Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 181 (2019) 106171

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Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/petrol

Large-scale true tri-axial fracturing experimental investigation on diversion T

behavior of fiber using 3D printing model of rock formation
Lufeng Zhanga,b,∗, Fujian Zhoua,b,∗∗, Jianye Moua, Maysam Pournikc, Shaodan Taoa,
Daobing Wangd, Yuechun Wanga,b
a
State Key Laboratory of Petroleum Resources and Prospecting, China University of Petroleum at Beijing, 102249, China
b
The Unconventional Natural Gas Institute, China University of Petroleum at Beijing, 102249, China
c
The Mechanical Engineering Institute, University of Texas at Rio Grande Valley, 78541, USA
d
School of Mechanical Engineering, Beijing Institute of Petrochemical Technology, Beijing, 102617, China

A R T I C LE I N FO A B S T R A C T

Keywords: The complex carbonate reservoir is characterized by strong heterogeneity, developed natural fractures, and high
Temporary plugging temperature. In order to enhance its stimulation effect and hydrocarbon production, temporary plugging and
Diversion diverting acid fracturing technology was proposed. However, using traditional downhole tools is high-risk and
Fibers costly, sometimes even ineffective to achieve diversion of fractures. Compared with mechanical diversion as-
Acid fracturing
sisted with tools, fibers diversion has become an effective and low-cost alternative for safe, tool-free and con-
Stimulated reservoir volume (SRV)
venient operation. It has been pilot applied in some fields and the stimulation results are favorable. However, the
temporary plugging and diversion behavior of fibers has not been systemically studied. Hence, based on the
reproduced fracture model by 3D printing technology, a series of experiments were performed to investigate the
effect of carrier fluid type, the length and concentration of fibers, and injection rate on temporary plugging.
Furthermore, based on the modified true tri-axial fracturing system, four groups of experiments were also
conducted to verify the feasibility of fiber-assisted diverting acid fracturing, in which natural carbonate outcrop
cubic blocks with the dimension of 300 mm × 300 mm × 300 mm were used. The results of temporary plugging
experiments show that the temporary plugging effect of HPG fracturing fluid is better than that of slick water. In
addition, the effect of temporary plugging increases with increase of fiber length, concentration, and injection
rate. Under experiment condition, the fibers with the length of 6 mm and the concentration of 1 wt%, and the
injection rate of 60 mL/min are recommended. When the horizontal principle stress difference was below 5 MPa,
the results of true tri-axial diverting fracturing experiments show that two mutually perpendicular fractures was
created on the end face of the cubic core, which verifies the validity of fiber-assisted diverting fracturing.
However, it's difficult for the fracture created during fiber-assisted acid fracturing to divert when the horizontal
principle stress exceeds 7.5 MPa. Moreover, it can produce a fracture that is nearly parallel to the previously
created fracture. This study deepens the understanding on the mechanisms of fiber-assist diverting acid frac-
turing and provides fundamental for field treatment design.

1. Introduction diversion and chemical diversion (Gutierrez et al., 2015). Traditional

Temporary plugging diversion is a broad concept, which was ori-
ginally applied in matrix acidizing of carbonate reservoirs to achieve
uniform acid distribution. Recently, it has been widely used in hy-
draulic fracturing, acid fracturing, and refracturing to stimulate the
conventional/unconventional reservoirs, which can enhance the sti-
mulated reservoir volume (Middleton et al., 2017; Rui et al., 2018).
This technology can be divided into two types, which are mechanical
mechanical diverters mainly include drillable bridge plug, straddle
packers and liners while the chemical diverters include degradable
particulates and fibers, foam, biodegradable fuzzy-ball fluids, polymer
gel, etc (Zheng et al., 2018; Yang et al., 2019; Zhang et al., 2019a,b; Jia
and Yang, 2019). Compared with mechanical diversion, which is time-
consuming, high cost and risky, chemical methods have become an
effective alternative for safe, efficient and economical advantages. As a
popular type of chemical diversion, fiber-assisted diverting acid

∗
Corresponding author. State Key Laboratory of Petroleum Resources and Prospecting, China University of Petroleum at Beijing, 102249, China.
∗∗
Corresponding author. The Unconventional Natural Gas Institute, China University of Petroleum at Beijing, 102249, China.
E-mail addresses: zlfcupb@163.com (L. Zhang), zhoufj@cup.edu.cn (F. Zhou).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.petrol.2019.06.035
Received 28 January 2019; Received in revised form 12 June 2019; Accepted 13 June 2019
Available online 15 June 2019
0920-4105/ © 2019 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
L. Zhang, et al.
fracturing has the promising prospect. It refers to temporarily plugging
the previously created fractures or natural fractures using degradable
fibers, which can generate complex fractures network and enhance
hydrocarbon production. As proven from field practices in Saudi Arabia
(Solares et al., 2008; Al-Ismail et al., 2008), Mexico (Martin et al.,
2010), and others (Gonzalez et al., 2017; Ahmed et al., 2018), the de-
gradable fibers have been widely applied in field treatment as well as
successfully redirects the treatment to under-stimulated area. In addi-
tion, the fibers can completely degrade under the effect of formation
temperature after fracturing treatment, resulting in no damage to the
reservoir (Zhou et al., 2014).
The key to the success of fiber-assisted diverting fracturing is to
form the temporary plugging within the active fracture networks, so as
to redirect the subsequent treatment fluids toward under-stimulated
area. Therefore, many scholars have conducted laboratory experiments
to investigate its temporary plugging behavior. Based on a slot bridging
apparatus, Potapenko et al. (2009) carried out the pioneering experi-
ments on temporary plugging. Experimental results show that the
plugging effect of fibers was greatly affected by rheology of the base
fluid, concentration of fibers, fracture size and geometry, and injection
rate. The fly in the ointment is that the pressure bearing capacity of the
apparatus is too low (Potapenko et al., 2009). Cohen et al. (2010) used
epoxy resin groove to simulate the fracture and performed the fiber
temporary plugging experiment. Results showed that the permeability
of fiber filter cake and the spurt loss were two key parameters to control
acid diversion. However, the surface of the epoxy resin groove was
smooth without considering the effect of fracture surface morphology
on temporary plugging (Cohen et al., 2010). Allison et al. (2011) de-
veloped biodegradable material as diversion agents for Barnett shale
refracturing, which achieved favorable diversion effect (Allison et al.,
2011). In order to control acid leakoff and achieve effective acid-etched
fracture length during acid fracturing for Saudi Arabia reservoirs, Leal
Jauregui et al. (2011) proposed a new type of fiber laden polymer-free
self-diverting acid system (Leal Jauregui et al., 2011). Based on the
coreflood platform, Zhou et al. (2014) investigated the filtration char-
acteristic of fibers temporary plugging and the length of filter cake
under the condition of different fracture widths. Due to the small
fracture dimensions, the parameters cannot be upscaled to field con-
ditions directly, which limits its application (Zhou et al., 2014). Cortez-
Montalvo et al. (2015) developed a dynamic flow diverter testing ap-
paratus, and evaluated the effects of injection rate, temperature, di-
version agent concentration, and pressure on temporary plugging. This
research provided an insight into understanding factors that affect di-
version and data that can help optimize future diversion treatments to
some degree. Similarly, the roughness of fracture surface and the mi-
gration rule of diversion agents within fracture were still not considered
(Cortez-Montalvo et al., 2015). Baker Hughes proposed the idea of
using diversion agents to temporarily plug the previously created
fracture in far-field. Far-field diversion shifts the fracture to un-
stimulated regions to create complex fracture network. To support and
promote this concept, a series of studies including bridge plugging test,
diversion efficiency, carrier fluid properties, and concentration of di-
version agents have been conducted. In their experiments, a steel disk
with a slot was used, which is too simple to simulate the real fracture
width (Williams et al., 2016; Gomaa et al., 2016). Kang and Xu et al.
(2017) simulated the roughness of fracture by grooving on the surface
of steel core sample and studied the effect of different temporary
plugging materials, and different concentration and proportion of them
on temporary plugging. However, their device simplifies the fracture
too much to reflect the roughness of the real fracture surface. In addi-
tion, the device is also not easy to adjust the fracture width (Kang et al.,
2015; Xu et al., 2017). Ray et al. (2017) developed a visual experi-
mental device to simulate the fracture surface by 3D printing tech-
nology and investigated the role of particulate transport, bridging,
settling, and resuspension within fracture. Compared with previous
experimental setups, this device made progress to some degree by
2
Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 181 (2019) 106171
reproducing the real fracture surface. However, due to the poor prop-
erty of high-pressure resistance and low injection rate, the device still
cannot stimulate temporary plugging diversion very well (Ray et al.,
2017). Recently, Yang et al. (2019) developed a visualized slot-flow
system with high speed camera to observe the dynamic plugging per-
formance of fibers and particulates in a mimicked fracture. Since the
fracture morphology and high-pressure resistance were not taken into
consideration, this setup is also not suitable for simulating temporary
plugging experiments (Yang et al., 2019).
During the process of fiber-assisted diverting acid fracturing, whe-
ther the secondary fractures can be diverted after temporarily plugging
the previously created fractures or natural fractures is another issue
that needs to be studied. Currently, the large-scale true tri-axial frac-
turing system has been widely used to simulate conventional/un-
conventional reservoirs fracturing in laboratory (Zhou et al., 2008; Guo
et al., 2014; Zou et al., 2016; Hou et al., 2019). Until 2013, Shi et al.
used this device to conduct diverting fracturing experiments and ver-
ified the feasibility of forming complex fracture networks in rock
samples. However, the success rate of this experiment is very low due to
diversion agents plugging pipeline and wellbore (Shi et al., 2013).
Wang (2017) investigated the mechanical mechanisms of fiber-di-
verting fracturing through laboratory experiments and numerical si-
mulation. The similar problems as Shi's were still exist (Wang et al.,
2015a, 2015b; Wang, 2017). Mou et al. (2018) newly modified the true
tri-axial fracturing equipment by enlarging the diameter of pipelines
and wellbore, making it possible to use this device to simulate tem-
porary plugging and diversion fracturing. However, Mou et al. (2018)
only performed a preliminary investigation on the rules of diverting
acid fracturing, without considering the plugging behavior of fibers
within acid-etched fracture and the effect of horizontal principle stress
difference on temporary plugging (Mou et al., 2018).
According to the previous studies, it can be concluded that the
current devices have certain limitations in simulating temporary plug-
ging. Therefore, this paper introduced the fracture temporary plugging
evaluation system, which utilized the data acquisition system and the
press of fracture conductivity evaluation system. It also manufactured
the matching conductivity cell to investigate the temporary plugging
behavior of fibers. This modified device with large fracture size, large
injection rate, and high-pressure resistance can meet the requirement of
temporary plugging experiment. In addition, 3D printing technology
was used to reproduce the roughness of fracture surface, improving the
experimental accuracy. Based on the device, a series of experiments
were performed to study the effect of carrier fluids type, the length and
concentration of fiber, and injection rate on temporary plugging.
Furthermore, the fracture diversion rule of fiber-assisted diverting
fracturing was revealed through the modified true tri-axial diverting
fracturing experiments under the condition of different horizontal
principle stress difference. This study deepens the understanding on the
mechanisms of fiber-assist diverting acid fracturing and provides fun-
damental for field treatment design.
2. Laboratory experiments
2.1. Experimental methods
In the laboratory, a series of experiments were performed to in-
vestigate the plugging diverting mechanism of degradable fiber-assisted
diverting acid fracturing. There are five steps in this experiment. First,
based on the true tri-axial fracturing system, the conventional hydraulic
fracturing experiment was conducted to create hydraulic fractures, in
which natural carbonate outcrop cubic block with the dimension of
300 mm × 300 mm × 300 mm was used. Then, core slabs with these
fracture surfaces were processed by wire-electrode cutting instrument.
Second, the gelled acid etched experiment was conducted on the core
slabs using acid fracturing conductivity evaluation system to obtain the
acid-etched fracture surface. The acid-rock contact time, acid volume,
L. Zhang, et al.
Fig. 1. 3D printing model of acid-etched fracture in the plugging experiments.
and acid injection rate herein were 60 min, 3600 mL, and 60 mL/min,
respectively (Zhang et al., 2017). Third, Nano laser scanner was used to
scan the acid-etched fracture surface and then it can be printed by 3D
printing. Next, 3D printing model was used to conduct many experi-
ments to investigate the temporary plugging mechanism of fiber. Fi-
nally, the tri-axial diverting fracturing experiments were conducted to
verify the validity of fiber-assisted diverting fracturing.
2.2. Experimental materials preparation
2.2.1. 3D printing model
Based on digital model files, 3D printing is a technique for con-
structing objects by layer-by-layer printing using adhesive materials
such as powder-like metal or plastic. It has been widely used in many
industries such as automatic, aerospace, construction, medical, and
geographic information systems. Generally, the precision of 3D printing
can reach as high as 0.006 mm. In this paper, the printing precision of
the acid-etched fracture is 0.05 mm so that the real acid-etched fracture
morphology can be reproduced. Fig. 1 shows the 3D printing model
with dimensions of 180 mm × 45 mm used for temporary plugging
experiments. The material of this model is photosensitive resin. Its
hardness (shoreD), tensile strength, and bending strength are 86,
40 MPa, and 70 MPa, respectively. Hence, the model will not deform
during the temporary plugging experiments to ensure the consistency of
the experiments. Furthermore, one limitation is that the printing model
has no porosity, which is slightly different from the real core sample. In
other words, the effect of fluid leakoff on temporary plugging was not
taken into consideration in this paper.
In order to avoid bridge temporary plugging of fibers at the fracture
entrance as results of the variation of flow radius, the wedge-shaped
entrance was introduced to the temporary plugging experiments. In
addition, the acid-etched fracture with different width can be simulated
by adding steel gasket.
2.2.2. Core sample
The core samples are limestone which were mined from the outcrop
of Shandong province, China. They were cut and polished into
300 mm × 300 mm × 300 mm cubes by wire-electrode cutting for the
tri-axial diverting fracturing experiments. To simulate fracturing, a
borehole with an enlarged diameter of 30 mm and a length of 220 mm
was drilled in the center of the cubes. Then, a steel tube with a length of
150 mm and a diameter of 20 mm, was glued into the hole, leaving
70 mm open-hole (Wang et al., 2015a,b; Mou et al., 2018). As shown in
Fig. 2(a), the cyan part represents the wellbore and the white part re-
presents the open hole section. Fig. 2(b) show the cubic core sample in
the laboratory diverting fracturing experiments.
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Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 181 (2019) 106171
2.2.3. Experimental fluid
1) Gelled acid
This acid was used in the acid-etched experiments, which refer to in
the part of 2.1. It was applied to etch core slabs with fracture surface to
provide acid-etched fracture for scanning and 3D printing. In this ex-
periment, the acid-rock contact time, acid volume, and acid injection
rate were 60 min, 3600 mL, and 60 mL/min, respectively. Furthermore,
its composition and physicochemical properties, such as rheological
property, reaction rate, have been reported in our previous study
(Zhang et al., 2018a, 2018b).
2) Fiber-laden fluids
In this study, hydroxypropyl guar gum (HPG) fracturing fluid and
slickwater were used as fiber-laden fluids for temporary plugging ex-
periments. HPG fracturing fluid was composed of 0.5 wt% hydro-
xypropyl guar, 0.06 wt% citric acid, 1 wt% flowback surfactant, 0.1 wt
% bactericide, and traces of other additives. Slick water consisted of
0.1 wt% DR800 as the friction reducer (an anionic polyacrylamide),
0.5 wt% COP-2 as the clay stabilizer, and 0.5 wt% TGF-1 as the flow-
back surfactant (Zhang et al., 2019a,b). The apparent viscosity of HPG
fracturing fluid and slickwater are about 130 mPa s and 6 mPa s,
measured by a rotational viscometer.
2.2.4. Diversion agent
Fig. 3 presents fibers used in the experiments. There are three
lengths of fibers, 1.5–2 mm, 3–4 mm, and 5–6 mm and their diameters
are approximately 10 μm. In addition, the fiber is made of copolymer of
lactic acid with glycolic acid. The density of fiber is 1.24 g/cm3.
2.3. Experimental setup and procedure
2.3.1. Temporary plugging evaluation system
As shown in Fig. 4, the fracture temporary plugging evaluation
system was used to investigate the plugging mechanism of fibers. This
system consists of a displacement pump, a confining pressure pump, a
pressure gauge, a modified conductivity cell, a press, a date acquisition
system, and so on. The model of displacement and confining pressure
pump both are ISCO 260D with a maximum capacity of 266 mL, a flow
accuracy of 0.5% of the set point and a maximum flux of 107 mL/min.
The pressure gauge with a calibration range of 0–35 MPa and a mea-
surement accuracy of 0.06% of the range was used to monitor the
pressure in the temporary plugging experiment. In order to avoid the
diversion agent blocking the pipeline, the inner diameter of pipeline in
the experiment was increased to 12.7 mm. This evaluation system can
simulate the actual situation of the field by adjusting the injection rate
and fracture width.
The experimental procedure is as follows:
1) Adjust the thickness of steel plate gasket and set the fracture width;
then place the 3D printing model into the conductivity cell;
2) Place the conductivity cell on the press;
3) Prepare about 4000 mL mixture of fracturing fluids and fibers and
put it into an intermediate container; connect the pipeline and
pump;
4) Load the confining pressure according to a set value (20 MPa) onto
the model by the confining pressure pump;
5) Start the displacement pump to inject the mixture of fracturing
fluids and fibers, and record the inlet pressure of the conductivity
cell;
6) When the inlet pressure reaches a certain value (10 MPa) or the
injection volume reaches a design value, stop pumping;
7) Unload the confining pressure and conductivity cell;
8) Open the 3D printing model, observe and take photos of the plugged
L. Zhang, et al.
Fig. 2. Core samples in the experiments.
zone.
2.3.2. Fiber-settling test
In order to further analyze the influence of the carrier fluids type on
temporary plugging, the supplementary experiment was needed. Fiber-
settling tests were performed to evaluate the performance of HPG
fracturing fluid and slickwater on fibers suspending capacity. The de-
tailed experimental procedures were as follows:
1. Prepare HPG fracturing fluid, slickwater, fibers, and two 500 mL
beakers;
2. Prepare the mixture of fibers and fracturing fluid/slickwater, re-
spectively. Their volume and fibers concentration were 300 mL and
1 wt%;
3. Pour the prepared mixtures into two beakers, respectively;
4. Observe the fibers settlement and take pictures every 10 min.
2.3.3. Tri-axial diverted fracturing system
The diverting fracturing experiments were conducted by the tri-
axial hydraulic fracturing system with modification of pipeline and
wellbore structure, as shown in Fig. 5. This system mainly composed of
a poly-axial loading system, a syringe pump, a date acquisition system
and so on. In order to ensure that the mixture of fracturing fluids and
fibers can flow from the intermediate container into the wellbore and
the fracture, the dimeters of wellbore and pipeline were enlarged to
20 mm and 12.7 mm, respectively. The vertical stress (σz) was loaded in
the direction of wellbore, whereas the minimum (σh) and maximum
(σH) horizontal principle stresses were loaded perpendicular to the
wellbore. Furthermore, the principal stresses satisfy σz > σH > σh.
The experimental procedure is as follows:
1. Prepare working fluids and experimental core sample;
Fig. 3. Diversion agents in the experiments.
4
Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 181 (2019) 106171
2. Install the prepared core sample into the three-axial stress cell, and
pour the prepared working fluids into intermediate containers;
3. Load three principle stresses onto the core sample by the poly-axial
loading system (stress values depend on the design);
4. Inject fracturing fluid without fibers by the syringe pump to create a
fracture; meanwhile, record pump pressure;
5. When the volume of injected fracturing fluid reaches the design
value or the fracture created, transform to inject the mixture of
fracturing fluid with fibers to plug the previously created fracture;
With the increase of the injection pressure, the new fracture will
form in a certain direction; the injection pressure was recorded;
6. Constantly pump the fluids until the volume of fracturing fluid with
fibers reaches the design value; unload the core sample and observe
the fracture morphology.
2.4. Experimental schemes
2.4.1. Fracture temporary plugging experiments
In this study, 9 groups of acid-etched fracture temporary plugging
experiments were presented. Table 1 lists all experimental schemes to
study the effect of carrier fluid type, fiber length and concentration, and
injection rate on temporary plugging rules. Specifically, experimental
group (1, 2) were performed to study the temporary plugging rules of
slick water and HPG fracturing fluid, respectively. Experimental group
(2, 3, 4) were conducted to study the influence of fiber length. Ex-
perimental group (2, 5, 6) were used to evaluate the effect of fiber
concentration. Furthermore, the effect of injection rate was also in-
vestigated through experimental group (2, 7, 8). It is noted that ex-
perimental group 9 is the parallel experiment of group 2, which is used
to verify repeatability of this experiment. In addition, all parallel ex-
periments for other cases have also been conducted and we merely take
group 2 and 9 for example.
L. Zhang, et al. Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 181 (2019) 106171

Fig. 4. Schematic diagram and physical picture of temporary plugging evaluation system.

2.4.2. True tri-axial diverting fracturing experiments Table 1

The true tri-axial diverting fracturing experiments were performed The scheme of temporary plugging experiments.
to verify whether the complex fracture network can be formed in the No. Carrier fluid Injection Fiber Fiber Fracture Effective
rock when operate fracture reorientation treatment with fiber-based rate mL/ length concentration width plugging?
fluid. Moreover, the rules of fracture initiation and propagation under min mm wt% mm
different horizontal principle stress difference are also investigated.
1 Slickwater 60 6 1.0 2 No
Table 2 shows the scheme of diverting fracturing experiments. The
2 HPG 60 6 1.0 2 Yes
experimental conditions, such as the type and injected volume of 3 HPG 60 4 1.0 2 No
working fluids, injection rate, and so on, were based on our previous 4 HPG 60 2 1.0 2 No
studies (Wang et al., 2015a,b; Mou et al., 2018). In this study, we 5 HPG 60 6 0.8 2 No
6 HPG 60 6 1.2 2 Yes
merely take the effect of horizontal principle stress difference on tem-
7 HPG 40 6 1.0 2 No
porary plugging and diversion into consideration. 8 HPG 20 6 1.0 2 No
9 HPG 60 6 1.0 2 Yes

3. Results and discussion

3.1. Acid-etched fracture temporary plugging experiments
In this section, the influence of carrier fluids type, fiber length and
concentration, injection rate on temporary plugging effect were sys-
temically analyzed. The inlet pressure was monitored in real-time by
the date acquire system during the experiment, which was taken as an
important parameter to evaluate whether effective plugging was
formed. In this paper, when the inlet pressure reaches 10 MPa, it's in-
dicated that the temporary plugging zone can bear this pressure and
avoid breakthrough. Therefore, it's considered that the fibers block the
fracture and the effective temporary plugging zone has been formed.
3.1.1. The effect of carrier fluids type
Slick water and HPG fracturing fluids, two of the most common
carrier fluids, were used in the temporary plugging and diverting
fracturing treatments to stimulate the conventional/unconventional
reservoirs (Josifovic et al., 2016; Hammond and O’Grady, 2017). Fig. 6
presents the relationship between inlet pressure with time and the
picture of plugging zone during the temporary plugging experiments of
slick water and HPG fracturing fluid, respectively. It can be seen from
Fig. 6(a) that the inlet pressure remained stable within 30 min and
underwent a slight increase from 30 min to 45 min followed by a small
fluctuation. During the whole experiment, the maximum pressure was
approximately 0.75 MPa, indicating that there is no effective temporary
plugging in the model of acid-etched fracture. In addition, it is obvious
that there are only a few fibers distributed in entrance of fracture with
loosen structure and nearly no fibers can be found in the far-field of the
fracture, which further proves this point. As shown in Fig. 6(b), the
experimental results of the group 2 and group 9 are consistent, which
proves the repeatability of the experiment. Moreover, the inlet pressure
nearly kept stable with a small fluctuation from the beginning to 17 min
and then increased linearly to 10 MPa in a short time. At the beginning
of experiment, the fiber-laden fluids are filled with the whole pipeline
and fracture. During this period, there are only a small amount of fibers
adhere to the fracture surface. Hence, the pressure underwent a slight
fluctuation before the pressure rises up. With the continuous injection
of fiber-laden fluids, the fibers gradually adhere to the fracture surface
with a smaller fracture width, and then they capture the subsequent

Fig. 5. True triaxial simulation test device for diverting fracturing and the enlarged pipeline and wellbore.

5
L. Zhang, et al.
Table 2
The scheme of diverting fracturing experiments.
Experimental number σh/σH/σz MPa First stage fluid volume (without fibers) mL
1 5/7.5/18 1000
2 5/10/18 1000
3 5/12.5/18 1000
4 5/15/18 1000
injected fibers and narrow down the flow path. The temporary plugging
zone with tight structure start to form as results of sustained fiber ag-
gregation and winding. Moreover, a mass of fibers is distributed in the
fracture and a tight plugging zone can be founded in the fracture.
Therefore, these phenomena both indicate that the effective temporary
plugging zone has been formed in the fracture.
The difference between the temporary plugging experimental result
of slick water and that of HPG fracturing fluid can be explained by the
fiber settling experiment. Fibers of the same concentration (1 wt%)
were put into slick water and HPG fracturing fluid respectively, and the
fiber settlement was photographed and observed every 10 min. As
shown in Fig. 7, the fibers placed in the slick water settled at the bottom
in large quantities within about 1 h, and only a small amount of fibers
were dispersed in the solution. However, the fibers placed in the HPG
fracturing fluid were still uniformly dispersed in the fracturing fluid for
48 h. The main reason contributed to the different phenomenon for two
kinds of carrier fluids is their viscosity difference. Consequently, it can
be considered that a large amount of fiber settlement in slick water is an
important reason for the failure to form effective temporary plugging.
However, in fact, the slick water has been widely used in the field due
to its characteristics of simple preparation, low cost, and low damage to
formation (McClure, M., 2018; Thomas, L. et al., 2019; Vishkai and
Gates, 2019). Hence, it's recommended to add proper thickener into
Fig. 6. The relationship between inlet pressure and time and the picture of plugging zone.
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Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 181 (2019) 106171
Plugging stage fluid volume (with fibers) mL Injection rate mL/min
1000 50 + 50
1000 50 + 50
1000 50 + 50
1000 50 + 50
slick water or use a large injection rate in field application, making up
for its poor capacity of carrying fibers.
3.1.2. The effect of fiber length
During the formation of fiber temporary plugging, the fibers first
adhere to the acid-etched fracture surface with a smaller fracture width,
then capture the subsequent injected fibers, and the aggregated fibers
form temporary plugging zone by intertwining (Zhou et al., 2004; Xue
et al., 2015). Fiber length has a great influence on adhesion and
winding properties. Therefore, it is necessary to study the influence of
fiber length on the temporary plugging effect. Fig. 8 shows the re-
lationship between inlet pressure and time for different lengths of fibers
during temporary plugging experiments. It should be noted that the
pressure variation and plugging zone picture for the No.2 experiment
(length:5–6 mm; concentration: 1.0 wt%; injection rate: 60 mL/min)
have been shown in Fig. 6(b), and they will not be repeated here and
later. According to the above study, it can be concluded that 5–6 mm
fibers can form effective temporary plugging. Comparatively, it can be
seen from Fig. 8 (a) that for 3–4 mm fibers, the inlet pressure remained
stable within 18 min and then experienced three sudden changes fol-
lowed by a small fluctuation. It's noted that the time to start bridging
and plugging for 3–4 mm fibers is nearly consistent with the case for
5–6 mm fibers. Furthermore, the sudden change of pressure indicates
L. Zhang, et al.
Fig. 7. The picture of fibers settling.
Fig. 8. The pressure variation and plugging zone pictures for fibers with different length.
that the temporary plugging zone is too weak to bear the high pressure.
Hence, the part of temporary plugging zone is broken and the pressure
decrease. With the subsequent injection of fibers, the plugging zone is
recreated and it's also broken by the higher pressure. After three sudden
change of pressure, there is no higher plugging pressure was reached in
the follow-up injection of fibers. During the whole experiment process,
the maximal pressure is up to approximately 1.8 MPa. It demonstrates
that the 3–4 mm fibers have limited temporary plugging effect. In ad-
dition, the picture of plugging zone shows that a certain amount of
fibers is accumulated in the entrance and a small amount of fibers is
almost evenly distributed in the fracture, which further indicates that
no effective temporary plugging has been formed. Fig. 8(b) shows the
recorded pressure for 1.5–2 mm fibers. The inlet pressure suffers from
frequent fluctuation up and down 0.27 MPa in the whole process, which
is obviously different from the cases for 5–6 mm and 3–4 mm fibers. It
can be explained that there are more fibers at the same concentrations
7
Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 181 (2019) 106171
with shorter length. These fibers tend to bridge and block all the time.
However, compared with the above two cases, 1.5–2 mm fibers have
the poor capacity for adhesion and winding. Hence, the temporary
plugging zone cannot be formed for 1.5–2 mm fibers. Moreover, it is
obvious that there are only a few fibers distributed in entrance of
fracture and nearly no fibers can be found in the far-field of the frac-
ture, which further proves this point. The experimental results show
that the plugging capacity decrease with the reduction of fiber length
and the efficient temporary plugging will not be achieved using 3–4 and
1.5–2 mm fibers.
3.1.3. The effect of fiber concentration
The fiber concentration has the significant impact on the temporary
plugging effect. It not only affects adhesion and winding properties of
fibers but also has a great influence on construction cost. Hence, it is
necessary to optimize the optimal fiber concentration. Fig. 9 shows the
L. Zhang, et al.
Fig. 9. The pressure variation and plugging zone pictures for fibers with different concentration.
relationship between inlet pressure with time for different concentra-
tions of fibers during temporary plugging experiments. When the fiber
concentration is 0.8 wt%, the inlet pressure remains steady in the first
20 min. From 20 min to 35 min, the process of temporary plugging and
breaking is repeated, and corresponding pressures suffer from fluctu-
ating with the maximum inlet pressure of 1.2 MPa. Then the pressure
levels off for some time. From the beginning of 42 min, the pressure
sharply goes up to 3.8 MPa but the temporary plugging zone ends up
with breakthrough. Therefore, it cannot create temporary plugging
zone at fiber concentration of 0.8 wt%. When the fiber concentration
increases to 1.2 wt%, the bridging and plugging of fibers start to form in
about 13 min. Then the inlet pressure experienced two sudden changes,
indicating that the temporary plugging zone was broken through for
two times. After that, the pressure increased linearly to 10 MPa in a
very short time, demonstrating that effective temporary plugging zone
has been formed in the fracture. Compared with the case for the con-
centration of 1 wt%, the time to achieve effective temporary plugging is
slightly shorter and the rate of pressure increment is higher. The ex-
perimental results illustrate that the effective temporary plugging
cannot be achieved using fibers at the concentration of 0.8 wt% and
there is no distinct difference of temporary plugging effect between the
case for the concentration of 1 wt% and 1.2 wt%. Consequently, 1 wt%
is the optimal fiber concentration taking the construction cost and
plugging effect into consideration.
3.1.4. The effect of injection rate
Injection rate is also an important factor affecting the temporary
plugging effect. Fig. 10 shows the relationship between inlet pressure
with time for different injection rates during temporary plugging ex-
periments. As shown in Fig. 10(a), when the injection rate is 40 mL/
min, the inlet pressure remains steady at first, and then goes through a
process of ascending and descending, indicating that the fiber repeated
the process of temporary plugging and breakthrough in the fracture.
8
Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 181 (2019) 106171
During the experiment, the maximum inlet pressure reached 1.9 MPa,
demonstrating that the temporary plugging effect was poor. Further-
more, the variation of inlet pressure at injection rate of 20 mL/min was
shown in Fig. 10(b). It can be seen that the bridging and plugging zone
tend to form from 40 min. However, the pressure rises very slowly,
ending up with failure of temporary plugging after two breakthroughs
of pressure. During the whole process, the maximum inlet pressure is
0.9 MPa, indicating that there is no effective temporary plugging zone
as the injection rate is 20 mL/min.
The experimental results show that the effect of temporary plugging
becomes worse with the decrease of injection rate. The internal reasons
are explained as follows. Under the condition of high injection rate, the
probability of forming temporary plugging for fibers is greatly in-
creased. On the one hand, more fibers will flow into the fracture at the
same time under high injection rate, which is conducive to the forma-
tion of bridging and plugging. On the other hand, the fibers are more
inclined to intertwine with each other under high injection rate, which
makes it easier to attach on the fracture surface, thus increasing the
flow resistance. Consequently, more subsequent injected fibers are
captured to form an effective plugging zone (Wang et al., 2017).
Therefore, it is recommended to use large injection rate for operation
when field construction conditions permit.
3.2. The true tri-axial diverting fracturing experiments
The above fracture temporary plugging experiments only revealed
the rule of temporary plugging. Hence, the true tri-axial diverting
fracturing experiments were conducted to investigate the diversion rule
under the condition of different horizontal principle stress differences.
The figures in the left columns of Fig. 11 show the fracture morphology
after diverting fracturing treatment, while the relationship between
injection pressure with time were shown in the right column of Fig. 11.
When the horizontal principle stress difference is equal to 2.5 MPa,
L. Zhang, et al.
Fig. 10. The pressure variation and plugging zone pictures for fibers with different injection rate.
it can be obviously seen from Fig. 11(a) left column that the primary
fracture is almost perpendicular to the minimum horizontal principal
stress and the diverting fracture is perpendicular to the primary frac-
ture, demonstrating that the fibers play a role in plugging the pre-
viously created fracture (i.e., primary fracture) and creating the new
diversion fracture (i.e., second fracture) perpendicular to the direction
of the maximum principal stress. According to the analysis of injection
pressure curves, the injection pressure was instantaneously reduced to
zero after it reached the fracturing pressure in the first stage of the
primary fracturing. It indicated that the hydraulic fracture (primary
fracture) was created. In the second stage of diverting fracturing, the
injection pressure was frequently experienced many fluctuation
changes, reflecting the plugging effect of fibers. Furthermore, the de-
tailed reasons can be explained as follows. After the injection of the
mixture of fracturing fluids and fibers, the fracturing fluids leak into the
formed fractures. Meanwhile, the fibers gradually accumulated inside
the created fractures, resulting in the formation of filter cakes. The leak-
off rate of fracturing fluids became lower and lower or these fluids even
cannot leak into fractures as the filter cakes grew to certain extent,
leading to the increasing of wellbore pressure. When the pressure rises
to a higher value, the fracturing fluids leak into the core samples once
again as the results of the formation new diversion fractures or the
continue extension of old fractures, which generates the sudden drop of
pressure. Then the fibers accumulate to create fibers cakes once more as
this new leak-off reached to some extent. Similarly, the pressure goes
through the ascending process and then experiences the decrease along
with the opening of new fractures or penetration of old fractures. These
whole processes are repeated for many times until all leak-off points are
blocked and the pressure persistently goes up in the end (Shi et al.,
2013; Wang, 2017). This process can be confirmed by the fracture
surface and fiber plugging location shown in Fig. 12. The fibers have
formed a thick filter cake at the wellbore or entrance of fracture to
9
Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 181 (2019) 106171
prevent fluid leakoff.
When the horizontal principle stress difference is 5 MPa, there are
two perpendicular fractures on the end face of core sample as shown in
Fig. 11(b). The variation tendency of injection pressure is similar to the
case of 2.5 MPa. Therefore, it's demonstrated from the above experi-
mental results that the fibers have the obvious temporary plugging ef-
fect. When the horizontal pressure difference is below 5 MPa, the fibers
can temporarily plug the previously created fractures and the new
fractures are created perpendicular to the direction of the maximum
principal stress. In addition, it should be noted that the breakdown
pressures for the primary fracture and secondary fracture has around
12 MPa difference for 2.5 MPa and 5 MPa horizontal principal stress
difference. The main reasons are the following two aspects. On the one
hand, the artificial fracture was created during the first fracturing,
which will produce the induced stress field. It will change the local
stress field around the wellbore. Therefore, the maximum and
minimum horizontal principal stresses will undergo stress reorientation
or stress reversal (Li et al., 2017). On the other hand, due to the me-
chanical heterogeneity of cubic cores, there are some difference in the
tensile strength along the horizontal direction, which will also have a
certain impact on the breakdown pressure difference between the pri-
mary fracturing and diverting fracturing.
When the horizontal principle stress difference is 7.5 MPa and
10 MPa, there are two nearly parallel fractures perpendicular to the
direction of the minimum horizontal principal stress at the end of the
core as shown in Fig. 11(c) (d). This phenomenon was different from
the above two cases. When the horizontal principle stress difference is
large, it's difficult to reverse the original stress field and there is not
observed fracture diversion in the second stage of diverting fracturing
treatment (Wang et al. 2015a,b; Wang, 2017).
Based on the modified true tri-axial diverting fracturing system, the
diversion rule under the condition of different horizontal principle
L. Zhang, et al. Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 181 (2019) 106171

Fig. 11. The fracture morphology and the relationship between injection pressure with time under different stress differences.

10
L. Zhang, et al.
Fig. 12. The pictures of fracture surface and plugging location.
stress difference is investigated and the feasibility of diverting frac-
turing with fibers can be verified. In the real case, there are many
factors such as well completion, perforation, and so on, may impact the
temporary plugging and diversion effect which need further research.
4. Conclusion
In this paper, 3D printing technology was introduced to reproduce
the roughness of acid-etched fracture surface. Based on the 3D-printed
model, a series of experiments were conducted to investigate the
plugging mechanism of fibers. Then, the large-scale true tri-axial di-
verting fracturing experiments was performed to verify the validity of
fiber-assisted diverting fracturing. The analysis of the experimental
results reaches the following conclusion:
(1) Under the experimental condition, the temporary plugging effect of
HPG fracturing fluid is better than that of slick water. The intrinsic
reason is that the viscosity of HPG fracturing fluid is higher than
that of slick water. If slick water is applied in field, it's re-
commended to add proper thickener or use a large injection rate,
making up for its poor capacity of carrying fibers.
(2) The effect of temporary plugging increases with the rise of fiber
length, concentration, and injection rate. The fibers with the length
of 6 mm is recommended. In addition, there is no distinct difference
of temporary plugging effect between the case for the concentration
of 1 wt% and 1.2 wt%. Hence, the fibers with the concentration of
1 wt% is recommended from an economic perspective.
Furthermore, it is recommended to use large injection rate for op-
eration when field construction conditions permit.
11
Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 181 (2019) 106171
(3) The large-scale true tri-axial diverting fracturing experiments verify
the validity of fiber-assisted diverting fracturing. When the hor-
izontal pressure difference is below 5 MPa, the fibers can tem-
porarily plug the previously created fractures and the new fractures
are created perpendicular to the direction of the maximum prin-
cipal stress. When the horizontal principle stress difference exceeds
7.5 MPa, there is no diversion of the second fracture after fiber-
assisted diverting fracturing treatment.
Acknowledgments
This work is financially supported by the National Science
Foundation of China (Grant No. 51804033), China Postdoctoral Science
Foundation (Grant No. 2018M641254), Beijing Postdoctoral Research
Foundation (Grant No. 2018-ZZ-045), the National Science and
Technology Major Projects of China (Grant Nos. 2016ZX05051,
2016ZX05014-005 and 2017ZX05030).
Appendix A. Supplementary data
Supplementary data to this article can be found online at https://
doi.org/10.1016/j.petrol.2019.06.035.
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