The Erosion of Perforation Holes by Proppant-laden Fluid Under Different Perforating Configurations

With the widespread application of casing fracturing, the injection of proppant-laden fluids can severely erode perforation tunnels, enlarge perforation diameters, and in extreme cases induce casing deformation, thus posing significant operational risks. This study employs COMSOL and the Euler–Lagrange particle-tracking framework to simulate proppant transport and perforation erosion in horizontal wells under both directional and fixed-plane perforation schemes, with results validated against downhole TV observations. The simulations indicate that directional perforation experiences less erosion overall. When the sand ratio increases from 5% →25%, perforation weight loss rises by 398% for directional perforation and 332% for fixed-plane perforation. Increasing proppant size from 50 to 100 mesh reduces weight loss by 53% →58%, respectively. Both parameters narrow the erosion gap between the two perforation modes. However, field measurements show the opposite trend: fixed-plane perforation exhibits milder erosion across all key indicators, hole area, erosion area, growth ratio, and erosion degree, by margins of 16.7% to 60%. This discrepancy stems from two main factors. First, high sand-ratio conditions weaken the relative influence of perforation-mode differences. Second, the heterogeneity of the actual formation, unaccounted for in the numerical model, combined with the smaller perforation spacing in fixed-plane designs, helps buffer the effects of formation variability. The novelty of this work lies in integrating fluid drag, particle–wall collisions, inter-particle elastic interactions, and a particle-tracking erosion module to achieve a fully coupled fluid–solid simulation with dynamic mass loss. This overcomes limitations of prior studies, which typically examined tool-level erosion or a single perforation configuration. The findings provide clear engineering guidance: under low sand-ratio conditions, directional perforation is recommended to reduce perforation-hole erosion; under high sand-ratio conditions, perforation azimuths should be differentiated to prevent the development of dominant high-erosion perforations. These strategies directly mitigate the risk of casing deformation induced by perforation erosion during hydraulic fracturing.