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Recommended Practices for Testing Sand Used in Hydraulic Fracturing Operations
American Petroleum Institute Washington, D.C. 20005
These procedures were developed by the American Petroleum Institute to assist in quality control of fracturing sands at the well site. The procedures cover the following general topics:
- Procedures recommended to obtain a representative sample
- Sample handling and storage
- Recommended sieve analyses
- Sphericity and roundness determination
- Acid solubility
- Turbidity measurement
- Crush resistance testing
- Mineralogical analyses
Frequently in the industry, poor sampling practices at the well site will cause non-representative samples to be evaluated. Large grains tend to “float” to the surface during proppant transport and handling.
Merely scooping proppant from the top of a load will generally give an invalid representation of the average sieve distribution of the sand. |
