Experimental Determination of Interfacial Friction Factor in Horizontal Drilling With a Bed of Cuttings

Abstract

Freire,Federal Fluminense U.,and W. Campos, SPE, Petrobras C-M 199S, S.cu301y M Pebokwm Engtira, k This papa was prepared for proaentatii al the Fouth SPE Latn Amercan and Caribkan Pelmkum Er@nWmg GmWenca held In Pal c+Spah, Trin!dad & Tobe+ge22-26 A@l 1996 Thlo Papw WN sokdod W p+msan!mlbnby an SPE Program Ccmmiilea IOI!CIWIWrewew of nfanllcdm-1 MntakWd h m~lmd mbdled by lhn sulk.r[s). Ccmltis GI ha papIM how ml Mm rovicwad by W SO15DIYof PcW8u"n Engmem ati are 8UUOC410con'cdii by lfm -*).~m~~. aa PI=W*I dues IM necessarily rM6cJ any posilii of M Socisty of Psb'olmmnEngi-, its .affimm, or members Pqnm presenl~at SPE mealinps are $ubjecl @~* W Et-l~m~=s of~M~pe@OleumEWIIWS pWM~M to copy is rwbtctcd to a abdracl of rd mca than S02 words. Illuslratiis may nol be cepkd The abslmd SFWYJIII conlah umapiwcus @m.?wledpmenl of where and by wtcm he papar is =M& U~fim, SPE, P O Box SS2sSS, Rich-dscm, TX 7$Qs3sK%, U S.A. lax 01- AbstractThe study of stratified solid-liquid annular flow is relevant in several areas, e.g., mining and oil industries. A typical application is in the study of the removal of the rock formation cut by the bit during the drilling of a horizontal or highly inclined well. Seveml tbeoretieal models have been proposed for the description of this phenomenum. In these models, some empirical parameters are required, such as the shear stresses at the interface between the fluids and the cuttings bed and the maximum cuttings-wall tlktion factor which avoids bed movement. This work shows the"results of an experimental work developed on a 'large scale flow loop aiming at the quantification of these empirierd parameters. The tests consisted on the visualization of a saridstone bed erosion by different polymeric solutions flowing through an annular section. Pressure losses and steady state bed heights were recorded for several input parameters, such as fluid flow rate, rheology and density, annular geometry, eccentricity and particle size. SPE 36075

A Two-Region Hydraulic Averaging Model for Cuttings Transport During Horizontal Well Drilling

“…The averaging momentum transport equations that describe the transport phenomena in the η-region is given by Ochoa-Tapia and Whitaker (22) : where the first viscous term in Equation (16) is known as the first Brinkman correction, the viscous term involving the gradient of the porosity is known as the second Brinkman correction and Φ β is a vector defined by: W hitaker (25) derived an expression for Φ β which is given by: (18) which is valid when the following three length-scale constraints are imposed: In these equations, K β represents the Darcy´s law permeability tensor, L ε is the characteristic length associated with ∇ε β , L p1 is the characteristic length associated with ∇〈p β 〉 β and L v2 is the characteristic length associated with ∇ 2 〈v β 〉. When the constraints indicated by Equation (19) are valid, the second Brinkman correction is negligible, compared with the first Brinkman correction: Use of Equations (18) and (20) in Equation (16) leads to: The Blake-Kozeny equation (26) is used to express permeability as: where K β = K ZZ e Z e Z , d p is the effective particle diameter, and λ is a constant which is obtained from experimental tests.…”

“…On the other hand, numerous mathematical and empirical models for the prediction of cuttings transport in horizontal and directional wells have been developed by several researchers (9)(10)(11)(12)(13)(14)(15)(16)(17)(18) . However, many of the previous models (two-and three-layer approaches) have been constructed on an intuitive basis rather than on a rigorous analysis of the governing point equations and boundary conditions.…”

Application of Aerated-Fluid Drilling in Deepwater

“…Cuttings bed removal could be investigated, determining the efficiency of each mixture injected (5) .…”

Layer Modeling for Cuttings Transport in Highly Inclined Wellbores

“…This is an approach that was initiated in slurry transport modeling 14,15,17 and that has later been adapted to cuttings transport modeling 18,21,12,[22][23][24] . In most cases, actually a 0-D problem is solved, but extending these models to 1-D, solving for transport along the wellbore, does not yield real physical modeling challenges.…”