Sand production is a phenomenon that occurs when moving fluids through the reservoir apply a drag force on the rock matrix greater than the forces of the formation grains. To understand sand production and its mechanisms, it is necessary to use models that make a more real approach to the behavior of fluid and rock. In addition, this kind of models allow forecasting the sand production potential of the formations of interest in order to design the well completion, to optimize fluids¿ production and avoid setbacks in future operations.
In this work, a sand production model is developed and its main scope is to estimate the onset of sand production and quantify the rate of sand production associated with the production of fluids in a non-consolidated formation. The main variables included in the model are the pressure drop around the producing well, the depletion of the reservoir, the in situ stresses and the deformations. This work recognizes the importance of using an elastoplastic constitutive model to simulate the mechanical behavior of the rock. The proposed model consists in a fluid flow module, a geomechanical module and a sand production module. The model is applied to study and represent a sand production test. During modeling, it performs an adjustment of parameters in order to reproduce the mechanical behavior and the sand production. The results obtained with this simulation model reached an error close to 4.25% compared to the actual case. Subsequently, it shows that for modeling the behavior of poorly consolidated formations the use of elastoplastic stress-strain constitutive models is indispensable. The results shows that sand production is especially dependent on the plastic deformation of the material, the flow rate and the affected area. Finally, the results for a forecast exercise about sand production using the proposed model are presented.
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