Abstract
Sanding onset and sand production under non-isothermal conditions are of interest both for thermally related Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) in conventional reservoirs and fluid production in gas hydrate bearing formations (GHBF) for sand control and optimized production purposes. The thermal-hydraulic-mechanical coupling with hydrate decomposition (THMD) process must be considered once a supercritical condition is surpassed during wellbore depressurization, heating and a combined process during drilling, injection and production. In this paper, the mechanical responses considering the THMD effect is calculated by a poro-elastplastic model in which a linear Mohr-Coulomb yielding criterion is incorporated. The formation cohesion is assumed to be hydrate saturation-dependent. Sand production onset and the volumetric sand production is determined by an effective plastic strain (EPS) and postulated proportional to the sanding radius, respectively. The sand rates both from conventional and GHBS of experimental testing data are simulated and validated by the proposed model.
