The efficiency of a hydraulic fracturing treatment is directly related to the total surface area of the fractured formation. Development of design guidelines for selecting the optimal perforation cluster spacing, fracturing fluid type, rheology, and flowrate can help maximize well production following a hydraulic fracturing treatment for an arbitrary in-situ stress state, formation type, and other geomechanical properties. The influence of non-uniform spacing of perforation clusters along a horizontal wellbore on simultaneously-induced multiple fracture (multi-frac) growth into a reservoir formation was investigated by a series of laboratory-scale models. The relative geometry of the fluid-driven fractures generated in the models was compared to the relative spacing between three perforations.

Uniform perforation spacing is found to yield more homogeneous multi-frac growth, as maximizing the spacing between all perforations minimizes multi-frac growth interference, compared to moving the second (middle) perforation closer to either the toe or the heel of the horizontal well. These results may be associated with parameters not considered by conventional theoretical modeling, such as the relative timing of fracture initiation, dominant (run-away) fracture creation, and inactive perforations. Incorporating these effects may promote more reliable predictive modeling of multi-frac propagation patterns, hence optimizing reservoir stimulation design. Analogue scaling comparing the laboratory conditions used with a typical field-scale hydraulic fracture treatment is then performed to assess the reliability of the conclusions.

水力压裂处理的效率与压裂地层的总表面积直接相关。制定用于选择最佳射孔组间距、压裂液类型、流变学和流速的设计指南有助于在针对任意地应力状态、地层类型和其他地质力学特性进行水力压裂处理后最大限度地提高油井产量。通过一系列实验室规模的模型研究了沿水平井筒的射孔簇间距不均匀对同时诱导多条裂缝（multi-frac）生长到储层中的影响。模型中产生的流体驱动裂缝的相对几何形状与三个射孔之间的相对间距进行了比较。

发现均匀的射孔间距可以产生更均匀的多重压裂生长，因为与将第二个（中间）射孔移动到更靠近水平井的趾部或跟部的距离相比，最大化所有射孔之间的间距可以最大限度地减少多重压裂增长的干扰。这些结果可能与传统理论模型未考虑的参数相关，例如裂缝起始的相对时间、显性（失控）裂缝产生和非活动射孔。结合这些效应可以促进对多重压裂传播模式更可靠的预测建模，从而优化储层增产设计。然后进行模拟缩放比较实验室条件与典型的现场规模水力压裂处理，以评估结论的可靠性。