Characteristics & erosion study of uncoated sand proppant under flowback condition

United States is the main supplier country for brown and natural white sand that have widely been used for hydraulic fracturing. The large amount of sandstone formation in Malaysia offers abundant amount of silica sand that be high potential to be developed. Eight different samples were collected from Terengganu coastal area in the east of Peninsular Malaysia. The procedures and evaluation test of the sand samples were performed following ISO 13503-2 such as sieve analysis, roundness and sphericity, acid solubility, turbidity and crush resistance. During well stimulation treatments, proppant in slurries may damage pumping equipment and have been shown to erode perforation tunnels. This paper also will examine the erosion mechanisms of the samples toward two types of metal target, 6061 aluminium and mild steel by using impingement test. The results presented that the eight samples have a bulk density of 1.47 ~ 1.56 g/cc with roundness and sphericity of 0.32 to 0.72. The acid solubility was found in the range of 2.79 to 12.20% while the turbidity ranging between 14 to 39 of Formazin Turbidity Unit (FTU). The sieve analysis showed the samples were larger or equal to 16/20 and the particles strength of Sample 2 and Sample 3 were the highest K-value around 2000 – 2500 psi. For erosion analysis, the 6061 aluminium showed good resistance of metal loss compared to mild steel.