Sand production is a common problem in oil and gas production. The sand production causes loss of pipe wall thickness that can lead to expensive failures and loss of production time. There are many ways to alleviate or at least reduce sand erosion problems. However, an important unknown is the quantity of sand being produced in the well. One method to evaluate sand production is by using sand monitors and/or erosion/corrosion monitors. Several commercially available acoustic sand detectors and an intrusive erosion probe were investigated to address their effectiveness in quantifying the amount of sand that is entrained in multiphase flow. In the present work, data from the sand monitors are analyzed and are compared to results from a model that calculates particle impact velocity and erosion rates. The results indicate that there is a direct correlation between outputs from sand detectors and the erosion model. Therefore, results from sand monitors can be interpreted using an erosion model.

Sand production is a major problem to the oil and gas industry. The presence of sand in the produced fluid provides many challenges for oil and gas production companies, and sand management has become increasingly important as high rate wells with sand become more prominent. Sand erosion as a result of sand production is a major concern. Even when the sand production is as low as a few pounds per day, it can cause erosive failure at high production velocities. To date many investigators have studied erosion on simple pipe geometries such as elbows and tees. All theses studies indicate that erosion rate is proportional to sand production rate as well as many other factors including fluid properties, flow regime, pipe material properties and sand characteristics. There are several ways to alleviate or at least reduce sand erosion problems. However, an important unknown is the quantity of sand being produced in the well. One method to evaluate sand production is by using sand monitors and/or erosion/corrosion monitors.

There are many commercially available sand detectors. Many of the sand monitoring devices are based on erosion measurements. Many of these types of monitors are intrusive probes consisting of sensing elements that are corrosion resistant. The intrusive probes are normally inserted inside the pipe wall. Sand that is entrained in the produced fluid impacts the sensing elements resulting in erosion damage. The thickness reduction of the sensing elements can then be quantified by electrical resistance ER measurements. These types of sand detectors are called ER probes. Normally empirical information is used to relate sensing element wall thickness loss to sand production rate. Therefore, it is important to have a reliable erosion model to calculate sand production rate. The advantage of these types of sensors is that the output is the wall thickness loss that is a clear indication of the sand production and erosion. But, it is not clear how erosion of the sensing element is related to erosion damage of a pipe fitting such as an elbow or a straight pipe section.

In addition to intrusive sand detectors, there are several acoustic (or passive ultrasonic measurement) type monitors. These monitors detect high-frequency noise from outside of a pipe wall. Therefore, these monitors detect the noise that is generated by solid particle impact as well as noise that is generated by turbulence, and bubble or droplet impact on the pipe wall. These types of monitors are also designed to provide an early detection of solids in the produced fluids to minimize risk of failure as a result of …