Fluid Resistance Analysis of Sand Control Slotted Liner with Compound Cavity Based on Fluent

Slotted liners have been used for many years to provide sand control in many oil industry applications. They are commonly applied in reservoirs that produce high-viscosity oil from horizontal wells with unconsolidated, high-permeability sands. However, slots of slotted liners with traditional cavity like trapezoid cavity and rectangle cavity have been proved to have many problems such as high fluid resistance for oil and easily blocked. In order to solve the problem, newly-designed slots have been built. Hydrodynamic theory and Finite Volume Method software (Fluent) are used to analyze the pressure loss of crude oil through the new slots. After comparing pressure drop of crude oil through slots with three different types of cavity, the new designed slots reduces the pressure drop of the fluid through the cavity which means the fluid resistance reduces. The slotted liner with such new slots may be used to enhance crude oil recovery in field application.