An Advanced Proppant Depositional Study with Post-Production Flow Evaluation in a 10' X 20', Transverse Fracture, Slot Flow Configuration

While the shale revolution flourished prior to the pandemic, the increased supply bubble had already taken a toll on the profitability of horizontal wells with multiple transverse fractures. A significant shift previously occurred to reduce proppant costs by utilizing cheaper, smaller grained, lower strength, and broadly diverse grain sized sands. Due to the extremely low matrix permeability in active unconventional plays, the use of regional 40/70 and 100 mesh sands (50/140, 70/140, etc.) has become commonplace with adequate results. What remains is the need for enhanced conductivity near the wellbore to handle the radial flow convergence loss when the well is brought on-line. Research is being conducted to better understand how to efficiently increase near-wellbore conductivity using lead and tail-in stages with higher permeability (ceramic) proppant when frac sand is the majority of the material pumped into the well. A 10’x20’ Large Slot Flow (LSF) apparatus, equipped with multiple injection points, side-panel ports for leak-off and/or post-test injection, with the ability to be disassembled for sample analysis after testing, was utilized for this project. For this data, the inlet was moved to the centerline of the wall to allow for proppant and fluid to transport into an environment similar to a horizontal wellbore connecting with a transverse fracture. Various tests were conducted to study the depositional characteristics of lead and tail-in stages with ceramic proppant (15% BW-Lead, 5% BW-Tail) and a main stage of 100 mesh sand (80%). Three inlet positions were established in the lower, middle, and upper portion of the apparatus. Tests were recorded to visually capture the efficiency of placing the premium proppants near the wellbore for increased conductivity. A key addition to the study was the innovative, post-production analysis through the side-panel ports. Fluid was injected into the proppant pack to observe the effect of increased near-wellbore conductivity. To improve visibility, the fluid was colored with a fluorescent dye and observed under black lights. The injection front geometry was radial initially, but typically elongated toward the exit point after contacting the ceramic proppant. The amount of time and distance for the fluid to travel through the sand pack, as well as that for the fluid to reach the offtake point once the ceramic bed was reached, were monitored and recorded. The ratio of the velocities should represent a valid qualitative indication of the conductivity contrast of the two proppants. This paper will describe the unique experimental configuration, outline the testing program for both deposition and post-production assessments performed on the deposits, along with results that could provide better design practices leading to improved transverse fracture performance.

Structure-Integrated Loudspeaker Using Fiber-Reinforced Plastics and Piezoelectric Transducers—Design, Manufacturing and Validation

In the present study, it could be shown that by integration of a piezoceramic transducer in a fiber-reinforced door side panel, a flat loudspeaker can be realized. Taking into account the given restrictions, the integration position has been identified, where the geometry decouples the vibrating membrane from the supporting surface. With the help of an acoustic finite-element simulation, the main design variables of the integration position were found and the relevant effects for sound radiation were made visible. The manufacturing of the test specimen with piezoceramic transducers was performed using vacuum-assisted resin infusion and the long fiber injection procedure. The effect on the real sound radiation behavior of the door side panel with a material-immanent loudspeaker was experimentally determined using laser scanning vibrometry and sound pressure measurements. The presented work shows, for the first time, the high potential of acoustic functionalization of lightweight structures during the manufacturing process for the realization of lightweight and space-saving loudspeakers in a production-ready process.

Study on noise characteristics of a novel equal-thickness screen

As the key unit in coal preparation and utilization, equal-thickness screens characterized by a large capacity and high efficiency have been extensively applied in coal preparation plants. Recently, the noise pollution caused by the screening of coal has become more and more serious. Reducing the noise of vibrating screens is the key to control the noise of coal preparation plants. In this article, the noise test system was used to measure three-dimensional (3D) sound intensity of the equal-thickness screen. According to the analysis of sound intensity distribution and spectral coherence, the main sources of noise were identified. The main sources of noise of equal-thickness screen were vibration motors, side panel, screen surface and damping supports. A displacement model was fitted to the experimental data, and the kinematics of the sieve body was studied. The results showed that the amplitude of the sieve body decreased as the distance from the feeding end (towards the discharge end). Similarly, the intensity of the noise decreased about 2 dB in the same direction (from the feeding end to discharge end). However, in the direction perpendicular to the movement of the material, the noise distribution was symmetrical. Finally, various noise reduction measures were also put forth. It could be seen that when the composite spring was adopted as the damping support and the structures of vibration motors, screen surface and side panel were changed, the noise could be effectively reduced.

NASCAR Truck Aerodynamic Analysis and Improvement

The NASCAR Truck Aerodynamic Improvement team is tasked with providing aerodynamic analysis and improvement to Ford Performance and their factory supported team Brad Keselowski Racing for their Ford F-150 race trucks. A Ford F-150 race truck is a “stock” truck that has some modifications for racing speed and safety. Ford Performance, reached out to an MSOE student and asked if a Senior Design team and project could be assembled to provide them with some aerodynamic analysis and improvements that would not require them to build and test using a trial-and-error type method resulting in expensive, and real, testing. The purpose of this project was to conduct a computational fluid dynamic analysis on the truck and make design changes to the truck that will provide more down force on the front two tires. The areas of the truck that were studied included the side panels, deck lid, rear quarter panels, and frontal geometry. There were also constraints put in place by the NASCAR rulebook on the vehicle specifications. These rules limit the design changes that were made to the truck. The model was originally sent as a laser scanned STL file. This file needed to be heavily edited in order to be imported into the CFD program. The programs used to edit this file include Geomagic, Autodesk Fusion 360, and SolidWorks. Through using these programs, the laser scan file was modified to a usable format. Upon conclusion of the CFD simulations using ANSYS Fluent, it was found that the truck with no geometry changes displayed a drag coefficient of 0.489 and a lift coefficient of −0.815. These results were found after 10,000 iterations of testing. The standard deviation in the drag and lift coefficients were 0.00743 and 0.01660 respectively. All statistical calculations along with the averaged solutions were calculated using the data after the 2,500th iteration. This is because the nature of the CFD solutions tend to fluctuate greatly at first and then slowly converge with more iterations. After the 2,500th iteration, a relatively steady state in the solutions is met where the residuals are converging to a single value or the fluctuation in the solutions is repetitive. The following design changes were made in attempt to increase the down force on the truck. A rib was added to the side panel in order to increase the downforce on the truck. The side panel was also modified with a cut. The contour on the rear deck lid was smoothed in order to decrease drag on the truck. Slots were cut out of the shell of the truck behind the rear wheels on both sides of the truck. These slots were angled in an attempt to create down force on the rear wheels. The front splitter was lowered closer to the ground in attempt to increase air velocity moving under the truck. This higher velocity air would create a lower pressure region under the car which would increase down force. All of these modifications were applied to the initial truck body and tested using the same setup as the baseline. The most successful design change was the rear deck lid modification which resulted in a drag coefficient of 0.472 and a lift coefficient of −0.816. This is a 3.48% decrease in the drag coefficient and a 0.12% decrease in the lift coefficient (or 0.12% increase in downforce). The results of this project were purely simulation based; any real modifications and field testing made will be performed by Brad Keselowski Racing and Ford Performance.