Feedback control of proppant bank heights during hydraulic fracturing for enhanced productivity in shale formations
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2018 Elsevier B.V. In hydraulic fracturing of shale formations, compared to conventional reservoirs, the fracturing fluid is of low-viscosity, and hence, the proppant settles significantly during the pumping stage, forming a proppant bank. Motivated by this consideration, first, a section-based optimization method is employed to obtain key fracture design parameters for enhanced productivity in shale formations subject to given fracturing resources. Second, a reduced-order model is constructed using high-fidelity simulation data to design a Kalman filter. Lastly, a real-time model-based feedback control system is developed by explicitly taking into account actuator limitations, process safety and economic considerations. A series of closed-loop simulation results demonstrate that the proposed control scheme can regulate the uniformity of proppant bank heights across the fracture at the end of pumping.