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Analysis of the Toolface Stability of a Motor-Fully-Rotating Directional Drilling System

  • Research Article-Petroleum Engineering
  • Published:
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Abstract

The reduction in longitudinal drag and increase in rate of penetration have recently been a hot topic in the drilling field. In this study, a motor-fully-rotating directional drilling system was proposed. Compared to the conventional system of motor/MWD (measurement while drilling), the advantage of the new system is that all drill string except the guiding bent housing rotates during slide drilling, which meets the two requirements of reducing longitudinal drag and increasing the rate of penetration. The stability of the toolface is the premise for the new proposed system to realize its working principle. Lateral force between the guiding bent housing and wellbore under different well conditions was evaluated by a model established by the continuous beam method. On this basis, combined with the principle of rolling friction, and through indoor experiments, it was shown that when the wellbore curvature is less than 6°/30 m and friction coefficient between the guiding bent housing and wellbore is bigger than 0.2, the toolface can be kept stable. Field tests showed that the well deviation angle continued to increase, while the azimuth remained unchanged in the well section where the tool was used, and the maximum change rate of inclination angle was 7.886°/30 m, verified the toolface stability of the proposed system during slide drilling.

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All data generated or analyzed during this study are included in this published article.

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The code used in this paper is real and available.

Abbreviations

b :

Binormal direction on the borehole axis

\(\Delta {\mathbf{b}}_{{\text{n}}}\) :

Axial displacement of the terminal of element n in direction b (m)

\(D_{{\text{w}}}\) :

Wellbore diameter (m)

E :

Elastic modulus of element n (Pa)

\(I_{{\text{n}}}\) :

Cross-sectional moment of inertia of element n (m4)

\(\kappa\) :

Wellbore curvature (rad/m)

\(L_{{\text{n}}}\) :

Length of element n (m)

\(M\left( {\mathbf{b}} \right)_{{\text{n}}}\) :

Section bending moment of the terminal of element n in direction b (N·m)

\(M\left( {\mathbf{n}} \right)_{{\text{n}}}\) :

Section bending moment of the terminal of element n in direction n (N·m)

\(M_{{{\text{ws}}}}\) :

Maximum rotational friction torque between the wellbore wall and the MRDS stabilizer (N·m)

n :

Principal normal direction on the borehole axis

\(N\left( {\mathbf{b}} \right)_{{\text{n}}}\) :

Support reaction force of the borehole wall in b direction received by the node n (N)

\(N\left( {\mathbf{n}} \right)_{{\text{n}}}\) :

Support reaction force of the borehole wall in n direction received by the node n (N)

\(n_{{\text{B}}}\) :

Bit rotation speed (r/min)

\(n_{{\text{M}}}\) :

Output speed of the downhole motor (r/min)

\(n_{{\text{R}}}\) :

Rotation speed of rotary table (r/min)

\(\Delta {\mathbf{n}}_{{\text{n}}}\) :

Axial displacement of the terminal of element n in direction n (m)

\(P_{{\text{n}}}\) :

Axial force on the element n (N)

\(q\left( {\mathbf{b}} \right)_{{\text{n}}}\) :

Distributed force of the drill string in the b direction (N/m)

\(q\left( {\mathbf{n}} \right)_{{\text{n}}}\) :

Distributed force of the drill string in the n direction (N/m)

\(S_{{\text{n}}}\) :

Drill string length from the bit to the terminal of element n (m)

\(T_{{\text{B}}}\) :

Rock-breaking torque of the bit (N·m)

\(T_{{\text{f}}}\) :

Friction torque between the drill string and wellbore (N·m)

\(T_{{\text{M}}}\) :

Output torque of the downhole motor (N·m)

\(T_{{{\text{Mf}}}}\) :

Mud viscous resistance moment (N·m)

\(X\left( {u_{{\text{n}}} } \right)\) :

Dimensionless magnification factors based on the axial force of the beam

\(Y\left( {u_{{\text{n}}} } \right)\) :

Dimensionless magnification factors based on the axial force of the beam

\(y_{{\text{n}}}\) :

Displacement of the terminal of element relative to bit in the principal normal direction of the borehole axis (m)

\(Z\left( {u_{{\text{n}}} } \right)\) :

Dimensionless magnification factors based on the axial force of the beam

\(\theta \left( {\mathbf{b}} \right)_{{{\text{nL}}}}\) :

Section rotation angle on the left end of element n in direction b (rad)

\(\theta \left( {\mathbf{b}} \right)_{{{\text{nR}}}}\) :

Section rotation angle on the right end of element n in direction b (rad)

\(\theta \left( {\mathbf{n}} \right)_{{{\text{nL}}}}\) :

Section rotation angle of the left end of element n in direction n (rad)

\(\theta \left( {\mathbf{n}} \right)_{{{\text{nR}}}}\) :

Section rotation angle of the right end of element n in direction n (rad)

\(\gamma\) :

Bending angle of the drill string (rad)

\(\mu\) :

Friction coefficient between the wellbore wall and drill string

\(\phi (S_{{\text{n}}} )\) :

Rotation angle of borehole axis between the terminal of element n and bit (rad)

\(\Omega\) :

Toolface angle (°)

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Funding

The present study was supported by the National Key R&D Program of China (Grant No. 2019YFA0708302).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Petroleum Engineering School, Southwest Petroleum University, Chengdu, China

    Tiansheng Deng, Qian Li & Hu Yin

Authors
  1. Tiansheng Deng
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  2. Qian Li
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  3. Hu Yin
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Contributions

Mr. Qian Li is responsible for raising questions, applying for funds and arranging the research progress. Mr. Tiansheng Deng is responsible for the specific design of the tool, experimental scheme, data analysis, paper writing and other tasks. Mr. Yin Hu is responsible for the review and revision of the thesis.

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Correspondence to Tiansheng Deng.

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Deng, T., Li, Q. & Yin, H. Analysis of the Toolface Stability of a Motor-Fully-Rotating Directional Drilling System. Arab J Sci Eng 48, 9127–9137 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13369-022-07073-0

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