Acid-Fracturing Treatment:

A Surface-Topography Analysis of
Acid-Etched Fractures
To Determine Residual Conductivity
C.S. Ruffet, J-J. Fe
ry, SPE, and Atef Onaisi, Total

Summary

A fracture-acidizing treatment of carbonate formations can be

considered successful when a relatively good fracture conductivity
remains after treatment. To reach such a goal, an uneven etching of
the fracture by acid is expected, so that channels are created that
hydraulically maintain the fracture open, once the pressure is
released after the job, and thus enhance productivity.
Residual conductivity is the consequence of uneven etching of
the surface, but the way this etching occurs in the field is not well
understood and, therefore, poorly described. We, thus, propose, in
this paper, an experimental methodology to investigate and characterize quantitatively how acid injection conditions affect the
fracture surfaces, how the created rough surface is able to support
the stress, and, finally, how fracture conductivity can be estimated
from the surface topography.
The statistical investigation of surface topography associated
with acidizing experiments proposed in this paper, provides a new
and interesting method for designing an acid fracturing job. It can
be used as an aid to select the best fluid formulation and flow rate
for a given formation type and well conditions and to forecast the
behavior of the fracture after the treatment.
Introduction

Acid fracturing is a classical treatment used in carbonate formations

to improve well productivity. To reach that aim, acid is injected
either at a pressure sufficient to fracture the formation or into an
already hydraulically induced fracture. As acid flows along the
fracture, it dissolves portions of the fracture faces, generally in a
nonuniform manner, so that conductive channels are created that
remain hydraulically open (i.e., open to flow after the job). The
treatment, thus, remains successful as long as the created fracture
is long and conductive. The effective length of the fracture in a
given formation is determined by injection conditions (flow rate),
injection fluid composition, acid/formation reactivity (acid spending), and acid fluid loss (or leakoff) from the fracture into the
formation. Alternatively, the mechanisms and the conditions for
which the fracture remains conductive are poorly evidenced and
described in the literature.
Acid composition and fluid injection sequences are essential
parameters in the design of an acid fracturing treatment. The two
jobs described in Table 1, performed on two wells on the Abu Al
Bu Koosh field, provide clear evidence of the influence of acid
formulation and alternating stages on residual fracture conductivity.
Although these treatments were performed in nearly identical
formations (dolomites), with a reservoir permeability ranging between 2 and 4 md for Job 1 and between 8 and 13 md for Job 2,
fracture conductivity evaluated from production data (Table 1)
displays a better efficiency in Job 2. A final conductivity of 0.2 to
7 darcy/ft was reached for Job 2 after 7 months production, as
opposed to 0.1 to 0.6 darcy/ft for Job 1 after only 1 months
production.

Copyright 1998 Society of Petroleum Engineers

Original SPE manuscript received for review 19 June 1997. Revised manuscript
received 26 February 1998. Paper peer approved 23 March 1998. Paper (SPE 38175)
first presented at the 1997 SPE European Formation Damage Conference held in The
Hague, The Netherlands, 23 June.

SPE Journal, June 1998

Leakoff decreases the acid available for the etching of the

fracture faces and reduces the treatment efficiency. The need to
control acid fluid loss and the consecutive formation of channels
perpendicular to the main flow (wormholes) led to many studies1-4
aimed at identifying the mechanisms of wormhole creation.
The third important factor affecting fracture geometry is acid
spending during injection. Acid spending is mainly controlled by
the acid/rock reactivity, which, in turn, depends on many factors
such as injection conditions, acid concentration, composition, formation composition, temperature, fracture width, etc.
On the field, success of an acid fracturing job is evaluated from
post-treatment performances. However, the etched fracture geometry is difficult to quantify, and, therefore, the way a relatively good
conductivity is achieved and the reasons for the success are not
always understood. We propose, in this experimental study, an
indirect method to evaluate the evolution of the conductivity of a
simulated fracture. The study involves an intermediate surface
analysis associated to a mechanical investigation of the behavior of
the simulated surface under stress. We, therefore, focus our attention on the characterization of the etching topography of a fracture,
and, thus, of the etching efficiency, as a function of flow conditions,
acid composition (5, 7, and 15% HCl) and formulation (straight and
gelled 15% HCl), and reservoir rock type (limestone/dolomite). The
acid flow experiments are performed on a simulated fracture, where
the effect of etching alone is investigated by avoiding acid leakoff.
The second part of this study consists of estimating the crushing of
the created rough surface of the fracture and evaluating the residual
conductivity of the fracture.

Theoretical Elements

As already mentioned, to create a conductive fracture, etching has

to be realized and it has to be as irregular as possible. Etching results
from a chemical reaction between carbonate formation and acid to
form water-soluble salts, water, and carbon dioxide according to,
for limestone, CaCO3 1 2 HCl 3 CaCl2 1 CO2 1 H2O, and for
dolomite, CaMg(CO3)2 1 4 HCl 3 CaCl2 1 MgCl2 1 2 CO2 1
2 H2O.
If reaction occurs at very low pressures (less than the CO2
gas/liquid equilibrium pressure) gaseous CO2 is generated and
pressure controls reaction kinetics. Otherwise, it is generally understood that the reaction kinetics is controlled by diffusion, as in
the case of limestone (mass transfer limited reaction), or by chemical reaction, as in the case of dolomites (reaction rate limited).
If etching is regular, the fracture behaves as two plane plates and
hydraulically closes as soon as a stress is applied or as injection is
stopped. In contrast, if etching occurs in a nonuniform manner,
rough fracture faces will be created and some channels will remain
open under stress, allowing a better hydraulic conductivity. The aim
of this paper is the evaluation of fracture conductivity through a
description of surface etching. We will present briefly in the
following paragraphs some useful theoretical notions regarding
hydraulic flow in rough fractures and fracture roughness characterization.
It is generally admitted that laminar fluid flow through a single
fracture is assumed to be analogous to fluid flow between two
perfectly smooth and parallel plates.5, 6
155

TABLE 1EXAMPLES OF ACID FRACTURATION JOBS ON

ABU AL BU KOOSH FIELD
Fluid Sequence

Results

Job 1
5,230 gal TSW*
30,000 gal HCl 15%
6,100 gal TSW
injection rate: 22 bbl/min
Job 2
5,000 gal gelled spearhead
7,000 gal gelled HCl 15%
8,000 gal gelled spearhead
7,000 gal gelled HCl 15%
11,000 gal gelled spearhead
7,000 gal gelled acid
5,900 gal TSW
injection rate: 28 to 33 bbl/
min
* TSW 5 Treated seawater: Tafter
0.6 to 0.1.

acidification

L 5 54 m
b 5 0.0119 m

Fig. 1Topographic description of the fracture.

kres (md) 5 2 to 4
L 5 54.4 m
b 5 0.0144 m
kres (md) 5 8 to 13
Tafter acidification 5 8 to 6
Tafter 7 months production 5 7 to
0.2
T is in darcy/ft
5 14 to 10, Tafter

1 month production

mean levels), the arithmetic mean of local apertures, b# , and the

standard deviation of apertures distribution, s b . Brown realized
numerical calculations of flow in a simulated fracture, after generating realistic rough surfaces with a fractal model of surface
topography. As displayed on Fig. 2, for large separations between
the fracture surfaces (large values of b M / s b ), surface topography
has little effect on fracture conductivity, which can be estimated
indifferently from the mean aperture, b# , or from b M . However, as
the mechanical aperture decreases, through application of stress, for
instance, the influence of surface topography and particularly
tortuosity increases and use of b# instead or b H clearly overestimates
the fracture permeability and, thus, the conductivity. These numerical results confirm experimental works performed by Lomize10 on
sand-coated plates and Louis11 on concrete slabs, where the hydraulic aperture was estimated from the mechanical one as given in

FG F F G G
bH
b#

b Dp
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . (1)
12m L
3

q 5 2hf

By comparing this cubic law (Eq. 1) with Darcys law,

q 5 2hf b

kf Dp
,
m L

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . (2)

one obtains an equivalent fracture permeability, k f , such that

kf 5

b2
.
12

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . (3)

The fracture conductivity, also called fracture transmittivity, T,

defined from hydraulic considerations as the product of fracture
permeability and fracture aperture, is thus found to be proportional
to b 3 ,
T5

b3
.
12

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . (4)

In this equation, b 5 the aperture available to flow and is a

function of the mechanical properties of the formation and of the
stress conditions. It will be referred as hydraulic aperture, b H , and
is defined as [12T] 1/3. When distant plane surfaces are considered,
the hydraulic aperture, b H , is identical to the mechanical aperture
b M , defined as the separation between the mean planes of the
fracture faces.
However, acidized fractures are characterized by relief surfaces
that come in contact at discrete points. As the effective normal
stress to the fracture plane (defined as the difference between in-situ
stress and pressure in the fracture) is increased, larger portions of
the fracture faces come into contact, reducing the connectivity of
flow paths (increasing the tortuosity), and fracture aperture diminishes. As a result, the fluid flow becomes restricted. Under such
conditions, deviations from cubic law are observed and the mechanical aperture7-9 concept cannot be used any further. As long as
tortuosity effect cannot be neglected, the hydraulic aperture differs
from the mechanical aperture; the problem is then to find to which
measurable value b H can be correlated.
An interesting study by Brown8, 9 proposes an interpretation of
the hydraulic aperture based on a topographic description of the
fracture faces (Fig. 1). The fracture is characterized by the local
apertures, b( x), the mechanical aperture, b M (distance between the
156

5 11a

2 bM
sb

21.5 21

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . (5)

where, a 5 17 from Lomize,10 8.8 from Louis,11 and depends on

fractal dimension, D fr, of the fracture surface according to Brown8
(a 5 2.7 for D fr 5 2.5, 2.9 for D fr 5 2.25, and 3.22 for D fr 5 2).
Based on this work, it is, thus, possible, from a surface topography analysis (i.e., from b( x), s b , and b# ), and from the mechanical
behavior of the fracture (i.e., b M vs. stress), to estimate the equivalent hydraulic width, b H , by Eq. 5 and, consequently, fracture
conductivity (Eq. 3) as a function of stress.
As mentioned previously, the hydraulic behavior of an acid
fracture strongly depends on surface morphology. If a surface
topography characterization relates modeling to real phenomena, it
also reveals itself as an objective and quantitative tool in our
attempt to compare the efficiency of different acid formulations and
injection conditions in given rock formations. Geometrical topography is obtained from sampling asperity heights on a regular mesh
virtually plotted on the surface. Digitization of rough surfaces
provides asperity height profiles h( x) similar to the profiles plotted
on Fig. 1. Unfortunately, roughness of a natural joint is not
described universally by a unique parameter, but rather by a set of
magnitude or texture roughness indicies,12-14 such as those given in
Table 2.
Although fractal theory is relatively recent,15 it has proved a very
satisfying tool in describing shapes of natural objects and, particularly, rough fractures. A fractal is defined as an object of irregular
shape or geometry, that looks invariant regardless of the scale of

Fig. 2Estimation of hydraulic aperture from topographic geometry and fractal dimension with Browns model (cf. Ref. 7).
SPE Journal, June 1998

TABLE 2STATISTICAL ROUGHNESS PARAMETERS

Roughness Magnitude
Arithmetic mean
h# 5 (i hi
Absolute roughness
rabs 5 max(hi) 2 min(hi)

Standard deviation
N
s 5 =1/N (i51
(h2i 2 h22)

observation. The fractal dimension, D fr , that characterizes a fractal

object ranges between the topologic and the Euclidean dimensions.
For instance, a profile of rough surface is a line of Topological
Dimension 1, defined in the two-dimensional (2D) Euclidean space,
for which the fractal dimension lies between 1 and 2. The intersection of a fractal object by a plane or a straight line decreases its
dimension by one.16 One can thus estimate the fractal dimension of
a surface by that of its 2D profile plus one. The divider method is
used, in this paper, to estimate the fractal dimension of the etched
surfaces from profiles. It consists of subdividing the profile in N i
segments of length l i , and repeating this procedure for various l i
subdivisions. By plotting the equivalent length, N i l i vs. the subdivision length l i in logarithmic scales, one gets a straight line, the
slope of which is 1 2 D fr , as given in
fr
Ni li } l12D
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . (6)
i

Other descriptions of surface topography, like spatial analysis,17

mechanical description through joint roughness coefficient,18
(JRC) etc., are found in the literature, but we have restricted this
study to a statistical approach that allows a comparison between
each of our tests and can be used to understand the hydraulic
behavior of acid fractures.

Roughness Texture
Linear roughness
rL 5 total developed length/projected length
Asperity height distribution
Coefficient of skewness: Kskew
Kskew . 0: right tailed distribution
Kskew , 0: left tailed distribution
Kurtosis: Kkurt
Kkurt . 0: sharp distribution
Kkurt , 0: flat distribution

can be regulated up to 80C, only the experiments performed at

ambient temperature will be discussed in this paper.
Sample sizes must be as large as possible to display clearly
etching morphology; a sample length of 40 cm was selected to
avoid boundary effects and keep the experiment size reasonable.
For the same reasons, the diameter is chosen as one of the largest
field core diameters available (i.e., 10 cm). A border of 1 cm is
allowed on each side of the fracture to sustain the confining
pressure and maintain the fracture open so that an 8-cm large
fracture can be designed. Fracture width (0.45 mm) is then chosen
to fit the magnitude of fluid velocity expected in the field. The
example of Job 1 (Table 1) was selected to design the initial fracture
dimension (v 5 0.27 m/s). With such a geometry and the given
rheology of the fluid used in the experiments, Reynolds numbers
fall in the range of those expected in actual acid fracture treatments
(NRe , 2,300). Hence, the flow remains always laminar during the
experiment. Furthermore, such a fracture geometry provides pressure losses that can be measured. The sample is saturated in the cell
before acid circulation. Each etching experiment consists of three
steps: the acid injection phase of 30-minutes duration is surrounded by two water injection stages, each of about 15 minutes.
The objective of the first water circulation is to improve core

Equipment and Methods

The observation and characterization of how acid etches a fracture

face for given flow conditions and acid formulations is one of the
central points of this work. A cell of large dimensions was specially
designed, that allows etching by injecting acid under certain pressure and temperature conditions in a simulated fracture. Because
etching is the only phenomenon investigated, leakoff was not
allowed in this setup. Schematically, the arrangement consists of a
hydrostatic cell, a heating system, injection, confining, and counter
pressure pumps, and a pipe rheometer (Fig. 3a).
To have initial conditions easily reproducible and tests consistent, the fracture is simulated with a cell holding two semicylinders,
each 40 cm in length and 10 cm in diameter: a metallic one,
containing a groove of square section simulating the initial fracture,
facing an intact half cylinder of the rock to study (Fig. 3b).
Particular care is taken of the surface quality to make sure that it
is as plane as possible and to avoid any local geometrical defects
that may greatly influence etching. A hydrostatic confining pressure is then applied on this reconstituted cylinder through a sleeve,
to ensure water tightness on the lateral sides of the fracture. The
counterpressure is maintained at a sufficient level, depending on
temperature and acid concentration, to ensure a single-phase flow.
The injection pressure depends on the pressure loss in the fracture,
Dp f . Confining pressure is regulated on the injection pressure ( p c 5
p in 1 2 3 106 Pa) so that the effective pressure applied on the
fracture is 2 3 106 Pa at the bottom of the cell (inflow face) and
Dp f 1 2 3 10 6 Pa at the top. Although the temperature of the rock
SPE Journal, June 1998

Fig. 3(a) Experimental setup. (b) Simulated fracture (front

view).
157

saturation and to infer the hydraulic behavior of the system,

particularly of the virgin fracture with an inert fluid. A final water
circulation is necessary: first, for technical reasons (cleaning of the
system and limiting further reaction in the laps of time between end
of acid circulation and opening of the cell) and, second, to investigate the hydraulic behavior of the etched fracture with a chemically inert fluid.
In such a system, pressure losses are caused by both the fracture
itself (Dp f ) and to the part of the system (tubing, valves, injectors,
etc.) located between the pressure sensors, Dp syst. This is given by
Dp 5 Dpsyst 1 Dpf , . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . (7)
where Dp f 5 12 m Lq/h f b 3 .
To estimate Dp syst, the system was calibrated with a metallic
piece and with water as circulating inert fluid. For a nominative
fracture width of 0.45 mm, the contribution of the fracture to the
overall pressure loss is close to 1.5 3 104 Pa at 2 3 1025 m3/s,
whereas that of the system is close to 8 3 104 Pa. Furthermore,
system pressure losses are found to be proportional to the flow rate.
After each etching experiment, topography of the fracture surface was recorded with a mechanical profilometer (Fig. 4). The
etched depths are measured with a displacement transducer attached to a movable table. This table, allowed to move along X and
Y directions with the help of cranks, is positioned on a reference
plane on which the piece supporting the sample to study is fixed.
Approximately 40 profiles are recorded along the direction perpendicular to the flow (Y direction) spaced out 1 cm apart. These
profiles allow a direct determination of the etched width because
the two unetched edges on both sides of the sample give the zero
reference. The sampling interval along X is about 0.5 mm. At each
point of the profile, the vertical and diametric positions (respectively, b and x) are recorded with a data-acquisition unit.
To investigate the behavior of the created rough surfaces as a
function of stress, pieces of samples etched in different conditions
were cored in the semicylinders. These cores were submitted to a
uniaxial compression test: the etched face was submitted to a
vertical load applied with a metallic piston, and the vertical strain
of the sample was recorded. Successive loading/unloading cycles
were performed to infer the irreversible strain of the surface
(fracture closure). Surfaces were characterized for their roughness
before and after the experiment to measure the crushing of asperities.
Results and Discussion

Etching tests were performed on two kinds of materials (Lavoux

limestone and Brabant dolomite) at ambient temperature to compare the influence of flow conditions (from 0.2 to 3.2 m/s at
constant acid injection duration) and acid composition [5, 7, 15, and
15% (in weight) gelled HCl] on etching facies. Limestone samples
are mainly constituted of calcite (99%), whereas the Brabant
dolomite is not a pure dolomite and contains various proportions of
calcite. The gel was found to behave as a Newtonian fluid, with a
viscosity of 12 cp.
Interpretation of Hydraulic Results. A typical example of pressure loss evolution during the experiment is given in Fig. 5. The

Fig. 4 Description of the mechanical profilometer.

158

Fig. 5Evolution of overall pressure losses during Lav1

experiment.

pressure loss stabilized at a given value during the first water

injection phase and quickly drops as acid is injected into the
fracture, because of an aperture increase. After 2 or 3 minutes of
acid injection, most of the pressure loss is reached; pressure
fluctuations are then observed as a result of temporary plugging of
the tubings. The final pressure drop during the last water injection
stage corresponds to the decrease of fluid viscosity.
To obtain the increase of fracture conductivity, [i.e., (b 1 /b 0 ) 3 ],
the set of pressure loss equations presented below has to be solved.
Dp0 5 Dpsyst 1

12mLq
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . (8a)
hf b30

and Dp1 5 Dpsyst

m1 12m1 Lq
1
.
m0
hf b31

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . (8b)

In this set of two independent equations, three parameters may

be considered as unknowns: b 1 , Dp syst, and b 0 . Indeed, parasite
pressure may not be exactly identical from one experiment to
another and can differ from the calibration measurements. Furthermore, because Dp f is of the same order of magnitude or even lower
than Dp syst, a small error in one of these values will have a
considerable impact on the calculated fracture width. Dp syst will,
therefore, be considered as an unknown. Some abnormally high
values of initial pressure loss compared with those expected from
the calibration experiments, indicate that initial fracture aperture b 0
may sometimes be lower than 0.45 mm and should also be considered as unknown. Post-mortem observations of the fracture
faces, indeed, reveal that the sample stamped in the metallic groove
causes decrease of the initial width.
To solve the problem, b 1 is estimated from the surface topography analysis as the average value of etched depths. Dp syst can then
be estimated by use of Eq. 8b. Eq. 8a then provides the initial
fracture conductivity or aperture.
A linear regression technique was used between the values of
Dp/q and b 23
0 , obtained independently for all the experiments, to
check the consistency of the results. By definition, the slope of the
line is equal to 12 m Lh 21
f . The value of its intercept with the vertical
axis (i.e., Dp syst/q), was found to be very close to that measured in
the calibration experiments. The existence of a straight line with a
convenient intercept value confirms the assumption that the hydraulic aperture is identical to the mechanical one (determined from
surface topography), in this case, of widely open fractures.
As listed in Table 3, the initial fracture apertures are found to be
lower than the nominal 0.45 mm. Because of this initial stamping
of the rock in the metallic groove, the flow rate, previously planed
to be identical in all the experiments, had to be adjusted so that the
pump was able to supply the input pressure at a level sufficient to
maintain the counterpressure.
Determination of final fracture aperture by the use of a surface
analysis and initial fracture aperture from hydraulic experiments
allows the calculation of the final and initial fracture conductivities
(referred to hereafter as zero stress conductivities because fractures
are largely open in our experiments).
SPE Journal, June 1998

TABLE 3EXPERIMENTAL CONDITIONS AND RESULTS

Lavoux Limestone
20C

Lav1

Lav2

Lav3

Lav4

Brabant Dolomite
Lav5

Lav6

Bra1

Bra2

Bra3

acid/HCl, %
5
5
7
7
15
gelled 15
7
15
gelled 15
q, m3/s
1.33 3 1025 33 3 1025
51026
2.33 3 1025
5 3 1026 1.33 3 1025 2.33 3 1025 2.33 3 1025 1.33 3 1025
v, m/s
2.46
1.01
0.23
1.04
0.95
3.27
1.19
0.54
0.81
b0, m
6.8 3 1025 2.9 3 1024 2.7 3 1024 2.8 3 1024 6.6 3 1025 5.1 3 1025 2.5 3 1024 5.4 3 1024 2.1 3 1024
b1, m
1.1 3 1023 1.0 3 1023 1.2 3 1023 2.6 3 1023 1.3 3 1023 9.3 3 1024 1.2 3 1023 1.5 3 1023 6.2 3 1024

Fig. 6 presents conductivities studied in terms of conductivity

increase caused by different initial conditions. One can notice that,
for identical flowing conditions (i.e., similar acid velocities), the
efficiency of etching, in terms of conductivity increase, is as
important as the concentration of acid (cf. Lav2, Lav4, and Lav6,
respectively, 5, 7, and 15% HCl, for which v 5 1 m/s). Width
increases because of the rock/acid reactivity and with increasing
acid concentration. For a given HCl concentration, the conductivity
increases with the increase of the acid velocity (cf. for 7% HCl:
Lav3 and Lav4, v 5 0.2 and 1 m/s, respectively; or for 5% HCl:
Lav2 and Lav1, v 5 1 and 2.5 m/s respectively). Note, also, that
a gelled acid is less efficient than a pure acid of the same concentration in terms of zero stress conductivity or etching amplitude
increase (cf. Lav5/Lav6).
For approximately identical flow and acid composition conditions, the conductivity increase in Lavoux limestone is an order of
magnitude greater than that in Brabant dolomite (cf. Lav4/Bra1).
This is because of a lower reaction rate of the Brabant carbonate
with the injected acid.
Qualitative Analysis of the Etched Surfaces. The etching facies
observed by naked eye are very different for limestone and dolomite. In limestone, etching occurs mainly as channels of varying
length, parallel to the flow direction, as caverns, and as holes of
different diameters and lengths. All these features are found to
occur at typical locations; most of them correspond to initial local
defects (i.e., geometrical boundaries, presence of shells, mechanically weak zones caused by flexion of the core in the groove, etc.).
Some unetched zones that are observed are attributed to initial
stamping of the material in the groove. The Lav4 sample
displays the most uneven surface. The 15% gelled HCl treatment
provides a pitting-like etching, quite different from the straight
15% HCl treatment.
For dolomite, although the surface is also very rough, it is
difficult to observe channels with naked eye because of the gritty
aspect of the surface. Holes of large dimensions (1- or 2-cm2 area)
are observed on the dolomite, corresponding to preferential dissolution of calcite grains. No difference is seen between surfaces
etched with gelled or straight acid. No sign of stamping is
observed with the dolomite.
Quantitative Analysis of the Etched Surfaces. In the results
discussed previously, a mechanical aperture was used in the determination of the hydraulic properties and, particularly, zero stress
conductivity. Satisfying results were obtained without considering
the surface roughness. This indicates that the influence of etching
topography on the zero stress hydraulic behavior is negligible. As
already discussed, the roughness of the surface plays an important
role with increasing stress, and a characterization of the etched
surface topography is necessary to infer the hydraulic behavior of
the fracture under stress.
Each recorded profile is truncated at both edges to eliminate
near-zero values, corresponding to the unetched edges of the core.
Roughness magnitude parameters are associated to each truncated
profile. These parameters include mean width, b# ; standard deviation, s b ; absolute roughness, r abs ; and linear roughness, r L . The
skewness coefficient, K skew, and the kurtosis, K kurt, characterize the
SPE Journal, June 1998

distribution of etched depths. The evolution of these parameters, as

a function of fracture length, is extremely irregular, which is rather
auspicious in terms of residual conductivity. But it is difficult to
compare treatment efficiency from these evolutions; one only
notices the particular behavior of the Lav4 sample, for which the
average etching and the absolute roughness are more pronounced
than for the other samples. To compare the etching efficiency of the
different treatments in terms of roughness, all the profiles measured
on each sample are, thus, brought together to obtain a global
distribution of etched depths, a characteristic of the specimen. Fig.
7 gives two examples of resulting distributions (histograms of
etched depths and cumulated frequencies). These distributions
allow a comparison of the etching geometry because global characteristics can be defined (arithmetic mean, standard deviation,
absolute roughness, linear roughness, skewness coefficient, and
kurtosis). This geometrical mean, determined from this global
distribution and known as mechanical aperture, was used to study
the hydraulic properties of the fracture.
In the case of the Brabant dolomites, distributions are essentially
unimodal, relatively sharp, and centered on the arithmetic mean.
The right tail of the distribution corresponds to dissolution of calcite
minerals. In contrast, width distributions are relatively flat in the
case of limestones, indicating a larger etching irregularity. The
relatively high occurrence of depths smaller than 0.4 mm for some
of the Lavoux samples reveals the existence of nonattacked zones.
This phenomenon is not seen with the Brabant dolomite.
Standard deviation, absolute roughness, and linear roughness are
three parameters that can define surface roughness. Comparison of

Fig. 6 Zero stress fracture conductivity increase as a function

of injection conditions and acid concentration.
159

Surface area occupied by calcite grains, indeed, increases from

4.4% for Bra3 to 7.4% for Bra2 and 8% for Bra3.
For each sample, a fractal analysis was performed on several
profiles. Acid-etched fractures display a fractal character, with
fractal dimensions ranging between 2.06 and 2.42. Unfortunately,
no trend of evolution of this fractal dimension was found as a
function of acid velocity or acid concentration.
The classification of treatments in terms of roughness efficiency
is completely different from that obtained in terms of etching
amplitude (or zero stress conductivity) because the physical mechanisms involved in the two phenomena are completely different.
Etching amplitude results from a chemical mechanism (i.e., reactivity of the rock/acid system), whereas the reasons for rough
etching may be attributed to the presence of initial defects on the
surface of either mineralogical, geometrical, or mechanical nature.

Fig. 7Global histograms of asperity heights and corresponding cumulated frequencies.

all the measured values, indeed, shows that the three previous
roughness parameters display the same trend: the greater the
standard deviation, the greater the linear roughness and the absolute
roughness. To take into account each of these parameters with the
same weight, a global roughness is defined as their weighted mean,
Ri 5

FO O O

1 Nb# i
Nsb, i
Nrabs, i
NrL, i
1
1
1
. . . . . . . . . . . . (9)
4
sb, i
rabs, i
rL, i
b# i

With this definition of roughness, it is possible to compare the

efficiency of treatments in terms of etching roughness (Fig. 8).
In the case of the Lavoux limestone, for identical acid concentration (Lav2/Lav1 or Lav3/Lav4), roughness increases with increasing flow velocity (accentuation of the effect of local defects
at high flow rate). However, for identical flow rates (Lav2, Lav5,
and Lav4), no particular trend is observed as a function of acid
concentration. Roughness seems, thus, to be more sensitive to fluid
velocity than to acid concentration in the case of Lavoux limestone.
Even at high flow rates, a gelled system seems to be less efficient
than a pure acid of the same concentration. For the Brabant
dolomite, the amount of calcite minerals controls the roughness.

Crushing/Fracture Closure vs. Stress. To investigate the behavior of the created rough surfaces with stress, two pieces of samples
etched under different conditions were submitted to a uniaxial
compression test (Fig. 9). The first sample (S1) comes from a
fracture etched with 5% HCl at 0.6 m/s and the second one (S2) with
gelled 15% HCl at 3.3 m/s. These two samples correspond to
different etching facies: for S1, the roughness can be qualified as
anisotropic because a preferential etching direction is observed that
corresponds to parallel channels, and for S2, the roughness is rather
isotropic because etching occurs as pitting.
The deepest point of all the profiles gives the zero level for the
asperity heights. Profiles taken before and after loading at the same
location on the fracture face are found to be superimposable, with
the exception of the highest asperities that have been truncated
during loading. This is clearly represented on the asperities height
distribution of S2 given in Fig. 10. The distributions for both
samples have moved toward the right-hand side of the plots,
because of the crushing of the highest asperities that change into
asperities of lower heights.
For this fracture, constituted by a rough limestone face and a
metallic smooth face, the initial mechanical aperture is taken as the
difference between the highest asperity (supposed to correspond to
the position of the metallic face) and the mean plane of the
limestone face, according to Browns definition. Mechanical closure is then given as a function of stress by the strain transducer.
With this fracture configuration, mechanical aperture has the same
meaning as the geometrical aperture, b# , obtained from topography
measurements. Measurements confirmed that the mechanical closure observed during loading is very close to the geometrical
closure estimated from surface topography analysis before and after
loading (see the table of apertures given in Fig. 11). As displayed
in Fig. 11, the S2 fracture, corresponding to isotropic etching and
high roughness, closes more quickly than the anisotropic and
smoother S1 face, indicating that, for the same applied stress, the
aperture reduction is, indeed, more important for the rougher
surface. Even if this aperture reduction is relatively important, in
the range of stress investigated, the rough fracture keeps a higher
aperture than the more even one.

Fig. 8 Comparison of etched surface roughness as a function of injection conditions and acid composition.
160

SPE Journal, June 1998

Fig. 9 (a) Mechanical behavior of an acidized surface (of S2). (b)

Crushing test conditions.

Fig. 11Fracture closure vs. stress for S1 and S2 and estimation

of fracture conductivity.

Fig. 10 Asperity height distributions for S2 (etched with 15%

gelled HCl 23.3 m/s) sample before and after crushing.

Considering the fractal character and dimensions of the etched

surfaces and taking into account their mechanical and geometrical
characteristics, Eq. 5 was used to estimate the hydraulic aperture
and the fracture conductivity evolution. They are presented in a
table and plotted in Fig. 11. Although the stress applied on S2 is half
of that applied on S1, the fracture conductivity reduction is approximately the same (272% for S2 and 267% for S1); this is a
consequence of the isotropic nature of surface morphology and of
the lower initial roughness, s b 5 0.45 mm for S1 and 0.78 mm for
S2. Nevertheless, the rough fracture preserves a higher conductivity
than the smoother one under equivalent stress.
Application to Field Design

The method described here could be used as an aid either to design

an acid treatment in the field or to improve an unsuccessful job. For
instance, if the fluid and injection rate applied in the field led to a
poor fracture conductivity just after the job itself (relatively uniform
etching) or after some months of production (crushing of the
fracture faces), laboratory tests could be required to improve the
injection conditions. The laboratory method described should then
be used step by step, as recalled in Fig. 12 (i.e., selecting the
fluid formulation, strength, and flow rate that give the more
efficient etching and is able to support productivity without
crushing).
Conclusions

1. The etching experiments performed in this study show that

etching amplitude increases with increasing flow rate and increasSPE Journal, June 1998

Fig. 12Integration of the laboratory process in an acid job design.

ing acid concentration in a given formation. Gelled acids are less

efficient than pure acids of the same concentration in terms of
etching amplitude. Dolomite samples are less reactive than limestones, as expected.
2. Etching roughness is a result of local defects of mechanical,
geometrical, or mineralogical nature.
3. The fractal nature of acidized fractures has been confirmed. A
roughness parameter has been defined that integrates statistical
variables and allows a classification of acid treatment efficiency.
Etching efficiency in terms of roughness is sensitive to flow rate:
the greater the flow rate, the greater the etching roughness. Roughness seems to be independent from acid concentration but depends
on acid formulation. In terms of roughness for the same concentration, gelled acids are less efficient than pure acids.
4. Residual conductivity of an acid fracture depends on the
roughness of the faces in contact. This roughness depends on the
initial etching topography of the mechanically open fracture and on
the crushing. The impact of stress on etched surfaces should be
measured to evaluate this crushing.
5. A new methodology has been developed that can be used to
investigate the impact of different acids on a given formation to
select an acid that will ensure high conductivity of fracture after the
treatment. The choice is based on a topography analysis of the
161

etched surfaces and on the investigation of the mechanical behavior

of the fracture under stress, from which the evolution of fracture
conductivity vs. stress is estimated.
Nomenclature

a
b
CV
D fr
h
hi
k
K kurt
K skew
l
L
N
p
q
r abs
rL
R
N Re
T
v
x
y
Dp
m
s

5
5
5
5
5
5
5
5
5
5
5
5
5
5
5
5
5
5
5
5
5
5
5
5
5

constant
fracture width, L, m, in.
vertical load, m/Lt2, Pa, psi
fractal dimension
height, L, m, ft
local asperity height, L, m, ft
permeability, L2, m2, mD
kurtosis coefficient
skewness coefficient
element length, L, m, ft
fracture length, L, m, ft
number of elements
pressure, m/Lt2, Pa, psi
flow rate, L3/t, m3/s, BPM
absolute roughness, L, m, in.
linear roughness
roughness coefficient
Reynolds number
fracture transmittivity, L3, m3, D/m, md/in.
acid velocity, L/t, m/s, in./s
distance in direction X of fracture length
distance in direction Y of fracture width
pressure loss, m/Lt2, Pa, psi
dynamic viscosity, m/Lt, Pa z s, cp
standard deviation

Subscripts
b
c
f
H
in
M
res
syst
0 (1, 2, respectively)

5
5
5
5
5
5
5
5
5

relative to fracture width

confining
fracture
hydraulic
injection
mechanical
reservoir
system
refer to the first water circulation (acid
circulation and last water circulation,
respectively).

Acknowledgments

The authors thank Michel Drapeau, who realized the experimental

tests. We also gratefully acknowledge the support of members of
the association of the French petroleum companies, the Association
of Research on the Technics of Petroleum Exploitation and the
University Paul Sabathier of Toulouse.
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Fluid Loss Coefficient in Acid Fracturing, SPEPF (November 1995)
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162

6. Tsang, Y.W. and Witherspoon, P.A.: Hydromechanical Behavior of a

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amd Mining Science and Geomechanical Abstracts (1976) 13.

SI Metric Conversion Factors

bbl 3 1.589 874

cp 3 1.0*
ft 3 3.048*
in. 3 2.54*
psi 3 6.894 757

5m3
5 Pa z s
5m
5 cm
5 kPa

E201
E203
E201
E10
E100

SPEJ

*Conversion factors are exact.

Clotilde Ruffet is a research engineer in the Rock Mechanics

Dept. of Total for the Stilog IST Soc. Address: CST/FOR Domaine
de Beauplan, Rte. de Versailles, St. Remy les Chevreuse, F-78470
France. She holds an engineering degree from the Inst. Natl.
des Sciences Applique
es and a PhD degree in geophysical
sciences from Strasbourg U. Jean-Jacques Fe
ry is a senior well
petroleum engineer and group leader at Totals Paris headquarters. Address: 25 Rue de la Resistance, 5500 Bar le Duc,
Meuse, France, e-mail: jean-jacques.fery@total.com. Previously, he was responsible for drilling research at the companys
research center in St. Remy and has been involved in operations worldwide. He holds a BS degree in chemistry and a
degree from the Inst. Francais du Pe
trole (IFP). Fe
ry was a
member of the 1996 97 European Formation Damage Conference Program Committee. Atef Onaisi is head of the rockmechanics service of Total, which contributes to simulation
activity. Before joining Total in 1996, he worked for 7 years for IFP
on rock-mechanics-related aspects of wellbore stability, reservoir compaction, and basin modeling. Onaisi holds a degree in
civil engineering and a PhD degree from Ecole Centrale, Paris.

Ruffet

Fery

Onaisi

SPE Journal, June 1998