Hydraulic Fracture Design and Evaluation

Instructor:

Jon Olson
Dept. of Petroleum and Geosystems Engineering
Office: CPE 5.168B
phone: 471-7375
e-mail: jolson@pe.utexas.edu
Office hours: MWF 1-2.

Meeting:

MTWThF 10am, 3 credits, Rm. CPE 2.210.

Grading:

Mid-term Exam, 35%
Final Exam, 35%
Homework, 20%
Class participation, 10%

University Policies

The University of Texas at Austin provides upon request appropriate adjustments for qualified students with disabilities. For more information, contact the Office of the Dean of Students at 471-6259, 471-4241 TDD or the College of Engineering Director of Students with Disabilities at 471-4382.


Scholastic dishonesty will not be tolerated and incidents of dishonesty will be reported.

Course Outline:

Introduction, discussion of syllabus
Fractured Well Performance
• Radial flow
• Infinite conductivity fracture
• Finite conductivity fractures
Rock Mechanics Review
• Stress and Strain
• Material properties
• Plane elasticity
• Fracture mechanics
• Displacement field around a crack
• Stress field around a crack
In situ stress
• Mechanical properties from acoustic logs
• Geologic stress relationships
• Near wellbore stresses
• Fracture height prediction
Hydraulic Fracture Geometry
• Perkins and Kern
• Khristianovich and Zheltov
• 3d models
• Horizontal and deviated well fracturing
Fracturing Fluid Rheology
• Constitutive laws
• Slot flow
• Proppant transport
Material Balance and Fluid Leak-off
• Spurt Loss
• Leak-off filter cake coefficient
• Leak-off as flow in porous media
Coupled Models
• Width equations
• Design formula
• Pressure decline analysis
Hydraulic Fracture Diagnostics
• Tracer logs
• Temperature logs
• Tiltmeter analysis

Textbook :

Hydraulic Fracture Mechanics, 1995, Peter Valko, Michael J. Economides, Wiley, 298 p.