Double horse-head pumping unit, being one of the most classical mechanical equipment, has high efficiency and good balance ability during the oil extraction owing to its horse-head structure connecting with the rod by the steel wire rope. But its characteristic of energy consumption reduction is limited because of the motor torque fluctuation and negative torque appearing while the pumping unit is working in the upstroke and downstroke. The compound balance design is applied to the double horse-head pumping unit by the crank balance and walking beam balance, which is completed by the equal energy principle during the up and down circulation of the oil suction unit. The finite element model of the whole equipment is built, and the simulation analysis is completed by the software ADAMS, under the conditions of the compound balance and that of the crank balance. The output torque of the crank, the forces from the back horse-head rope, and the connection pin are calculated. From the viewpoint of system design to compare with the traditional crank balance pumping unit, the compound balance design can reduce the torque fluctuation greatly, decrease the forces of steel wire rope connecting with the back horse-head, and get rid of the structure problems from the traditional pumping unit. The stress test of the double horse-head pumping unit designed by the compound balance method is completed in the oilfields. It has proved the correctness and reasonability of the compound balance design. The methodology of the compound balance design is helpful in improving the work efficiency and reliability and bringing about better abilities of energy consumption reduction for the pumping unit during its work circulation.

Local mean decomposition (LMD) is a new time-frequency analysis method which can decompose a signal adaptively into a set of product function (PF) components, and the construction of local mean function and envelope function plays an important role in the accuracy of its PF components. Aiming at the strong nonstationarity, nonlinearity and multi-component coupling characteristics of reciprocating compressor vibration signals, an improved LMD was proposed by a novel construction method of local mean function and envelope function. By introducing an extreme symmetrical point between two extreme points and using the Monotone Piecewise Cubic Hermite Interpolation (MPCHI) instead of Cubic Spline Interpolation (CSI) to construct the envelopes, a novel construction method of local mean function and envelope function was proposed, and then the improved LMD algorithm was given based on this novel construction method. The improved LMD was applied to decompose the vibration signals of reciprocating compressor fault states, and the comparison of details between different LMD decomposition results verified the superiority of this improved method. The envelope frequency spectrum of PF component gives a more significant peak of fault frequency than that of original signal, which further indicates that this proposed method is competent for the diagnosis of reciprocating compressor oversized bearing clearance fault.

Metal rubber is one kind of elastic cellular metal material, which is widely used in vibration isolation environment for its excellent properties of elasticity, energy dissipation, and environmental adaptability. However, the stiffness range of one single metal rubber is restricted, which limits its ability of vibration isolation, especially under the complex vibration loads. In this paper, a method of spatial overlay combination is presented to widen the range of the stiffness of metal rubber material. The contact behavior of the metal spiral rolls and the influence factors of manufacture to the stiffness are investigated according to the micro-spring theory and the energy dissipation theory. The static tests under cycling loading are conducted to obtain the average stiffness and the equivalent stiffness of the combined metal rubber. After the comparisons, the combined metal rubber has a better stiffness range than the individual element. The diameter of metal wire and the relative density of metal rubber are two important influence factors to the combined stiffness, which are verified by the experimental tests and finite element simulation.

Horizontal wells’ multi-section and multi-cluster hydraulic fracturing plays an important role in the efficient development of shale gas. However, the influence of the perforating hole and natural fracture dip angle on the process of hydraulic fracture initiation and propagation has been ignored in the current researches. This paper presents the results related to a tri-axial large-scale hydraulic fracturing experiment under different natural fracture parameters. We discuss the experimental results relating to the near-wellbore tortuosity propagation of hydraulic fractures. Experimental results showed that the triaxial principal stress of the experimental sample was deflected by the natural fracture, which caused significant near-wellbore tortuosity propagation of the hydraulic fractures. The fractures in most rock samples were not perpendicular to the minimum horizontal principal stress after the experiment. As well, the deflection degree of triaxial principal stress direction and the probability of hydraulic fractures near-wellbore tortuosity propagation decreased with the increase of the natural fracture dip angle. After hydraulic fractures’ tortuous propagation, the hydraulic fractures will propagate in the direction controlled by the triaxial stress in the far-wellbore area. For reservoirs with natural fractures, proppant in hydraulic fracturing should be added after the fractures are fully expanded to prevent sand plugging in tortuous fractures. When the permeability of natural fractures is low, the volume of fracturing fluid entering natural fractures is small, and hydraulic fractures are easy to pass through the natural fractures.

Rigid polyurethane foam (RPUF) as a filling material that can enhance the crashworthiness of thinwalled tubes. GO-HGMS hybrid was prepared by solution blending of graphene oxide (GO) and hollow glass microspheres (HGMS). The effect of the composite on the compression properties of RPUF was investigated. The GO-HGMS hybrid was characterized by fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), x-ray diffraction(XRD), and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The compression test and microstructure results show that the best compression performance and the largest apparent density of the composite foam were obtained when the hybrid content was 4 wt %. In addition, the compression test results of empty tubes (ET) and foam-filled tubes (FFT) under lateral load indicate that the combination of lightweight foamed material and thin-walled tube improves the stability of thin-walled tube deformation and the ability of the structure to resist deformation. GO-HGMS/RPUF as the filling material of thin-walled tube structure greatly improves the bearing capacity and energy absorption level of ET.