Study on the pollution law of complex working conditions in sand-filled fracture well washing operation

Aiming at the problem of wellbore leakage in the process of sand washing in horizontal wells, this study systematically analyzed the influence of temperature and pressure on the plugging behavior of flushing fluid through the combination of numerical simulation and experimental experiment, and carried out field application. Based on CT technology, the fracture pore structure was reconstructed, and the particle gradation of the well flushing fluid was optimized by combining the Vickers criterion. The particle-fluid interaction model was established by CFD-DEM coupling method. The experimental and simulation results show that the increase of pressure will enhance the sand carrying capacity of fluid, which will lead to the increase of particle invasion depth and aggravate the risk of deep pollution. When the temperature increases, the shallow retention capacity of the particles is enhanced by promoting the thermal expansion of the particles and reducing the viscosity of the well flushing fluid, and the invasion depth is significantly reduced, forming an efficient shallow plugging. The research reveals the law of pressure and temperature on pollution behavior, and provides a theoretical basis for particle system optimization and process parameter design of well washing operation under complex working conditions. The field test shows that the well washing fluid suitable for the formation temperature is optimized, and the construction displacement is reasonably controlled, which can effectively reduce the leakage in the sand washing process and shorten the production recovery period.

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Publication Details

Journal
PLoS ONE
Published
2026-06-08
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0343870
Primary Topic
Drilling and Well Engineering
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
0.00

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article

Study on the pollution law of complex working conditions in sand-filled fracture well washing operation

Xingbang Meng, Kang Zhang, Wei Shi, Yan Zhuang et al.
PLoS ONE
Drilling and Well Engineering
article

Study on the pollution law of complex working conditions in sand-filled fracture well washing operation

Xingbang Meng, Kang Zhang, Wei Shi, Yan Zhuang, Qi Yang, Dejun Li, Shifeng Zhang
article en

Abstract

Aiming at the problem of wellbore leakage in the process of sand washing in horizontal wells, this study systematically analyzed the influence of temperature and pressure on the plugging behavior of flushing fluid through the combination of numerical simulation and experimental experiment, and carried out field application. Based on CT technology, the fracture pore structure was reconstructed, and the particle gradation of the well flushing fluid was optimized by combining the Vickers criterion. The particle-fluid interaction model was established by CFD-DEM coupling method. The experimental and simulation results show that the increase of pressure will enhance the sand carrying capacity of fluid, which will lead to the increase of particle invasion depth and aggravate the risk of deep pollution. When the temperature increases, the shallow retention capacity of the particles is enhanced by promoting the thermal expansion of the particles and reducing the viscosity of the well flushing fluid, and the invasion depth is significantly reduced, forming an efficient shallow plugging. The research reveals the law of pressure and temperature on pollution behavior, and provides a theoretical basis for particle system optimization and process parameter design of well washing operation under complex working conditions. The field test shows that the well washing fluid suitable for the formation temperature is optimized, and the construction displacement is reasonably controlled, which can effectively reduce the leakage in the sand washing process and shorten the production recovery period.

PLoS ONEVol. 21(6)
Daqing Oilfield General Hospital (CN), Changzhou University (CN), China National Petroleum Corporation (China) (CN)
Natural Science Foundation of Shandong Province
Openalex Percentile: Top 8%
Drilling and Well Engineering
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Study on the pollution law of complex working conditions in sand-filled fracture well washing operation — Xingbang Meng, Kang Zhang, et al. · PLoS ONE (2026) | TGRS Research Map | TGRS