Individual diametral compression behavior of a ceramic proppant

Abstract

In this work we report the systematic individual diametral compression of a commercial ceramic proppants, describe the main features of their mechanical behavior and explain them in terms of morphology, microstructure and complementary characterizations. A fragile behavior was observed and described, and mechanical parameters were easily evaluated from the stress-strain measured curves (maximum stress and displacement), an apparent stiffness parameter (slope) was proposed from the linear part of the evaluated curves as well. Weibull analysis was performed for the measured stresses, with the resulting Weibull parameters were also illustrative and allowed a better understanding of the behavior of an individual proppant submitted to diametral compression. The possibility of employing this approach or strategy for both proppants development and quality control is proposed and discussed. This was found to be descriptive and complementary to the typical collective bed crush test.