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Hydromechanical aspects of sand production problem

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Transport in Porous Media 22: 225-244, 1996. 225
9 1996 Kluwer Academic Publishers. Printed in the Netherlands.

Hydro-Mechanical Aspects of the

Sand Production Problem

I. VARDOULAKIS 1, M. STAVROPOULOU 1 and R PAPANASTASIOU 2

1Department of Engineering Sciences, National Technical University of Athens,
GR-157 73, Zographou, Greece
2Schlumberger Cambridge Research, High Cross, Madingley Road, Cambridge CB3 0EL, U.K.

(Received: 15 May 1995; in final form: 15 August 1995)

Abstract. This paper examines the hydro-mechanical aspect of the sand production problem and
sets the basic frame of the corresponding mathematical modelling. Accordingly, piping and surface
erosion effects are studied on the basis of mass balance and particle transport considerations as well
as Darcy's law. The results show that surface erosion is accompanied by high changes of porosity
and permeability close to the free surface. Quantities which can be measured in experiment, like
the amount of produced solids or fluid discharge, can be used in an inverse way to determine the
constitutive parameters of the problem.

Key words: sand production, particle transport, surface erosion, piping.

Notation
dV Volume element
dV~ Volume of solids pt
dV~ Volume of voids
dVff Volume of fluid phase
dVfs Volume of fluidized-particles
d~V Volume of mixture
dMs Mass of solids
dMff Mass of fluid phase
dMf~ Mass of fluidized-particles
dM Mass of mixture
ps Density of solids
pe Density of fluid
Off Density of fluid phase
Pfs Density of fluidized-particles
Density of mixture
v ff
i Velocity of fluid
vifs Velocity of fluidized-particles
v~ Velocity of solids
~Yl Velocity of mixture
qff Volume-discharge of fluid
qfS Volume-discharge of fluidized-particles
qi Volume-discharge of mixture
mff Mass-discharge of fluid
m fs Mass-discharge of fluidized-particles
mi Mass-discharge of mixture
226 I. VARDOULAKIS ET AL.

~'~Zer Rate of mass-eroded

rhaep Rate of mass-deposited
Mass generation term
dSi Surfaceelement
dS~ Pore-surfaceelement
Dij Tensorof mechanical dispersion
x~ Location
t Time
Porosity
c Transportconcentration
Ccr Criticalvalue of c
p Fluid-pressure
k Permeabilitycoefficient
r/k Kinematicviscosity
A Spatialfrequency of erosion starter points

1. Introduction
Sand production from wells in weak formations due to high production rates is
a growing concern in the oil industry. Solids production may lead to a series of
problems such as wellbore failure, loss of production time and increased wear of
equipment. A review on sand production as a problem in petroleum engineering is
given in the paper by Veeken et al. [1]. Solids production models aim at optimizing
the fluid production rates, avoiding near-wellbore instabilities and damage of reser-
voir structure. The different processes involved in sand production are associated
with fluid and solids transport, fluid/rock interaction and rock deformation. From
the modelling point of view, sand production in oil-producing wells is usually
related to the following two mechanisms:
1. Mechanical instabilities and localized failure (damage) of the rock in the
vicinity of the wellbore due to stress concentration,
2. Hydro-mechanical instabilities due to intemal and surface erosion, which
manifest themselves in releasing and transferring of particles, caused by the action
of seepage forces.
These two mechanisms are coupled to one another, since stress concentrations
lead to localized damage, which in turn increases the amount of loose particles that
can leave the matrix and enter the population of particles in transport. On the other
hand, washing-out of particles increases the porosity of the intact rock and may
cause re-adjustment of the fabric intergranular forces leading to further damage of
the rock.
Most of the published work today on sand production is related to wellbore
stability problem and addresses 1. above [2-5]. Rock is seen as a deformable
poro-elastic or poro-elastoplastic solid, infiltrated with fluid which obeys Darcy's
law. All these studies address the initiation of sand production or initiation of
mechanical failure around the wellbore. Evolution of localized deformation which
can explain the mechanical failure around the wellbore was clearly demonstrated
HYDRO-MECHANICAL ASPECTS OF THE SAND PRODUCTION PROBLEM 227

by Papanastasiou and Vardoulakis [6, 7], by carrying out bifurcation and post-
bifurcation analyses.
In the present paper, we study the second aspect of sand production as an
erosion phenomenon. All deformation and strength characteristics of the rock are
suppressed and the emphasis is put on mass transport. This means that rock is treated
as cohesion-less material similar to loose sand and erosion is mainly governed by
the possibility of grains passing through the interconnected void space and the
existence of defects as erosion starter points. It should be pointed out that there is a
plethora of experimental data and information on rock strength degredation under
various loading conditions in the literature, that can be used for the formulation of
constitutive models of rock mechanical behaviour [8]. In contrast, the experimental
studies of sand production give more qualitative than quantitative information
on the erosion phenomenon [9]. The shortage of quantitative experimental data
may partly attributed to the lack of theoretical framework which could guide
the design of basic sand erosion experiments. To close this gap, we focus here
on mass transport in porous media aiming to provide the theoretical basis for
the hydromechanical aspect of the phenomenon. The approach in this study is
fully deterministic and is based on a three-phase mixture theory for a continuum
consisting of skeleton solids, fluidized solids and fluid. The erosion process is
assumed to obey appropriate constitutive law for particle transport [10-12]. Due
to the aforementioned lack of experimental data, different erosion laws will be
examined.
First, we present the mathematical model of erosion kinetics which is based
on mass balance and particle transport considerations. Then, we discuss Darcy
flow normal to the free surface of an inhomogeneous half-space with permeability
which depends on the porosity. The coupled fluid-flow and erosion process is solved
numerically by a finite differences scheme. Finally, we present the numerical results
and outline the main conclusions.

2. Mathematical Modelling
2.1. DEFINITIONS
We consider a volume element dV of a saturated porous granular medium. The
volume consists of the following three constituents: solid (s), fluid (if) and fluidized
solid particles (fs) with masses dMs, dMff, dMfs and volumes dVs, dVff, dVfs,
respectively (Figure 1). The symbol dVv is used to indicate the volume of the
interconnected void space of pores and is fully occupied by the mixture of fluid
and fluidized particles

dVv = dVff + dVfs. (I)

Fluidized particles are particles in suspension that move with the fluid. Any
other loose particle which are trapped inside the void space are seen as part of
228 I. VARDOULAKISET AL.

(r163 :---
T
dVv

ces~

(s)
i:i:i:i:i
1 dV

Fig. 1. Phase diagram of porous medium saturated with fluid and fluidized particles.

Vfs-/

Fig. 2. Pore canal with fluidized particles.

the solid phase. Moreover, it is assumed that the fluid and the fluidized particles
share at any instant the same velocity. The solid skeleton is assumed to be rigid
(Figure 2). Accordingly, the velocities of the various components are

vif~ = ~ -- ~ ~ = o. (2)

In other words, a solid-particle has either zero velocity and is assigned to the solid
phase or has the velocity of the fluid and is assigned to the mixture which fills the
void space (1).
The volume fraction of voids is expressed by the bulk porosity T,

dVv (3)
~o_ dV"

The transport concentration of the fluidized solids is denoted by c

dVfs
e - (4)
dVv"
HYDRO-MECHANICAL ASPECTS OF THE SAND PRODUCTION PROBLEM 229

It should be noticed that c2 and c are, in general, functions of the location xi and
time t.
The densities of the fluid phase pff and fluidized-solids phase Pfs coincide with
the bulk densities of the corresponding constituents

dMff dMfs dMs

- - ps. (5)
Pff- dVff - pf' P f s - dV}s dVs

For example, the bulk densities of water and quartz particles are pf = 1 gr/cm 3
and Ps = 2.65 gr/cm 3, respectively. The partial density of the mixture is

dMff + dMfs
p _ (6)
dVff q- dVfs
and by taking into account Equations (4) and (5), Equation (6) results in the
following mixtures formula

fi = (1 -- c ) p f + Cps. (7)

The partial density of the fluidized solid's phase is

dMfs
Pfs - dV - cgOps. (8)

The volume discharge rate qi and velocity 9i of the mixture are defined by the
relations
dig dig dig 1
- - - ~r (9)
qi - doe~ dt ' ~i doei dt ~ doei dt ~o

where dig is the volume of flow through the cross-sectional area dSi in time dt. dSi
is the part of doe/, which corresponds to the pores. As already implied in Equation
(8), we assume statistical isotropy of the grain packing; thus surface and volume
porosity are assumed to be equal, ~v = 9~s = qo.
Using the relation dk~r = fi dig, the mass discharge of the mixture is defined
by

fidig
rhi -- d S i dt - fiq-i = (1 - c)pfqi + Cpsqi (10)

or

r~ i = m f t q- m es
i, (11)

where ra~ and ra ifs are the mass rates discharges of the fluid and the fluidized
particles
fs
= pf(1 - = pscr (12)
230 I. VARDOULAKIS ET AL.

Notice that in the above expressions, qi is the mixture discharge vector

qi = q~f + qfS = (1 - c)~ti + c(ti. (13)

2.2. M A S S - B A L A N C E EQUATIONS
We consider the two-phase medium consisting of solids (index 1) and of the mixture
of fluid and fluidized particles (index 2). The partial densities of these two phases
are

dMf
dms_ (1 - qP)Ps, P2 - - 99/7. (14)
Pl- dV dV
The velocities of the two phases are v] = v~ and v/2 = ~Yi.Mass balance for the
fluidized solids is expressed by

Oflfs -t- O(pfsVi ) -- ft~,

- fs
(15)
Ot Oxi
where rh is a mass-generation term, which corresponds to the rate of net mass
eroded and fluidized at any time and point. In general rh will be consist of two
terms

~ t = /'her -- ?rZdep, (16)

where #Zer is the rate of eroded mass and 7~rtdepis the rate of mass deposited. As
we have mentioned, particles which may be detached but are not moving with the
mixture, do not count as eroded particles. Therefore, rh contributes entirely to the
mass flux of the fluidized particles. The mass-generation term is determined through
additional constitutive relations, which will be discussed in the next section.
It should be mentioned that in general, Equation (15) may be augmented by a
term corresponding to hydrodynamic dispersion [13] resulting in

C~/Tfs O(msv
- fs ) 0 ( Ofifs~
O----t-+ Oxi Oxi _Dij Oxi J = ~' (17)
where Dij is the tensor of mechanical dispersion. In this study hydromechanical
dispersion will be neglected because consideration of hydromechanical dispersion
introduces at least one additional material parameter with dimension of length.
Nevertheless, the present numerical studies have confirmed that indeed hydro-
mechanical dispersion is of lesser importance in the study of the considered 1-D
processes.
Considering definition (8) of the partial density firs, the mass-balance equation
(15) with Ps = const, becomes

O(c~_____~)+ O(c~i) _ rh (lS)

Ot Oxi Ps "
HYDRO-MECHANICAL ASPECTS OF THE SAND PRODUCTION PROBLEM 231

On the other hand, mass-balance for the considered two-phase medium is

expressed by the following equations

op~ o(p~v))
o--~-+ Ox~ = -rh, (19)

op2 o(p2v~)
0--7- + Oxi - +#z. (20)

Using (2) and definitions (14) for the partial density P l, mass-balance equation (19)
yields to a relation between porosity c2 and mass-generation,

O~ 7h
- - ~
(21)
Ot Ps
Thus, rh can be eliminated from (18) resulting in

o~ o(c~) o(c,~)
O~ - O~ + Ox--~7- (22)
On the other hand, using definitions (7), (14) and Equation (18), the mass-balance
equation (20) becomes

0[(1 - c)c2] O[(1-C)gli]

+ - 0, (23)
Ot Ox~
where pf = const, and ps = const, is assumed. Finally, combining (22) and (23)
leads to the well-known continuity equation for the mixture's discharge vector

= 0. (24)
Oxi
Equations (21), (22) and (24) constitute the set of mass-balance equations for
the considered problem. These equations do not suffice for solving the problem
of erosion since a constitutive relation for the mass generation term rh/ps is
needed.

2.3. CONSTITUTIVE LAWS OF MASS GENERATION

Extensive experimental and theoretical studies in relation to the filtration of non-

colloidal solid particles in porous media were run in the late 60's by H. A. Einstein
in the University of California at Berkeley. This work, summarized in the papers
by Sakthivadivel and Irmay [11] and Sakthivadivel [12], resulted in a constitutive
equation which governs the filtration kinetics. These ideas are adopted here in the
form of a simple constitutive law for the rate of eroded mass

~ Z e r ---- ~'11 m~s II, (25)

232 I. VARDOULAKISET AL.

With Equation (12), this law means that erosion is driven by the discharge of the
fluidized particles c qi. The erosion process is expected to be more intense in intact
regions, which are characterized by smaller pore canals. Therefore, we assume
that

),' = )~(1 - ~o). (26)

The coefficient )~' has dimension of inverse length, [)t'] = L -1, and must be
determined experimentally. We remark that this analysis deals only with the mass
transport aspect of the sand production problem. The constitutive coupling between
erosion and rock weakening is ignored since the strength characteristics of the rock
are suppressed. The coefficient ), is probably related to the spatial frequency of the
potential erosion starter points in the solid skeleton of the porous medium. In case
of coupling between erosion process and rock weakening, ), is expected to be a
function of rock damage. Finally, Equations (12), (25) and (26) are combined to
give the following expression for the rate of eroded mass

r~er = p s A ( 1 - ~)cllq~ll. (27)

As it can be seen from Equation (27), 7}Zeris proportional to the concentration c.

As soon as c is nonzero, the erosion process, modelled by such a law, will run until all
mass is eroded away. However, one may assume that with increasing concentration
of eroded particles in suspension, the probability for plugging phenomena in the
system pore canals will also increase. A simple law which considers plugging as
higher-order effect can accommodate such an effect. Accordingly one may assume
that the rate of mass deposited is proportional to the square of the concentration,
C2
T}Zdep = p s i ( 1 - qO)~cr II 11 (28)

where Ccr is a critical value of c for which the two competing phenomena, erosion
and deposition balance each other.
As we will see in Section 2.4, the time-scale of the phenomenon, described here
by Equations (27) and (28), is set by the volume discharge II II. This time-scale
can be stretched if the mass generation term rh is set proportional to II ~ II~ (0 <
n ~< 1). Furthermore, the evolution time of the phenomenon can be made practically
finite if the coefficient ), is set proportional to the inverse of permeability, k,

(29)

For simplicity and due to lack of experimental data we will study here the governing
equations and present results using the monomial erosion model

= - )cllq ll. (30)

HYDRO-MECHANICALASPECTS OF THE SAND PRODUCTIONPROBLEM 233

Furthermore, we will demonstrate the influence of the mass generation law pre-
senting a computational example with the 'inverse permeability' model, which
amplifies further the erosion effect in intact regions

rh = ps~ L - ~ c IIq~ II. (31)

2.4. 1-D EROSION PROCESS

We consider flow towards the free surface of a half-space. The x axes is chosen
normal to the free surface pointing into the interior of the half-space, x ) 0. In the
considered 1-D case and due to the continuity equation (24) we have q2 = q3 = 0,
and

ql = - - q ( t ) (q) 0). (32)

In this case, Equation (22) becomes

O(c~,) Oc O~
Ot - qTx + 0--7" (33)
Finally, the mass-balance equation (21) can be combined with the constitutive
equation (29) or (30) for the mass generation term, leading to an evolution law for
the porosity

Ot - )~(1 - ~ ) c q . (34)

Equation (32) together with the mass-balance equation (33) and the evolution
equation (34) make up a system of p.d.e.'s, which can be further simplified by
introducing the following dimensionless independent variables

o o
x = ,Xx ~ ~ = a O-X' (35)

0t 0 0
(36)

Notice that the dynamic rescaling of time (36) leads to elimination of q from the
above equations. Back-transformation to real time requires, according to (36), the
computation of discharge q. This can be done through the equations and boundary
conditions that govern fluid flow in a porous medium as described in the next
section. The above transformations result in the following system of equations of
erosion kinetics
O(c~) Oc O~
0 ~ - 0 x + 0--T' (37)
234 I. VARDOULAKIS ET AL.

0 ~ = (1 - ~ ) c . (38)
OT
These equations can be solved with given initial and boundary conditions for
9~ and c. We distinguish here two possible conditions at the remote boundary
X=L:
- A Newmann-type condition, [Oc/OX(L, t) = 0], leading practically to solu-
tion of the type c = c(t) and ~ = c2(t) and it will be called here the 'piping'
effect, and
- A Dirichlet-type condition, [c(L, t) = co =const.], which as it will be shown
leads to a 'surface' erosion effect.
For simplicity the initial porosity and transport concentration will be set constant

~ ( x , o ) = ~0, c(x, o ) = co. (39)

However, it should be noticed that other initial conditions for qp and c are also
possible which may lead to smooth or even nonsmooth solutions, due to hyperbolic
character of Equation (37).

2.5. DARCY FLOW IN INHOMOGENEOUS MEDIUM

Changes in porosity drastically affect the permeability of the medium. We recall

that the physical permeability k of a porous medium depends on the porosity. For
example, according to the Carman-Kozeny equation

993
= ko (1 - ~)2"
(40)

On the other hand, the permeability enters into the problem of fluid flow through
Darcy's law. We recall that Darcy's law derives from (a) balance of momentum for
the fluid phase, and (b) from a constitutive equation for the fluid-solid interaction
force (i.e. the seepage force). In general, acceleration terms will appear and balance
of linear momentum for the fluid phase will have the form [14]

Ox k q t- pf--~ \ - ~ j , (41)

where p is the pore-fluid pressure and flk is the kinematic viscosity of the mixture.
Introducing again the dimensionless variables X and T, defined in (35) and (36),
the above equation becomes

Op qk# O(q)
o x - - q - - ~ + qPf-~ " (42)
HYDRO-MECHANICALASPECTS OF THE SAND PRODUCTIONPROBLEM 235

Furthermore, considering a rescaling argument of the form

T* = e T , q=eq*, p=ep* (e--+0), (43)

we observe that Equations (37) and (38) remain unchanged, whereas Equation (42)
becomes

2. 0 (.~j_,/o'~ l o p * rlkpq , (e--+O). (44)

e q ~-2 \~/ /of 0 X @ Akpf

Thus, without significant error, one may neglect the acceleration term in (41) to
arrive in the well-known form of Darcy's law

Op rlkp
OX - A k q" (45)
We may also notice here that in regions of increased porosity nonlinear terms in
q may also added using, for example, Forchheimer's extension of Darcy's law
[14]. As long the concentration of fluidized-particles c is relatively small, ~]k may
be set equal to the kinematic viscosity of the fluid ~/~ ~ rlk. For higher transport
concentrations, one may use the Krieger-Dougherty expression which gives the
modified kinematic viscosity of the mixture as a function of c [15]. Here, this
additional nonlinearity will be disregarded. Using appropriate boundary conditions
for the pore-fluid pressure,

p(0, p0, p(L, T ) = ps (46)

integration of Equation (42) with respect to X, results in

,kq [L p (47)
PL -- PO = - f Jo k d X
or

q=APr--P~ (48)
rlk -s dX.

Notice that, according to Equations (7) and (40),/5 = fi(c) and k = k(p) are in
general functions of x and t. Thus, q can be evaluated from Equation (48) and the
solution of the system of Equations (37) and (38) can be transferred back to real
time and spatial coordinates.

3. Numerical Solution of Fluid-Flow, Erosion Problem

Sand production is an unsteady, fully coupled nonlinear process. In problems of
this type, often referred as initial-value problems, we know the state of a system at
236 I. VARDOULAKIS ET AL.

some time and we require to determine the state of the system at subsequent times.
The system of equations to be solved simultaneously, consists of Equations (37)
and (38) which govern the erosion kinetics, Equation (35) for space scaling, and
Equation (36) with (48) according to which time is scaled. The primary unknowns
are the porosity ~ and the transport concentration c, which can be found from
numerical integration of (37) and (38). For numerical integration we employed
here the following explicit scheme based on finite differences method

[C99]i,j+l -- [C~]i,j _ Ci+l,j -- Ci,j 2c ~i,j+l -- ~i,j (49)

AT AX AT '

~i,j+l -- ~ i , j _ (1 -- ~ i , j ) C i , j , (50)
AT

where ~i,j denotes cy(X i , Tj ) and

Xi : Xo + iAX, Tj = To + j A T . (51)

This numerical scheme is stable as long the time step A T is sufficiently small
(r = A T / A X < 0.5). The computations of the next section were carried out with
r = 0.05 and A T = 0.01.
Using the values of cpi,j and ci,j at every time step Tj we compute the integral
expression appearing in the denominator of Equation (48) by means of the com-
pound form of Simpson's rule. Then by virtue of the same equation we compute
the fluid discharge q. Finally, we proceed to the back transformation of Equation
(48) in order to obtain the real time t

1 fo T dT
t= ~ q(T)' (52)

which is computed also with Simpson's approximation.

4. Results and Discussion

The considered problem of coupled fluid-flow and particle erosion is solved for the
following set of parameters:
- specimen length L = 1 m
- frequency A = 10 m -1
- initial porosity cp(X, 0) = ~0 = 0.25 0 ~< X ~< AL
- starting transport concentration c ( X , 0) = Co = 10 -4
- draw-down pressure Ap = PL -- P0 = 10 MPa
- initial permeability k ( x , 0) = 27.8 mD
First the surface erosion process is discussed and the results are presented in
two sets of plots. The first set of Figures 3-5 depicts the time history of the various
HYDRO-MECHANICAL ASPECTS OF THE SAND PRODUCTION PROBLEM 237

0.3

0.24

0.18

0
0

j
0.12

0.06

0 ; ; i b
0 20bo 46oo ' 8doo 10ooo
t (sec)
Fig. 3. Time evolution of transport concentration at exit point (surface erosion problem).

parameters at the free surface (z = 0) which is the region of interest. Figure 3

shows that the transport concentration increases with time until the point where
the convection overtakes the mass generation. Figure 4 demonstrates that porosity
increases sublinearly with time. Figure 5 shows the time evolution of the fluid
discharge and the dimensionless time T given by Equation (52).
In the second set of Figures 6-8, the spatial profiles of the various properties
are shown at a given time (t = 10000 sec). Figure 9 shows that the porosity
distribution is high close to the free surface and diminishes rapidly with distance
from it. This means that the erosion process is more active close to the free surface.
Such a porosity distribution results in the permeability distribution of Figure 7,
according to the Carman-Kozeny Equation (40), which reflects the significant per-
meability inhomogeneity evolution as a result of surface erosion. This permeability
inhomogeneity results in nonlinear pore-pressure distribution with significant lower
pressure gradients in the eroded region (Figure 8).
Figure 9 shows the dependence of computational results on the choice of param-
eter A which enters the constitutive law (30). As already mentioned in Section 2.3,
A is expected to be proportional to rock damage. The appropriate functional depen-
dency of A on rock damage could be determined by matching the results of the
model with experiments. One way to check the validity of these results is to resort
to some experimentally observable quantities like the fluid discharge and/or the
produced sand mass as a function of time (direct measurements of the porosity or
238 I. VARDOULAKIS ET AL.

0.85

0.7
d
v

~
o-
lD_ 0.55

0.4

0.25
0 ' z~bo ' 4doo ' r,obo ' 8000 ' 10000

t (sec)

Fig. 4. Time evolution of porosity at exit point (surface erosion problem).

81~--04- .30

-25
7E-04

-20
0 6E-04
(D
co
-15 t--
E
O" 5E-04
-10

3E-04 0 ' 2~ ' 40~ ' 6C~) ' 8(X)O ' 10000

t (sec)
Fig. 5. Time evolution of (a) fluid discharge and (b) dimensionless time at exit point (surface
erosion problem).
HYDRO-MECHANICAL ASPECTS OF THE SAND PRODUCTION PROBLEM 239

1.

0.85

X
0.7
E
v
x"
r 0.55-
s

0.4

0.25
0 ' 012 ' 014 ' 0.6
' ' o18
x (m)
Fig. 6. Spatial profile of porosity at 10 4 sec (surface erosion problem).

8E+O4-

6E+04

s
E 5E+04

E
X" 3E+04

2 E +0 4

OE+OG
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8
x (m)
Fig. 7. Spatial profile of permeability at 10 4 sec (surface erosion problem).
240 I. VARDOULAKISET AL.

10-

t~
v 6
o
E
,4..a
4
v
r

0 ~
0 0'.2 . . 0.4 . . 0.6
. . . 0.8
x (m)
Fig. 8. Pressure profile at 104 sec (surface erosion problem).

concentration profiles are most likely difficult to obtain). However, one may be
able with relatively easy means to measure the cumulative particle outflow, A M fs,
at discrete times of such an experiment. These measurements must then be com-
pared with the theoretical predictions. The present theory yields to the following
expression

= -~- ,r - c) dx - 'r - co) (53)

and Figure 10 demonstrates the produced sand-mass A M fs, cumulative solid par-
ticles outflow per unit cross-sectional area, as a function of time.
We remark that due to the increase of permeability close to the free surface at
large times, the Reynolds number of the flow (referred to the pore size) may reach
values of order 1. This may, in turn, cause a transition from pure laminar flow to
mildly turbulent flow. In this case, the computations at large times should be based
on Forchheimer~s law [13] rather than on Darcy's law.
The time evolution of porosity c2 at the exit point for the Dirichlet condition,
c = co = const., and Newmann condition, Oc/OX(L,t) = 0, are shown in Figure
11. Notice that the Newmann boundary condition gives constant profiles in space
and linear variation for the pore pressure as a result of constant permeability
HYDRO-MECHANICAL ASPECTS OF THE SAND PRODUCTION PROBLEM 241

~.. 0.7-

o_2
c-
13_ 0.55

lamda=5

o.2s J .. \
o e6o ' lgoo ' 2450 ' a~ ' 400o
t (sec)
Fig. 9. Influence of spatial frequency of erosion starter points on porosity (surface erosion
problem).

70

56

r
E 42
0
13)
60
9,-- 28
:s
<:1

0 i
0 ' 2obo ' 4obo ' oobo ' 86oo ioooo
t (sec)
Fig. 10. Sand production curve (surface erosion problem).
242 I. VARDOULAKISET AL.
1.

0.85

0.7
v

~
r /~" I surface I
13. 0.55

0.4

0.25
0 2~0 4~0 6000 r ~1}30 T 10000
t (sec).
Fig. 11. Comparison of surface erosion effect and piping effect on porosity evolution.

(piping). The piping effect is expected to occur in loose sand specimens [16],
whereas the surface erosion is expected to take place in the vicinity of producing
openings where the damage of the rock is concentrated. The sharp increase of the
porosity with time for the piping problem can be counterbalanced if the deposition
t e r m T/Zdep in Equation (28) is considered. In this case, the porosity reaches a
stationary value which, in turn, is controlled by the parameter Ccr.
The influence of the mass generation law is demonstrated in Figure 12 where the
time evolution of the transport concentration was calculated for the surface erosion
problem using the 'inverse permeability' model (31) and for different values of
the parameter A. This results suggest that the corresponding model is capable of
describing intermittent sand production phenomena.

5. Conclusion

In the present study, we studied the hydromechanical aspect of the sand production
problem. We presented a mathematical model which can be used to guide the design
of experiments for studying the sand production problem. The model can also be
used as a part of more sophisticated predictor/behaviour models which couple the
different processes involved in the sand production phenomenon. The model is
based on mass balance of the produced solids and flowing fluid, on the constitutive
law for particle erosion and on Darcy's law for fluid flow in porous media. The
analysis is restricted here to 1-D flows normal to a free surface, and accordingly
HYDRO-MECHANICAL ASPECTS OF THE SAND PRODUCTION PROBLEM 243

0.8

0.6

94 - - a

0.4
O

-- = I
0.2

0
0 400 800 1200 1600 2000
t (sec)
Fig. 12. Time evolution of transport concentration at exit point for inverse permeability
model (surfaceerosionproblem).

hydrodynamic dispersion was disregarded. Based on this analysis, the following

observations/conclusions cam be drawn:
Due to hyperbolic nature of the governing equation of erosion kinetics, initial
and remote boundary conditions determine the evolution of the phenomenon. Two
types of simple remote boundary conditions, Newmann and Dirichlet, were studied.
The Newmann-type condition, [Oc/OX(L, t) = 0], corresponds to the piping
effect, [c = c(t), ~? = ~(t)] and is expected to occur in loose granular materials.
The Dirichlet-type condition, [c(L, t) = co], corresponds to the surface erosion
effect. In this case, c and i~ decay rapidly with the distance from the free surface.
Accordingly, the inhomogeneous permeability results in a nonlinear pore pressure
profile with lower gradients than the gradients of the homogeneous case. Surface
erosion is expected to occur in rocks in the vicinity of producing openings where
the rock damage is localized.

Acknowledgements
The authors would like to acknowledge Schlumberger Cambridge Research for
supporting this research and Dr J. R. A. Pearson for his valuable remarks and
suggestions.
 244 I. VARDOULAKIS ET AL.

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