John T. Foster
The Hydraulic Fracturing and Sand Control project, established in 2006, consists of 18 projects (16 related to fracturing and 2 related to sand control). Each member company contributes $50,000 per year as a grant to the University and in return receives all the research results from the projects underway.
Research Staff
Jongsoo Hwang, Research Associate
Ajeetha Kamilla, Sr. Software Dev/Analyst
Rodney T. Russell, Research Engr. Scientist / Lab Manager
New projects
- Fracturing and Reservoir Modeling of Geothermal Wells
- Downhole Strain Measurements for Fracture Mapping
- New Experimental Methods for Measuring Multi-Phase Properties of Shales
Major Projects
Fracture Modeling
- Perforation Cluster Design Using Perf Cluster Designer
- Fracture Design and Well Placement in Multi-Well Pads: Fully 3D Fracture Models
- New Develoopments in Multi-Frac-3D
- Applications of Multi-Frac-3D
- Re-fracturing Horizontal Wells
- Fracture Growth in Naturally Fractured Rocks: Multi-Frac-NF
Integrated Fracturing and Geomechanical Reservoir Simulators
- Fully Compositional & Black Oil Hydraulic Fracturing and Reservoir Simulators:
- Multi-Frac-3D: A New Fully Compositional Reservoir and Fracturing Simulator
- Applications of Multi-Frac-3D: Huff-n-Puff gas injection IOR
- Modeling Well Performance and Decline Curves for Wells with complex Fracture Netowrks: Choke Mangement
- Fracturing and Reservoir Modeling of Geothermal Wells
Shale – Fluid Interactions
- Fracture Conductivity of Unpropped Fractures in Shales
- Shale-fluid interactions, proppant embedment and fracture conductivity
- New Experimental Methods for Measuring Multi-Phase Properties of Shales
- Measuring permeability, wetability, oil saturation and oil recovery
- Experimental Measurement of Oil Recovery in Shales: Huff-n-Puff Gas Injection
Fracture Diagnostics
- Advances in DFIT Analysis: DFIT-Maestro
- Interpretation of Water Hammer Pressure Transient Data for Fracture Diagnostics
- Intra / Inter-well Pressure Interference Analysis: Pressure Interference Testing (PITA)
- Flowback Tracer Analysis for Fracture Diagnostics
- Fracture Diagnostics Using EM Methods
- Downhole Strain Measurements for Fracture Mapping
Sand Control
- Prediction of Sand Failure and Sand Production: Sand Manager 2.0
- Application of Multi-Frac-3D to Water Injection Wells
Member Companies
How to Join
To become a sponsor of the Hydraulic Fracturing & Sand Control Project, notify Mukul Sharma, stating your interest or intent. We will then send you a research participation agreement to be executed by your company and The University of Texas. You can contact us by mail, phone, fax, or e-mail as follows:
Dr. Mukul M. Sharma
Center for Petroleum & Geosystems Engineering
The University of Texas at Austin
200 E. Dean Keeton St. Stop C0304
CPE 2.502
Austin, Texas 78712
Phone: (512) 471-3257
Fax: (512) 471-9605
E-mail:
