| Sand and Proppant used for stimulation purposes and gravel pack purposes are generally screened for usability by recommended practices provided by the American Petroleum Institute (RP 56/58/60). These practices are developed to improve the quality of the sand or proppant delivered to the well site. They are of use in evaluating certain physical properties of the sand or proppant. The practices will enable you to compare physical characteristics of various sands or proppants tested under described conditions and to select materials most useful for your operations. The recommended practices comprise the following laboratory tests: |
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| The grain size of the sand or proppant is measured and evaluated according to the standards provided by the procedure. |
| Sphericity is a measure of how close sand grains approach the shape of a sphere. Roundness is a measure of the relative sharpness of grain corners or of grain curvature. |
| Acid solubility is an indication of the amount of undesirable contaminants (carbonates, iron oxides, etc) present in the sand. |
| Turbidity experiments give insight in the clay and soft particle content of the sand. |
| The crush resistance test is useful for comparing the strength of different samples of sand. Strength is measured as the amount of produced fines under stress applied by the guidelines of the procedure. |
