ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Mech. Eng.
Sec. Solid and Structural Mechanics
This article is part of the Research TopicAdvancements in the Roles of Geomechanics for Energy Extraction and Geological Storage ApplicationsView all articles
Investigating Impact of Imperfections around Wellbore on Liner Deformation during Hydraulic Fracturing
Provisionally accepted
- 1Aramco Americas, Houston Research Center, Houston, United States
- 2Society of Petroleum Engineers, Richardson, United States
- 3Saudi Arabian Oil Co, Dhahran, Saudi Arabia
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It is essential to maintain the integrity of liner-cement-formation in well completion and production stages. However, large liner deformation has been extensively experienced during hydraulic fracturing operations in carbonate formations. This work reveals that local collapse and burst may cause liner to largely deform during hydraulic fracturing operations. The stressing and deformation of liners are investigated using numerical simulation at two levels. First, a standalone liner is compressed from outside or expanded from inside to calibrate the plastic parameters by matching the collapse and burst pressures in the liner's technical specifications. The influence of the nonuniformity of loads and confinement on liner's bearing capacity is then investigated. Second, the influence of imperfections in cement or cavities in formation on liner deformation in a liner-cement-formation system is explored. Simulation results indicate that the hydraulic communication between the cavities, vugs or other imperfections in formation or cementing around a liner and hydraulic fractures can introduce uneven load on the liner, subsequently threatening the integrity of liner-cement-formation system and causing large deformation in liner. This mechanism has not received good attention in the practical hydraulic fracturing operation design.
Keywords: Collapse pressure, burst pressure, Cavity, hydraulic fracture, Carbonates
Received: 02 Sep 2025; Accepted: 31 Oct 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Han, Phan, Abousleiman and Ruwaili. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Yanhui Han, yanhui.han@aramcoamericas.com
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