Spatially resolved normal and shear loading beneath stabilised filter-beds on a plain-weave standalone screen

Premium standalone sand screens must limit sand production while preserving productivity, yet most erosion- and plugging-centred studies do not quantify how a stabilised filter-bed transfers hydraulic loading into stresses on woven wires. This study quantifies sustained normal and shear loading on a plain-weave standalone screen beneath stabilised sand filter-beds using an immersed boundary computational fluid dynamics-discrete element framework under increasing imposed pressure drop. Screen-surface stresses were evaluated over the loaded screen area for the whole screen and for interior and perimeter reporting zones using area-time-weighted distributions. The results show a clear monotonic strengthening of the stabilised loading state as pressure drop increased. Typical loading rose in both the normal and shear components, with the normal component remaining dominant throughout. The loaded-area fraction increased only modestly, whereas the mean stress over the loaded area increased much more strongly. This indicates that higher pressure drop amplified stress intensity within already engaged regions more than it expanded the area carrying load. The upper tail of the stress distribution also strengthened, which shows that increasing pressure drop intensified not only the typical loading state but also the most severe loading regime. Hotspot maps further showed persistent wire-scale organisation within each stabilised window, together with perimeter-associated amplification in the normal upper tail under the present configuration. These findings provide mechanics-based loading descriptors that can support screen qualification procedures and operating-envelope assessment under stabilised filter-bed loading.