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SMP and Fracture Modeling

Metadata Updated: July 25, 2023

The problem of loss circulation in geothermal wells is inherently challenging due to high temperatures, brittle rocks, and presence of abundant fractures. Because of the inherent challenges in geothermal environments, there are limitations in selecting proper lost circulation materials (LCMs). Traditional LCMs such as calcium carbonates that are commonly used in the oil and gas drilling may be softened and prone to failure during geothermal drilling. Moreover, evaluating the performance of different LCMs for geothermal drilling requires unique testing setups, which is expensive, and complicated to run due to harsh environmental conditions of geothermal systems. Herein, we present a numerical approach to simulate LCM transport and bridging through fractures in downhole conditions. By discrete element methods, each individual particle trajectory, and their interactions with the fluid and surrounding particles are incorporated into the analysis. To validate the model, we used experimental results acquired from a high-temperature flow loop system built specifically for this purpose. We took a further step in this work and considered LCM particles that are made from a shape memory polymer (SMP). These particles start expanding and adhering to each other in downhole conditions. The use of SMP is shown to be advantageous in sealing large fractures (3 mm aperture). We demonstrated how numerical modelling may supplement laboratory tests to show initiation of the bridging process, fracture plugging or even its failure. Using the proposed methodology may significantly reduce the number of experiments needed to find an effective LCM recipe, hence drillers can save time and costs by assessing different LCM systems numerically.

Access & Use Information

Public: This dataset is intended for public access and use. License: Creative Commons Attribution

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Dates

Metadata Created Date June 23, 2023
Metadata Updated Date July 25, 2023

Metadata Source

Harvested from OpenEI data.json

Additional Metadata

Resource Type Dataset
Metadata Created Date June 23, 2023
Metadata Updated Date July 25, 2023
Publisher University of Oklahoma
Maintainer
Identifier https://data.openei.org/submissions/5895
Data First Published 2021-10-01T06:00:00Z
Data Last Modified 2023-06-22T18:01:13Z
Public Access Level public
Bureau Code 019:20
Metadata Context https://openei.org/data.json
Metadata Catalog ID https://openei.org/data.json
Schema Version https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema
Catalog Describedby https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.json
Data Quality True
Harvest Object Id 2b5297a8-5464-4f42-abfb-bdb21362e015
Harvest Source Id 7cbf9085-0290-4e9f-bec1-91653baeddfd
Harvest Source Title OpenEI data.json
Homepage URL https://gdr.openei.org/submissions/1459
License https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Old Spatial {"type":"Polygon","coordinates":-167.7267,13.518,-53.8316,13.518,-53.8316,75.0714,-167.7267,75.0714,-167.7267,13.518}
Program Code 019:006
Projectlead Angel Nieto
Projectnumber EE0008602
Projecttitle Developing Advanced Lost Prevention Methods and Smart Wellbore Strengthening Materials for Geothermal Wells
Source Datajson Identifier True
Source Hash 3f1e368272181ab0359958ae46e4334f1a2d724e
Source Schema Version 1.1
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