SPE 165829

Metal Foam Sand Control Screen

Xiaohan Pei, Bairu Shi, Lin Chen, Lichen Zheng, Research Institute of Petroleum Exploration and Development,
(RIPED), PetroChina
Copyright 2013, Society of Petroleum Engineers

This paper was prepared for presentation at the SPE Asia Pacific Oil & Gas Conference and Exhibition held in J akarta, Indonesia, 2224 October 2013.

This paper was selected for presentation by an SPE program committee following review of information contained in an abstract submitted by the author(s). Contents of the paper have not been
reviewed by the Society of Petroleum Engineers and are subject to correction by the author(s). The material does not necessarily reflect any position of the Society of Petroleum Engineers, its
officers, or members. Electronic reproduction, distribution, or storage of any part of this paper without the written consent of the Society of Petroleum Engineers is prohibited. Permission to
reproduce in print is restricted to an abstract of not more than 300 words; illustrations may not be copied. The abstract must contain conspicuous acknowledgment of SPE copyright.


Abstract
Metal foam is recently being applied in down-hole sand control. The open pore substrate has a very
permeable structure, the porosity and the pore size of the metal foam can be varied in a large range to
meet the sand control demand. The three dimension open pore of metal foam results a very permeable
structure to prevent plugging risks. The open pore metal foam is wrapped around a cylindrical geometry
perforated base pipe. The number of foam layers and the pore sizes can be varied in order to achieve
optimum flexibility for different sand control applications.
The effects of pore size and relative density on the metal foam mechanical properties and the
relationship between the pore size and the sand control size have been studied. This paper compares the
sand control characteristics of metal foam with two different conventional mechanical sand control
screens supplied by manufactory, under similar conditions, loads, and formation sand. The metal foam
based sand control screen improves the sand retention, and reduces the flow resistance by 16.6%. The
metal foam based sand control screen was successfully used in the Liaohe Oilfield in China.

1. Introduction

When formation weakly consolidated, sand grains flow into the wellbore along with the oil; sand
damages equipments such as valves, pipelines and separators, which can lead to production lost, and
cause poor performance in injection wells, while intervention to solve the problems is more expensive
and difficult. The traditional mechanical sand control methods including all kinds of sand screens have
the same aim of providing a barrier to keep sand from entering the wellbore along with the
hydrocarbons. The ability to be able to manage sand efficiently and effectively all the time has become
more important. Thats why a new potential mechanical sand control screen based on the open pore
metal foam material was developed. Its featured by multi layers of different pore-sized metal foams to
handle a larger range of particle size distribution, big flowing area with high permeability, high sand
retention capacity and less flow resistance.

Open Pore Metal Foam
In the past few years there has been a considerable increase in interest in metal foams. The open pore
metal foam structure consists of ligaments, which forms a network of interconnected dodecahedral like
cells. The cells are randomly orientated and mostly homogeneous in size and shape. The open pore
metal foam possesses a set of unusual properties compared with bulk materials and offer a unique
combination of several properties that cannot obtained in one conventional material at the same time [1].
2 SPE 165829
In the last two decades, there has been quite some improvements in the manufacturing processes;
nowadays various methods of making metal foams are available [2,3]. These methods result in foams
with cell sizes ranging from 50m to 5mm and relative densities from 0.01 to 0.15 [2]. The metal foams
have been developed with a very large range of permeability.

2. The metal foam sand control screen

The metal foam sand control screen contains a series of components along a selectively perforated base
pipe, as shown in fig. 1, which contains combined different pore-sized metal foam layers according to
the particle size distribution, a primary stream guidance screen (or fluid flow diversion layer), and
perforated protective layer. Produced fluid flow from the wellbore into the first perforated protective
layer and then streamlined by the flow baffles. The fluid travels through the three-dimension
stereoscopic reticulated metal foam; the complex multi layers metal foam shaped sand control screen
results in a sand retention performance quite different from other mechanical sand control screen.


Fig. 1, the metal foam sand control screen

3. Testing

Open pore metal foams possess a set of unusual properties compared with bulk materials and offer a
unique combination of several properties that cannot obtained in one conventional material at the same
time [4]. The properties of open pore metal foams depend directly on the structure like the cell size and
topology, the relative density (struts of the foam) and the material from which they are made. Two
groups of metal foams with different pore size and density were manufactured as standard samples, and
the tension and compression behavior were tested to guide the material selection for the sand control
screen.

3.1 Metal foam tensile mechanical behavior
Two groups of metal foams with different pore size and density were tested and the tensile mechanical
behavior results are shown in table 1 and one of the metal foam tensile stress-strain curve is shown in
fig. 2. The results show that the foam material tensile strength increases along with the relative density;
in these tests, when the metal foam density is around 1.3~1.7 g/cm
3
, the tension strength can achieve
13~16MPa, which can meet the demand of sand control screen.




SPE 165829 3
Table 1, the tensile stress-strain data of different pore size and density metal foam.
Sample
No.
metal foam
pore size /
PPI
Size of metal foam sample
Density
g/cm
3

Max. tension
stress
Fm / N
Tension
strength
R
m
/ MPa
Width
/mm
Thickness
/mm
Area
/mm
2

1 55 12.56 2.96 37.18 1.24 360 9.68
2 55 12.55 2.96 37.15 1.35 432 11.63
3 55 12.51 2.95 37.06 1.42 477 12.87
4 55 12.58 3.10 38.99 1.56 530 13.59
5 55 12.55 2.90 36.40 1.72 584 16.04
6 75 12.52 2.90 36.31 0.95 270 7.40
7 75 12.46 2.99 37.26 1.02 345 9.26
8 75 12.52 3.04 38.06 1.33 442 11.60
9 75 12.49 2.96 36.97 1.52 477 12.89
10 75 12.53 3.03 37.97 1.70 601 15.83

mm
16.00 15.00 14.00 13.00 12.00 11.00 10.00 9.00 8.00 7.00 6.00 5.00 4.00 3.00 2.00 1.00 0.00
N

560.00
540.00
520.00
500.00
480.00
460.00
440.00
420.00
400.00
380.00
360.00
340.00
320.00
300.00
280.00
260.00
240.00
220.00
200.00
180.00
160.00
140.00
120.00
100.00
80.00
60.00
40.00
20.00
0.00

Fig. 2, 55ppi, d=1.56g/cm
3
metal foam sample tensile stress-strain curve

3.2 Metal foam mechanical behavior of unidirectional compression
For the compression testing of metal foams, cylinder blocks with the dimension 30mm*10mm were
manufactured, and the 55ppi, d=1.56g/cm
3
metal foam sample compression stress-strain relationship is
shown in Fig. 3.
In compression, cellular solids can withstand large strains at nearly constant stress, allowing them to
absorb kinetic energy of an impact without generating high peak stresses. The mechanical response of
open pore metal foam in compression is characterized by three different regimes of behavior [5], the
elastic segment (elastic region), yielding segment (plateau region) and densification region. The initial
linear region associated with bending edges; roughly constant plateau corresponding to cell collapse by
buckling, yielding or fracture and extending up to large strains; final sharp increase in stress under
further strain, corresponding to densification of the open pores [6,7]. Metal foam on the compressive
stress-strain response of a longer section of the plastic deformation indicates that the foam material in
the compression process can maintain a relatively low stress to absorb a large amount of compression
energy.

4 SPE 165829
mm
5.00 4.50 4.00 3.50 3.00 2.50 2.00 1.50 1.00 0.50 0.00
N

3200.00
3000.00
2800.00
2600.00
2400.00
2200.00
2000.00
1800.00
1600.00
1400.00
1200.00
1000.00
800.00
600.00
400.00
200.00
0.00

Fig. 3, 55ppi, d=1.56g/cm
3
metal foam sample compression stress-strain curve

According to the tension and compression mechanical behavior testing results, the pore size and relative
density were selected to match the demand of the sand control application.

3.3 Filtration performance testing
Sands were simulated from formation sands and the size distribution of the simulated formation sands
were listed below, as A, B, C and D overall four groups, and the sand size ranges from coarse to medium
to fine, uniform and non-uniform, and very highly non-uniform. The simulated formation sands were
tested to determine the sand retention capability and the filtration properties of different pore-sized metal
foams.

Group A: particle size range from 0.5~0.45mm;
Group B: contains 50% particle size range from 0.5~0.45mm and 50% particle size range from
0.45~0.3mm;
Group C: contains 50% particle size range from 0.5~0.45mm, 25% particle size range from
0.45~0.3mm, and 25% particle size range from 0.3~0.1mm;
Group D: a blend of coarse sands with medium and very fine sands which contains 40% particle size
range from 0.5~0.45mm, 20% particle size range from 0.45~0.3mm, 20% particle size range
from 0.3~0.1mm, 20% particle size range from 0.1~0.05mm.

Three different pore-sized metal foams55ppi, 75ppi and 100ppi were selected to run the following
filtration performance tests. To test the metal foams, a layer of simulated formation sand was placed on
top of the metal foam in a deployed state. A standard flow rate of water is used throughout the testing.
The experiment procedure is shown in fig. 4.



Fig. 4, filtration performance testing procedure and apparatus

SPE 165829 5
The effluent produced from each test passed through a sieve stack in order to catch all particles
produced through the filtration media metal foams. The sieves were dried and recovered sand was
weighed. The sand left on top of the metal foam was carefully removed from the filtration media and
weighed to provide an accurate calculation of filtration efficiency and effluent percent produced, the
testing results were shown in table 2, table 3 and table 4 respectively. These tests were conducted at
ambient temperature.

Table 2, 55 ppi metal foam filtration performance testing data
measurement
parameter
flow rate
mL/s
effluent
sand
size
effluent
percent
sand
retention
percent
simulated sands
A 128 none - 5%
B 120 0.4~0.3 46% 7%
C 117 0.4~0.1 48% 8%
D 116 0.4~0.05 57% 8%

Table 3, 75 ppi metal foam filtration performance testing data
measurement
parameter
flow rate
mL/s
effluent
sand
size
effluent
percent
sand
retention
percent
simulated sands
A 130 none - 1%
B 130 none - 4%
C 116 0.2~0.1 18% 8%
D 115 0.2~0.05 28% 9%

Table 4, 100 ppi metal foam filtration performance testing data
measurement
parameter
flow rate
mL/s
effluent
sand
size
effluent
percent
sand
retention
percent
simulated sands
A 123 none - 1%
B 122 none - 1%
C 118 none - 4%
D 108 0.1~0.05 18% 7%

Test results showed sands left on the top of metal foam did not affect the flow capacity, the larger coarse
sands also played a role to prevent the medium and fine sands passing through the metal foam. When the
6 SPE 165829
very fine sands entered into the metal foam, the flow resistance increased, due to the three dimension
stereoscopic reticulated structure, the fluid could still pass through the filtration media. Testing results
indicate that the metal foam can successfully control sand production in a larger range of particle size by
combination of different pore-sized metal foam.

4. Performance Evaluation Test of Metal Foam Sand Control Screen

According to the designed filtration accuracy of metal foam sand control screen, two premium screens
with similar filtration accuracy were selected, one is metal wire-mesh premium screen, and the other is
woven wire premium screen. The metal foam sand control screen and the two premium screens were
tested under similar conditions, loads and simulated formation sands. The flow resistance and sand
control performance under 80mesh sand and 250mesh sand were tested. The testing procedure and
apparatus are shown in Fig 5.

Fig. 5, schematic diagram of sand control performance testing procedure and apparatus

4.1 Test of flow resistance
Without adding sand, only water was pumped into test chamber to test flow resistance of these three
screens. One of the three screens was set up into the test chamber, and started to pump, slowly increased
the flow rate and kept the fluid circulation for 1 hour, and meantime monitored the two pressure gauges
to record the pressure differential. Another two screens followed the same testing procedure as
mentioned above. The pressure-flow rate relationship curve of these tested three sand control screens are
shown in fig. 6.


Fig. 6, three sand control screen pressure-flow rate relationship curve

SPE 165829 7
Under same conditions the metal foam based sand control screen improved the sand retention, yielded
low-pressure drops and reduced the influent resistance by 16.6%.

4.2 Sand control performance testing
According to the geological characteristics, sand production and physical property of the crude oil of
Liaohe Oilfield, in the following tests, 80 mesh and 250 mesh formation sands were used. First one of
the screens was setup into the test chamber, then the 80 mesh sand and carrier fluid which viscosity is
40mPas were blended and pumped into the testing chamber, maintained the flow rate stable and kept
the fluid circulating for 1 hour, and meantime monitor the two pressure gauges to record the pressure
differential, after 1 hour circulation the 250 mesh sand were added to the sand blender, and circulating
for another 1 hour and recording the pressure differential. After the 2 hours circulation, effluent
produced inside the sand deposit tank was dried and weighed. Another two screens following the same
testing procedure were tested. The three screens pressure differential data of 80 mesh and 250 mesh
sand control performance are shown in Fig. 7 and Fig. 8 respectively.


Fig. 7, three screens sand control performance with 80mesh sand test



Fig. 8, three screens sand control performance with 250mesh sand test

When the 80 mesh sands were added to the sand blender and the circulation reached steady state, which
means the flow rate kept at 1000 m/D, the pressure differential of metal foam screen is 2.12MPa, and
the pressure differential of the metal wire-mesh screen and the woven wire screen are 2.67MPa, and
2.06MPa respectively.
8 SPE 165829

When the 250 mesh sands were added to the sand blender and the circulation reached steady state, which
means the flow rate kept at 1000 m/D, the pressure differential of metal foam screen is 2.65MPa, and
the pressure differential of the metal wire-mesh screen is 3.38MPa. For the woven wire screen, the
pressure differential is 2.35 MPa and produced large amount of particle size less than 0.05mm sands.

The testing results showed that medium-size formation sands do not affect the flow resistance of the
metal foam sand control screen. When the very fine sands were pumped into metal foam sand control
screen the flow resistance increased but there was none effluent fine sand, however, the compared two
premium screens produced very fine sands, which indicated that the metal foam sand control screen
performs better for the very fine sand control demand.

5. Conclusion

The filtration performance testing of metal foam characteristics has shown that this material can
successfully control sand production across very coarse, or large particle, formation sands and very fine,
or small particle formation sands by utilizing different pore-sized metal foam, and the test results were
also found to be favorable when tested against both well sorted and poorly sorted sands.

The metal foam screen with properly designed sand particle size yielded low pressure drops during
filtration while maintaining good sand control, and reduced the influent resistance by 16.6%. And the
sand control performance testing showed the metal foam screen performed better for the very fine sand
control demand.

The metal foam based sand control screen went through completed material and function tests in the lab,
and by J uly 2013, this technology has been field applied 5 well times in the Liaohe Oilfield in China.


References

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template directed vapor deposition, J . Mater. Res. (2001) 16 (4), 1028-1036.
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(1971).
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