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To investigate the mesoscopic influence of surfactants on seepage law during water injection in coal seam, this paper innovatively establishes a fluid transport lattice Boltzmann (LBM) model by incorporating the seepage resistance generated from the porous media and external forces, which embodies the impact of wettability degree resulted from cocamidopropyl betaine (CAB), sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS), and coconutt diethanol amide (CDEA) reagents at a 0.1% concentration. The main conclusions derived from this investigation are as follows: Firstly, as the lattice number in the X direction increases, the average seepage velocities in coal samples treated by deionized water, 0.1% CAB, 0.1% SDS, and 0.1% CDEA reagents (Nos. 1, 2, 3, and 4) exhibit three distinct stages: rapid decline, slow decline, and steady decline; in comparison to raw coal sample, modified coal samples demonstrate decreases of 20.84%, 33.91%, and 61.70%, respectively. Secondly, the critical values of displacement pressure difference exist during the phenomenon that modified reagents spread out in the entire flow channel, which are 3.5 MPa, 3.5 MPa, and 5.2 MPa, respectively, for coal samples Nos. 2, 3, and 4; this signifies that surpassing these critical values help prevent issues such as blank belts within the wetting range and insufficient dust control. Finally, at a displacement pressure difference of 0.01 (lattice unit), the average velocity ratios for samples (Nos. 2, 3, and 4) are 0.78, 0.56, and 0.37(lattice unit), respectively; notably, the water flow velocities in modified coal samples are lower compared to that in raw coal sample, indicating that the addition of surfactants impede the seepage process of water injection in coal seam. Moreover, when the displacement pressure difference reaches 0.03 (lattice unit), the velocity ratio of CDEA-modified coal sample exceeds 100%; this means that when the displacement pressure difference surpasses 15.6 MPa, the water injection effect of CDEA-modified coal sample begins to be improved. These research findings offer a theoretical basis for enhancing water injection technology in coal mines.

Consideration of initial stress state after cement hardening provides a vital basis for the prediction of cement failure, which has been overlooked in previously published methodologies partly due to the difficulties in examining this problem rationally. In the present study, the hoop stress at casing-cement interface during cement hardening is investigated experimentally based on the full-scale casing-cement sheath-formation system (CCFS) facility, which is equipped with the real-time stress-strain measurement capability. The hoop stress at casing-cement interface during cement hardening drops sharply, rather than equating with the initial annulus pressure of cement slurry. It presents a higher drawdown under higher annulus pressure and thinner casing, and a lower drawdown under elastic cement slurry and thicker cement sheath. Furthermore, an analytical model taking the effect of cement hardening into account is developed to predict the integrity of cement sheath. Reliability of the model is verified by comparison with field observations. Excellent agreements are observed. The results illustrate that the tensile cracks are likely to occur at the inner cement (inner surface of cement sheath) by the effect of cement hardening, since the hoop stress at inner cement during cement hardening drops greatly and even becomes tensile. A detailed sensitivity analysis illustrates that an elastic cement slurry with a lower elastic modulus works more effectively, which can resolve the sustained casing pressure (SCP) problem in shale gas wells.

Estimating production in coal accurately is crucial for promoting the process of safe, efficient, and green coal mining. It has been gradually recognized that horizontal wells with multiple fractures are employed to develop the coal reservoir, which signifies that the linear flow regime will dominate for a rather long time. However, the traditional analysis approaches of transient linear flow regimes may yield the overestimation of coal reservoir property. In this work, a new analytical model was proposed to estimate the rate-transient of wells with multi-fractures in coal reservoir that produce at a constant flowing pressure, which considers multiple flow mechanisms. Especially, the matrix shrinkage effect caused by water extraction from microscopic pores was incorporated, which has never been investigated by current production analysis models. In comparison with the conventional reservoir, the advanced pseudo-pressure and pseudo-time equations incorporating earlier critical mechanisms were established, including the four effects of gas slippage, effective stress, and matrix shrinkage caused by gas desorption/water extraction. In addition, the excellent agreement between the predicted rate by the proposed model and field data was achieved to validate the reliability of proposed models. Furthermore, the sensitivity analysis was carried out to clarify the influence of a series of factors on the seepage mechanism and productivity curve. Results demonstrated that the matrix shrinkage effect caused by water extraction may increase the well production rate in coal reservoirs. Selecting one field case as an example, the production rate predicted by the red curve is obviously higher than that by the green curve, the average discrepancy yields around 39.5%. The relative humidity in the coal matrix will present a positive impact on well production performance. Taking a field case as an instance, when the relative humidity varies from 8% to 14%, the well production sharply increases by about 11.6%.