Patent ID: 8051911

Claim:
A method of hydraulic fracturing a subterranean formation by introducing a transport fluid containing a proppant into a fracture of defined generalized geometry within the formation, the method comprising: (a) determining the requisite injection rate, q i , for the desired propped fracture length of the fracture, D PST , in accordance with Equation (I): ( q i )=[1/( D PST ) B ]×[(1 /A )× C TRANS ×( d 2 prop )×(1/μ fluid )×(ΔSG PS )] (I) wherein: A is the multiplier and B is the exponent from the Power Law equation of velocity of the transport slurry vs. distance for the fracture geometry; C TRANS is the transport coefficient; d prop is the median proppant diameter, in mm.; μ fluid is the apparent viscosity of the transport fluid, in cP; and ΔSG PS is SG prop −SG fluid , SG prop being the specific gravity of the proppant and SG fluid being the specific gravity of the transport fluid; (b) introducing the transport fluid into the formation; and (c) subjecting the formation to hydraulic fracturing at the injection rate, q i , and creating fractures in the formation defined by D PST .