Optimization of Volume Fracturing Perforation Scheme for Horizontal Well

Abstract In the field of hydraulic fracturing it is found that uneven flow distribution and stress interference of multiple perforation holes lead to competitive cracking, resulting in a large number of invalid perforations. Perforation optimization is the key point to be solved urgently. This work establishes a competitive propagation model of hydraulic fractures at numerous perforation holes in horizontal wells and conducts fracture propagation experiments of various perforation techniques. A comparison is made between the impacts of various perforation techniques, hole density, and hole number on fracture morphology and flow velocity distribution. The findings indicate that the effective hole number and perforation starting pressure are positively correlated. The lower the starting pressure, the more successful the perforation. The fracture propagation scale increases with increasing starting pressure. The scale of fracture propagation grows as the effective initiation number rises. The spiral perforation method is suitable for the formation of complex fractures near the wellbore, and the directional perforation is suitable for the formation of a certain scale of the main fracture reservoir. Under the spiral perforation method, the perforation density has no effect on the number of effective holes. The higher the number of perforations is, the more unfavorable it is to form an effective number of perforations. It is recommended that the number of single cluster perforations is between 4-6. The findings of this study can serve as a theoretical foundation for enhancing horizontal well fracturing perforation strategies.