Nie Song, Gao Sujuan, Li Haitao, Yin Dandan
School of Petrochemical Engineering Environment, Zhejiang Ocean University, Zhoushan, Zhejiang 306022, China.
Petroleum Engineering School, Southwest Petroleum University, Chengdu, Sichaun 610500, China.
ACS Omega. 2025 Aug 7;10(32):36496-36510. doi: 10.1021/acsomega.5c04965. eCollection 2025 Aug 19.
Horizontal well technology has emerged as a key approach in oil and gas development, particularly for addressing sand production and water breakthrough in offshore reservoirs. To improve the design and efficiency of gravel packing in water control completions, a novel two-dimensional, time-dependent numerical model is developed to simulate slurry flow behavior in horizontal sections. The model accounts for the coupled flow in the screen-wellbore and screen-base pipe annuli, incorporating governing equations for momentum, mass conservation, formation filtration, and gravel settling. The computational domain is discretized by using the finite difference method, and the nonlinear algebraic system is solved via the BFGS quasi-Newton algorithm. Boundary conditions include a slurry inlet velocity of 0.159 m/min and an initial gravel concentration of 59.87 kg/m, using 40/60 mesh gravel suspended in a Newtonian brine-based fluid. Experimental validation was performed under two scenarios: with and without auxiliary flow tools. Results show good agreement between simulation and measurements with maximum relative errors of 7.1% and 4.65%, respectively. The auxiliary flow tool significantly reduces the level of gravel accumulation and delays sand plugging. This work provides a validated predictive model and offers valuable guidance for optimizing gravel packing and water control strategies in complex horizontal well completions.
水平井技术已成为油气开发中的一种关键方法，特别是用于解决海上油藏的出砂和水突破问题。为了提高控水完井中砾石充填的设计和效率，开发了一种新颖的二维、随时间变化的数值模型，以模拟水平段中的浆液流动行为。该模型考虑了筛管-井筒和筛管-基管环空中的耦合流动，纳入了动量、质量守恒、地层过滤和砾石沉降的控制方程。通过有限差分法对计算域进行离散，并通过BFGS拟牛顿算法求解非线性代数系统。边界条件包括浆液入口速度为0.159 m/min和初始砾石浓度为59.87 kg/m，使用悬浮在基于牛顿盐水的流体中的40/60目砾石。在两种情况下进行了实验验证：有无辅助流动工具。结果表明，模拟和测量结果吻合良好，最大相对误差分别为7.1%和4.65%。辅助流动工具显著降低了砾石堆积水平并延迟了砂堵。这项工作提供了一个经过验证的预测模型，并为优化复杂水平井完井中的砾石充填和控水策略提供了有价值的指导。
