluminium alloys were tested under stress ratios (R) of 0.6, 0.05 and ?1, respectively. The microstructures and fracture surfaces were analyzed by TEM and SEM. The results reveal that the crack propagation rate is affected by the stress ratio and microstructure such as the distribution, dimension and volume fraction of matrix precipitates, grain boundary precipitates and precipitate free zone. For both heat-treated specimens, crack propagation rate increases with the improvement of R when it is a positive value while crack propagation rate at R=?1 is much similar to that at R=0.06. The crack growth rates exhibit no obvious difference in lower stress intensity factor range (ΔK), while the difference starts to be obvious when ΔK exceeds certain value. The fracture analysis testifies a better fracture toughness for 7055-T7951 with a smaller striation space in Paris region.

Effects of Gd on microstructure and mechanical property of ZK60 magnesium alloy

Microstructures and phase compositions of as-cast and extruded ZK60-xGd （x=0-4） alloys were investigated. Meanwhile, the tensile mechanical property was tested. With increasing the Gd content, as-cast microstructure is refined gradually. Mg-Zn-Gd new phase increases gradually, while MgZn2 phase decreases gradually to disappear. The second phase tends to distribute along grain boundary by continuous network. As-cast tensile mechanical property is reduced slightly at ambient temperature when the Gd content does not exceed 2.98%. After extrusion by extrusion ratio of 40 and extrusion temperature of 593 K, microstructure is refined further with decreasing the average grain size to 2 μm for ZK60-2.98Gd alloy. Broken second phase distributes along the extrusion direction by zonal shape. Extruded tensile mechanical property is enhanced significantly. Tensile strength values at 298 and 473 K increase gradually from 355 and 120 MPa for ZK60 alloy to 380 and 164 MPa for ZK60-2.98Gd alloy, respectively. Extruded tensile fractures exhibit a typical character of ductile fracture.

Size effects on deformation behavior of C5210 phosphor bronze thin sheet

To investigate the effects of thickness and grain size on mechanical and deformation properties of C5210 phosphor bronze thin sheets, samples with different grain sizes were obtained through annealing heat treatment at different temperatures; and then tensile tests of samples with different thicknesses and grain sizes were conducted at room temperature. The results show that yield strength increases with decreasing thickness from 800 to 50 μm, but work hardening exponent and total elongation decrease, and a modified model was proposed to describe the relation between yield strength and thickness; yield strength decreases as the grain size increases, but work hardening exponent shows an increasing trend, total elongation increases to a peak and then decreases. Fracture morphology of tensile specimens was observed by SEM, which indicates that all tensile specimens are ductile fracture. The dimple intensity increases as the specimen thickness increases but reduces with the specimen grain size increasing.

Hot tensile deformation behavior and globularization mechanism of bimodal microstructured Ti-6Al-2Zr-1Mo-1V alloy

The hot deformation behavior,microstructure evolution and fracture characteristics of bimodal microstructured Ti-6Al-2Zr-1Mo-1V alloy were investigated by isothermal tensile tests.Results reveal that flow softening is caused by dynamic globularization of the bimodal microstructure,which also results in a relatively high stress exponent and thermal activation energy.The corresponding SEM,EBSD and TEM observations indicate that the dynamic globularization at750and800℃is accomplished by the formation ofα/αsub-grain boundary and penetration of theβphase.However,dynamic recrystallization(DRX)is the main globularization mechanism at850℃,which was proved by the generation of fine grains with a necklace-like character due to the transformation of low-angle boundaries(LABs)into high-angle boundaries(HABs).With an increase in the deformation temperature or a decrease in the strain rate,the fracture mechanism changes from microvoid coalescence to intergranular fracture.

Microstructure and tensile properties of low cost titanium alloys at different cooling rate

Titanium and titanium alloys have several advantages, but the cost of titanium alloys is very expensive compared with the traditional metal materials. This article introduces two new low-cost titanium alloys Ti-2.1Cr-1.3Fe (TCF alloy) and Ti-3Al-2.1Cr-1.3Fe (TACF alloy). In this study, we used Cr-Fe master alloy as one of the raw materials to develop the two new alloys. We introduce the microstructure and tensile properties of the two new alloys from β solution treated with different cooling methods. Optical microscopy (OM), X-ray diffractometry (XRD), and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) were employed to analyze the phase constitution, and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) was used to observe the fracture surfaces. The results indicate that the microstructures consist of β grain boundary and α′ martensite after water quenching (WQ), β matrix and α phase after air cooling (AC) and furnace cooling (FC), respectively. Also, the microstructure is the typical basketweave structures after FC. Of course, athermal ω is also observed by TEM after WQ. The strength increases with decreasing cooling rates and the plasticity is reversed. Because of the athermal ω, the strength and ductility are highest and lowest when the cooling method is WQ. The strength of TACF alloy is higher than the TCF alloy, but the plasticity is lower. The fracture surfaces are almost entirely covered with dimples under the cooling methods of AC and FC. Also, we observe an intergranular fracture area that is generated by athermal ω, although some dimples are observed after WQ.

Fracture properties of epoxy asphalt mixture based on extended finite element method

Crack is found to be a major distress that affects the performance of the epoxy asphalt pavement.An extended finite element method was proposed for investigating the fracture properties of the epoxy asphalt mixture.Firstly,the single-edge notched beam test was used to analyze the temperature effect and calculate the material parameters.Then,the mechanical responses were studied using numerical analysis.It is concluded that 5℃ can be selected as the critical temperature that affects the fracture properties,and numerical simulations indicate that crack propagation is found to significantly affect the stress state of the epoxy asphalt mixture.The maximum principal stress at the crack surface exhibits different trends at various temperatures.Numerical solution of stress intensity factor can well meet the theoretical solution,especially when the temperature is lower than 5℃.

Effects of laser heat treatment on the fracture morphologies of X80 pipeline steel welded joints by stress corrosion

The surfaces of X80 pipeline steel welded joints were processed with a CO2 laser, and the effects of laser heat treatment （LHT） on H2S stress corrosion in the National Association of Corrosion Engineers （NACE） solution were analyzed by a slow strain rate test. The fracture morphologies and chemical components of corrosive products before and after LHT were analyzed by scanning electron microscopy and energy-dispersive spectroscopy, respectively, and the mechanism of LHT on stress corrosion cracking was discussed. Results showed that the fracture for welded joints was brittle in its original state, while it was transformed to a ductile fracture after LHT. The tendencies of hydrogen-induced corrosion were reduced, and the stress corrosion sensitivity index decreased from 35.2% to 25.3%, indicating that the stress corrosion resistance of X80 pipeline steel welded joints has been improved by LHT.

Tensile behaviors of fatigued AZ31 magnesium alloy

The relationship between microstructure and tensile behaviors of fatigued AZ31 magnesium alloy was investigated. Axial fatigue tests were performed on PLG-100 fatigue machine at stresses of 50 and 90 MPa. Tensile samples were cut from the fatigued samples, named as L-sample and H-sample respectively, and the O-sample was cut from original rolled AZ31 alloy. The EBSD and TEM were used to characterize the microstructure. It is found that the twinning-detwinning was the main deformation mechanism in high stress fatigue test, while dislocation slipping was dominant in low stress fatigue test. After fatigue tests, the average grain size of the L-sample and H-sample decreased to 4.71 and 5.33 μm, and the tensile and yield strength of the L-sample and H-sample increased slightly. By analyzing SEM images, the ultimate fracture region of the L-sample consisted of dimples, while there were many microvoids in the ultimate fracture region of the H-sample. Consequently, the tensile behaviors of fatigued magnesium have a close relationship with microstructure.

Evolution characteristics of microstructure and properties in AZ31 alloy during high cycle fatigue processes

In order to investigate the microstructure and properties evolution of the AZ31magnesium alloy in different cycles(including104(sample1),106(sample2)and none(sample3,no fatigue tests on the samples))of high cycle deformation,thescanning electron microscopy(SEM)and electron back-scattered diffraction technique(EBSD)were fully used.It is found that many{1012}tension twins(near21%,volume fraction),a few{1011}compression twins and{1011}?{1012}secondary twins aregenerated during tension?compression cyclic deformation.The volume fractions of{1012}twins in samples1,2and3are8%,21%and4%,respectively.By analyzing the fatigue fracture of the samples,larger area of fatigue striations and cleavage fracture insamples are also observed,as well as the shallower dimples.The twin laminae are likely to occur in the crack initiation zone whiledimples are in the final fracture region and the dimple size increases with the increase of the cycle number.The dimple diameters ofsamples1,2and3are14.8,31.2and8.5μm,respectively.It turns out that both the fatigue strength and elongation of the samplesslightly decrease with increasing the cycle number.

Characterization of W80Cu20 alloy sheet prepared by hot-rolling

Multi-pass hot-rolling technique was used to fabricate W80Cu20 alloy,and its properties were characterized in this paper.Results show that the W-Cu alloy sheets with a thickness of 0.5 mm and a relative density of99.87%can be successfully made using this new technique at 800℃.In hot-rolling process,Cu phases are closely surrounded by W particles under the rolling stress to form a network microstructure,thus making significant increase in electrical and thermal conductivity up to53.00%and 24.44%,respectively.Transverse and longitudinal hardness of the W–Cu sheets significantly increase due to the enhanced densification and deformation strength.Similar to that of the raw materials,three fracture types were observed in the hot-rolled materials,i.e.,ductile fracture of Cu binding phases,trans-granular fracture of W phases,and W–W interfacial fracture.