Abstract
Increasing the profitability of sand producing fields requires sand management and accurate predictions of sand onset and sand mass such that the well completion method and the drawdown and depletion during the life of the well is optimized. Sand production research has seen significant advances through the years. However, sand production onset and rate models have not been proven under fully anisotropic stress conditions which are most commonly encountered in the field. Tests on Castlegate sandstone were performed on irreducible water saturated specimens with oil flow under varying levels of axial and lateral stress anisotropy on hollow quasi-cylinder specimens and the sand onset and rate were obtained. The results are compared with analytical models for sand onset and sand rate predictions. A new series of models that accommodate the effect of axial and lateral stress anisotropy has been developed and it is calibrated on the test results. The capability of the models in capturing the test results is evaluated.
