Complex Fluids and Hydraulic Fracturing.

Nearly 70 years old, hydraulic fracturing is a core technique for stimulating hydrocarbon production in a majority of oil and gas reservoirs. Complex fluids are implemented in nearly every step of the fracturing process, most significantly to generate and sustain fractures and transport and distribute proppant particles during and following fluid injection. An extremely wide range of complex fluids are used: naturally occurring polysaccharide and synthetic polymer solutions, aqueous physical and chemical gels, organic gels, micellar surfactant solutions, emulsions, and foams. These fluids are loaded over a wide range of concentrations with particles of varying sizes and aspect ratios and are subjected to extreme mechanical and environmental conditions. We describe the settings of hydraulic fracturing (framed by geology), fracturing mechanics and physics, and the critical role that non-Newtonian fluid dynamics and complex fluids play in the hydraulic fracturing process.

Capillary breakup of discontinuously rate thickening suspensions.

Using discontinuously rate thickening suspensions (DRTS) as a model system, we show that beads-on-a-string morphologies can arise as a result of external viscous drag acting during capillary-driven breakup of a non-Newtonian fluid. To minimize the perturbative effect of gravity, we developed a new experimental test platform in which the filament is supported in a horizontal position at the surface of an immiscible oil bath. We show that the evolution of thin DRTS filaments during the capillary thinning process is well described by a set of one-dimensional slender filament equations. The strongly rate-dependent rheology of the test fluid and the aspect ratio of the filament couple to control the thinning dynamics and lead to a simple criterion describing the localized arrest of the capillary thinning process and the subsequent formation of complex, high aspect ratio beads-on-a-string structures.