Hydraulic fracturing proppants Hydraulic fracturing proppants A proppant is a solid material, typically sand, treated sand or man-made ceramic materials, designed to keep an induced hydraulic fracture open, during or following a fracturing treatment. It is added to a "fracking fluid" which may vary in composition depending on the type of fracturing used, and can be gel, foam or slickwater–based. In addition, there may be unconventional fracking fluids. Fluids make tradeoffs in such material properties as viscosity, where more viscous fluids can carry more concentrated proppant; the energy or pressure demands to maintain a certain flux pump rate (flow velocity) that will conduct
Hydraulic fracturing used to model information such as length, width and conductivity of a propped fracture. Injection of radioactive tracers along with the fracturing fluid is sometimes used to determine the injection profile and location of created fractures. Radiotracers are selected to have the readily detectable radiation, appropriate chemical properties, and a half life and toxicity level that will minimize initial and residual contamination. Radioactive isotopes chemically bonded to glass (sand) and/or resin beads may also be injected to track fractures. For example, plastic pellets coated with 10 GBq of Ag-110mm may be added to the proppant, or sand may be labelled