Offshore oil reservoirs are mostly loose sandstone. Sand control completion is usually required. However, sand control screens are easily blocked during production, reducing the productivity of oil wells considerably. The optimization of the sand control screen is still a challenge to date because of the lack of insights into the screen plugging process. In this study, a CFD-DEM method was introduced to analyze the effect of structural parameters on the plugging of a newly designed prepacked gravel screen (PPGS). Numerical results show that the pore size formed by gravel and punched slot is much smaller than the pore size formed by gravel under high packing efficiency. Thus, it is easy to cause a large amount of silty clay to stay on the surface of the screen, intensifying the blockage of the screen. On the contrary, the collapsing of bridges in gravels can be observed under low packing efficiency, enhancing the no-plugging capacity of the new PPGS to some extent. Moreover, numerical results also show that optimizing gravel size is closely related to the packing efficiency and punched slot size. A comparison with full-size experiments shows that, although the numerical simulations have some deviations in specific values from the experiments, the trend of the impact of each factor on the plugging of the screen is consistent between the numerical and experimental studies. This consistency illustrates that the CFD–DEM method provided in this study can be used to investigate the plugging mechanism of the sand control screen in the future.

海上油藏多为松散砂岩。通常需要防砂完井。然而，防砂筛管在生产过程中很容易堵塞，大大降低了油井的产能。由于缺乏对筛管堵塞过程的深入了解，防砂筛管的优化迄今为止仍然是一个挑战。在这项研究中，引入了 CFD-DEM 方法来分析结构参数对新设计的预充填砾石筛管 (PPGS) 堵塞的影响。数值结果表明，在高充填效率下，砾石和冲槽形成的孔径远小于砾石形成的孔径。因此，很容易造成大量的粉质粘土滞留在筛网表面，加剧筛网的堵塞。相反，在低充填效率下可以观察到砾石中桥梁的坍塌，在一定程度上提高了新PPGS的无堵塞能力。此外，数值结果还表明，优化砾石尺寸与充填效率和冲孔尺寸密切相关。与全尺寸实验对比表明，虽然数值模拟与实验的具体数值存在一定的偏差，但各因素对筛管堵塞的影响趋势在数值和实验研究中是一致的。这种一致性说明本研究提供的 CFD-DEM 方法可用于研究未来防砂筛管的堵塞机理。数值结果还表明，优化砾石尺寸与充填效率和冲孔尺寸密切相关。与全尺寸实验对比表明，虽然数值模拟与实验的具体数值存在一定的偏差，但各因素对筛管堵塞的影响趋势在数值和实验研究中是一致的。这种一致性说明本研究提供的 CFD-DEM 方法可用于研究未来防砂筛管的堵塞机理。数值结果还表明，优化砾石尺寸与充填效率和冲孔尺寸密切相关。与全尺寸实验对比表明，虽然数值模拟与实验的具体数值存在一定的偏差，但各因素对筛管堵塞的影响趋势在数值和实验研究中是一致的。这种一致性说明本研究提供的 CFD-DEM 方法可用于研究未来防砂筛管的堵塞机理。各因素对筛管堵塞的影响趋势在数值和实验研究中是一致的。这种一致性说明本研究提供的 CFD-DEM 方法可用于研究未来防砂筛管的堵塞机理。各因素对筛管堵塞的影响趋势在数值和实验研究中是一致的。这种一致性说明本研究提供的 CFD-DEM 方法可用于研究未来防砂筛管的堵塞机理。