A multiparametric CFD analysis of multiphase annular flows for oil and gas drilling applications

Epelle, Emmanuel I.; Gerogiorgis, Dimitrios I.

doi:10.1016/j.compchemeng.2017.08.011

Cited by 56 publications

(23 citation statements)

References 33 publications

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“…(ie, 51% at 0.5 ms‐1 for nanofluid and 48% for base fluid). This behavior can help in reducing cuttings deposition when the circulation velocity is not sufficient to overcome the gravitational force 49 …”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Numerical study of cuttings transport of nanoparticle‐based drilling fluid

Al‐Yasiri

Al‐Gailani

Wen

2020

Engineering Reports

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Cuttings transportation from the drill bit, through the annulus, to the surface is one of the most important functions performed by drilling fluid. The prediction of drilling fluid's performance to transport cuttings in the annulus is very complex task due to the presence of numerous parameters. Nanoparticles (NPs) have been recently introduced into drilling fluid to engineer its properties and enhance its performance. Nevertheless, the lifting capacity has not been sufficiently investigated. The understanding of the influence and the mechanisms responsible for the improvement in cuttings transport process can further advance the application of NPs for drilling fluids. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) is widely used as a numerical technique in handling complex multiphase flow problems in different operational conditions. The present work has taken the advantages of CFD to computationally analyze the influence of NPs and the effects of various parameters such as drilling fluids rheology, flow rate, pipe rotation, cuttings density, shape, concentration, and drilling fluids-cuttings particle coupling regimes on the cuttings transport in a vertical wellbore. The CFD simulation is carried out by using transient solver of ANSYS-FLUENT commercial code. The dense discrete phase model is used to overcome the main shortcomings of previous Eulerian based approaches. Good agreement has been achieved between the simulation and the published experimental results. It showed that the fluid viscosity and cuttings transport process can be significantly enhanced by adding nanomaterials to the fluid, and the process is highly influenced by cuttings characteristics such as in situ concentration, shape, and density. K E Y W O R D SCFD, cuttings transport, drilling fluids, multiphase flow, nanoparticles, rheology, wellbore Abbreviations: CFD, computational fluid dynamics; DDPM, dense discrete phase model; DEM, discrete element method; HTHP, high temperature and high pressure; LTLP, low temperature and low pressure

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Numerical study of cuttings transport of nanoparticle‐based drilling fluid

Al‐Yasiri

Al‐Gailani

Wen

2020

Engineering Reports

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“…A previous study of ours (Epelle and Gerogiorgis, 2017) analysed the impact several drilling variables on majorly the cuttings concentration and pressure drop with more attention on the impact of changing hole eccentricity. This was entirely carried out under steady state conditions while considering a laminar flow regime using the Eulerian-Eulerian model.…”

Section: Figmentioning

confidence: 99%

Transient and steady state analysis of drill cuttings transport phenomena under turbulent conditions

Epelle

Gerogiorgis

2018

Chemical Engineering Research and Design

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Understanding the intricacies of multiphase flows is paramount to any drilling operation, and this has been under continuing and intensive development for the past decades. A major complexity associated with this operation is the uncertainty in the transport phenomena of generated cuttings as drilling progresses under different attainable configurations and fluid rheological conditions. Increased transport efficiency of drill cuttings in most drilling operations is usually characterised by an increased mud circulation velocity; this creates complex turbulent interactions between the solid and liquid phases. The study of the dispersion of these cuttings, in relation to their axial, tangential and slip velocity profiles in the annulus is carefully investigated in this work under steady and transient conditions. Computational Fluid Dynamics models (Eulerian-Eulerian, Lagrangian-Eulerian/Discrete Element Method) are utilised for this purpose. The implementation of the Eulerian-Eulerian model provides a macroscopic description of the distribution of fundamental flow properties such as pressure, volume fractions and velocities of each phase. Furthermore, a direct description of the particulate flow, inherent transient motion, interparticle and particlewall collisions are obtained with the particle tracking functionality of the Lagrangian-Eulerian/DEM technique. The results obtained using the Eulerian-Eulerian model reveal that particle slip velocities are lowest at the central regions of the annulus with the effect of asymmetry due to inner pipe rotation being more pronounced along the longitudinal plane. Particle diameter has tremendous effects on the alteration of turbulence properties of the continuous phase with very distinct velocity profiles. Cuttings trajectory analysis show some extra phenomena which have been physically observed in available experimental studies; one of which is the occurrence of ejections of coherent structures at the walls of the flow domain. The difficulty of carrying out transient and steady state experimental measurements of particle velocities is an area where CFD shows great potential. The few available data in literature are well predicted with errors less than 11%. Similarly, fluid axial and tangential velocity predictions carried out, yield reasonably accurate results, thus further validating the CFD approach employed in this work. 1.

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“…This discrepancy could widen when the particle's orientation with respect to the bulk fluid motion plays an important role due to irregularities in particle shape. Just as most research endeavours on the motion of solid particles in a fluid consider mainly spherical particles, 3,4,5,6 most investigations accounting for particle sphericity are concerned with Stokes flow at low particle Reynolds number. 7,8,9,10 Adjustments of the drag coefficient for higher Reynolds numbers significantly depend on empirical data and sometimes the particle orientation.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Upper bend (inclined-to-vertical) is the most susceptible location to cuttings deposition. 3. Increasing the mud viscosity does not always guarantee easy wellbore cleaning.…”

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confidence: 99%

CFD modelling and simulation of drill cuttings transport efficiency in annular bends: Effect of particle sphericity

Epelle

Gerogiorgis

2018

Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering

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Accurate prediction of the flow behaviour of drill cuttings carried by a non-Newtonian fluid in an annular geometry is important for the successful and efficient design, operation, and optimisation of drilling operations. Although it is widely recognised that practical drilling operations hardly involve perfectly spherical cuttings, the relative ease in mathematical description coupled with speedy computation are the main reasons for the prevalence of this simplifying assumption. The possibilities offered by the modification of the interphase exchange coefficient of the Syamlal-O'Brien model as well as its scarce implementation in literature have motivated the authors to delve into this area of research as far as the transport phenomena of non-spherical drill cuttings is concerned. Another aspect of this work was influenced by the need to understand the flow dynamics around bends (horizontal to inclined and inclined to vertical sections) during deviated drilling operations using two high viscosity muds (0.5% CMC and 0.5% CMC + 4% Bentonite mud). The Eulerian-Eulerian model was adopted for this study while considering particle sphericities of 0.5, 0.75 and 1 and diameters of 0.002 m, 0.003 m, 0.004 m, 0.005 m and 0.008 m respectively. It was discovered that particle deposition intensifies at the inclined-to-vertical bend compared to other locations in the flow domain. We also observe increased dispersion effects and transport velocities of non-spherical particles compared to particles of a perfectly spherical geometry. Furthermore, an improvement in the rheological properties of the drilling mud shows a remarkable increase in cuttings transport efficiency especially with the smaller particles. However, increased deposition of larger particles still poses a challenge to the wellbore cleaning process despite this rheological enhancement. The proposed CFD modelling methodology is thus capable of providing critical insight into the dynamics of cuttings transport, and the resulting computational observations are consistent with relevant experimental investigations.

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A multiparametric CFD analysis of multiphase annular flows for oil and gas drilling applications

Cited by 56 publications

References 33 publications

Numerical study of cuttings transport of nanoparticle‐based drilling fluid

Numerical study of cuttings transport of nanoparticle‐based drilling fluid

Transient and steady state analysis of drill cuttings transport phenomena under turbulent conditions

CFD modelling and simulation of drill cuttings transport efficiency in annular bends: Effect of particle sphericity

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