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A Novel Hydraulic Tool for Lost Circulation Control While Drilling with Improved Plugging Effectiveness

  • Research Article - Petroleum Engineering
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Abstract

Lost circulation is one of the most troublesome and costly problems encountered in drilling. This problem is magnified while drilling in deeper, depleted and complex reservoirs. Based on the nation of preventive treatment, the paper intends to present a novel hydraulic tool with a purpose of lost circulation control while drilling. The hydraulic energy of swirling jet is employed in this tool to push the granules in drilling fluid into the fractures, and “an artificial borehole wall” is formed to enhance the pressure-bearing capacity of leakage formation. Moreover, a computing model for flow rate allocation of the tool is developed. The result of comparison experiment on plugging effectiveness manifests that plugging effectiveness with the use of hydraulic tool is much better than that without the tool. The maximal pressure-bearing capacity of experimental core is increased to 8.3 MPa under the experimental circumstances, which demonstrates that the hydraulic tool can provide an effective preventive treatment for lost circulation. Furthermore, field tests of the hydraulic tool are conducted in deep wells and depleted reservoirs. The statistical results validate that the plugging effectiveness can be improved greatly by employing the tool, and the pressure-bearing capacity of formation in depleted reservoir is increased to 11.6 MPa.

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Abbreviations

LCM:

Lost circulation material

WSM:

Well-strengthening material

BHA:

Bottom hole assembly

ROP:

Rate of penetration

RFT:

Repeat formation test

\(Q_{s}\) :

Flow rate of rig pump (L/s)

\(Q_{b}\) :

Flow rate of drill bit (L/s)

\(Q_{c}\) :

Flow rate of swirling jet nozzles (L/s)

I :

Flow rate ratio

\(p_b\) :

Pressure drop of drill bit and hydraulic tool (MPa)

\(p_s\) :

Rig pump pressure (MPa)

\(K_L\) :

Circulating pressure loss coefficient

L :

Well depth (m)

\(\xi \) :

Coefficient of local resistance

\(\gamma \) :

Unit weight of drilling fluid \((\hbox {N/m}^{3})\)

\(v_e\) :

Equivalent jet velocity of drill bit nozzles and swirling jet nozzles (m/s)

g :

Acceleration of gravity (N/kg)

C :

Discharge coefficient of nozzle

\(d_e\) :

Equivalent diameter of drill bit nozzles and swirling jet nozzles (cm)

\(A_0\) :

Total equivalent area of nozzles \((\hbox {cm}^{2})\)

\(\rho _w\) :

Density of drilling fluid \((\hbox {g/cm}^{3})\)

\(d_{{\textit{ej}}}\) :

Equivalent diameter of bit nozzles (cm)

\(d_f\) :

Equivalent diameter of hydraulic energy distribution device (cm)

\(d_c\) :

Equivalent diameter of swirling jet nozzles (cm)

\(v_c\) :

Jet velocity of swirling jet nozzle (m/s)

\(p_c\) :

Pressure drop of hydraulic tool (MPa)

\(v_j\) :

Jet velocity of drill bit nozzles (m/s)

\(F_j\) :

Impact force of drill bit jet (kN)

\(N_{{\textit{bj}}}\) :

Hydraulic horsepower of drill bit (kW)

\(F_c\) :

Impact force of swirling jet (kN)

\(N_c\) :

Hydraulic horsepower of hydraulic tool (kW)

\(v_{{\textit{pc}}}\) :

The ROP (m/h)

n :

Rotation speed of drill string (rpm)

A :

Action area of each swirling jet nozzle \((\hbox {m}^{2})\)

R :

Radius of well bore (m)

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Petroleum Engineering, Southwest Petroleum University, Chengdu, Sichuan, China

    Dawei Qin, Jiyou Xiong & Guohua Wang

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  1. Dawei Qin
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  2. Jiyou Xiong
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  3. Guohua Wang
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Correspondence to Dawei Qin.

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Qin, D., Xiong, J. & Wang, G. A Novel Hydraulic Tool for Lost Circulation Control While Drilling with Improved Plugging Effectiveness. Arab J Sci Eng 43, 2581–2592 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13369-017-2879-2

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