Abstract
When producing fluid from an unconsolidated sandstone reservoir or producing fluid with high viscosity such as an oil sand, sand production may cause well damage and reduce production rate. Therefore sand control is a very important factor for an efficient and economical fluid production in the above situation.
This paper discussed experimental results on mechanical sand control methods with a screen (wire gauge) or gravel (glass beads) obtained through one dimensional flow model that visualized sand grain movement. Following conclusions were obtained.
(1) Sand production could be controlled by a screen having a larger slot width than sand grain size. This was because the sand bridge was formed on screen slot surface.
(2) The maximum screen slot width was four or five times larger than the 50 percentile sand grain size.
(3) It was observed that there existed an optimum screen width which could control sand and keep minimum pressure loss in laminar or turbulent flow respectively.
(4) It could be noted that screen (wire gauge) could control sand better than gravel (glass beads) from our experimental results.
