Influence of proppant concentration on rheological parameters of slick water

Proppant concentration is one of the main parameters used to design, characterize and describe hydraulic fracturing process, as well as properties of proppant transport and fracturing fluid such as viscosity and viscoelasticity. Low viscosity fracturing fluids decrease proppant transport capability while high viscosity fracturing fluids increase pumping time, proppant transport properties and also the fracture width. A larger proppant size leads to a high permeability of the reservoirs while applying a low stress closure but it requires enough large fracture width to be transported during the process. So combining those parameters in a right way will lead to the achievement of a high performance hydraulic fracturing process. The goal of this paper is to analyze the influence of proppant concentration addition on rheological properties of hydraulic fracturing fluid, using slick water and sand proppant; rheological models are reviewed, and based on the experimental values of different proppant concentrations, the best rheological model describing this process has been chosen based on the best fit curve. A new approach based model is developed in the way of well describing the hydraulic fracturing process. Details are given of the important properties related to hydraulic fracturing fluid. Lab testing results are presented as support to observations made.