Cab climate conditioning is one of the primary reasons for operating the main engine in a long-haul truck during driver rest periods. In the United States, sleeper cab trucks use approximately 667 million gallons of fuel annually for rest period idling. The U.S. Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory's (NREL) CoolCab Project works closely with industry to design efficient thermal management systems for long-haul trucks that minimize engine idling and fuel use while maintaining occupant comfort. Heat transfer to the vehicle interior from opaque exterior surfaces is one of the major heat pathways that contribute to air conditioning loads during long-haul truck daytime rest period idling. To quantify the impact of paint color and the opportunity for advanced paints, NREL collaborated with Volvo Group North America, PPG Industries, and Dometic Environmental Corporation. Initial screening simulations using CoolCalc, NREL's rapid HVAC load estimation tool, showed promising airconditioning load reductions due to paint color selection. Tests conducted at NREL's Vehicle Testing and Integration Facility using long-haul truck cab sections, "test bucks," showed a 31.1% of maximum possible reduction in rise over ambient temperature and a 20.8% reduction in daily electric air conditioning energy use by switching from black to white paint. Additionally, changing from blue to an advanced color-matched solar reflective blue paint resulted in a 7.3% reduction in daily electric air conditioning energy use for weather conditions tested in Colorado. National-level modeling results using weather data from major U.S. cities indicated that the increase in heating loads due to lighter paint colors is much smaller than the reduction in cooling loads.

No abstract

Coiled Tubing Drilling (CTD) has been used on the North Slope of Alaska (Fig. 1) since 1994 for drilling sidetracks or laterals. Technology and techniques developed in Alaska have been transferred globally including the process and best practices to mill windows off whipstocks. A majority of the through tubing sidetracks have been drilled using conventional monobore or through-tubing whipstocks in multiple configurations. CTD has been limited to the size of the tubing or minimum internal diameter (ID) that a whipstock can pass-through and the ID of the tubing, liner, or casing that the whipstock will be set in. A 3-1/2" Thru-Tubing whipstock has a running outer diameter (OD) of 2.625" and could only be set in liner or casing up to 5-1/2". The problem with installing a 3-1/2" Thru-Tubing whipstock in larger liner or casing than 5-1/2" has always been the ability to properly anchor the whipstock and keep the window milling bottom hole assembly (BHA) on the tray of the whipstock. That is no longer an issue with the development of the High Expansion Wedge (HEW). The HEW has a 2.625" OD and is capable of anchoring inside 7" liner or casing. This type of whipstock will open a new set of CTD candidates that have previously been inaccessible. The goal of this paper will be to describe the design, testing, and field trials that were used to develop the HEW.