IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jeners/v12y2019i20p3939-d277395.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Cuttings Transport Using Pulsed Drilling Fluid in the Horizontal Section of the Slim-Hole: An Experimental and Numerical Simulation Study

Author

Listed:
  • Xiaohua Zhu

    (Mechanical Engineering School of Southwest Petroleum University, Chengdu, Sichuan 610500, China)

  • Keyu Shen

    (Mechanical Engineering School of Southwest Petroleum University, Chengdu, Sichuan 610500, China)

  • Bo Li

    (Engineering School of Southwest Petroleum University, Nanchong, Sichuan 637000, China)

  • Yanxin Lv

    (Mechanical Engineering School of Southwest Petroleum University, Chengdu, Sichuan 610500, China)

Abstract

Poor transport of cuttings in horizontal sections of small-bore well holes leads to high torque and increases the risk of the drill becoming stuck, reducing its service life and posing a threat to safe operation. Because the conventional cuttings transport method cannot effectively remove the cuttings bed, a transport method using pulsed drilling fluid based on a shunt relay mechanism is proposed. A three-layer numerical simulation model of cuttings transport in horizontal small-bore wells is established. Using both experiments and numerical simulations, the cuttings transport is studied in terms of the moving cuttings velocity, cuttings concentration, and distance of movement of the cuttings bed. By varying the pulsed drilling fluid velocity cycle, amplitude, and duty cycle at the annulus inlet, their effects on cuttings transport are analyzed, and the optimal pulse parameters are determined. The results show that the use of pulsed drilling fluid can effectively enhance the moving cutting velocity and transport distance of the cuttings bed, reduce the cuttings concentration, and improve wellbore cleaning.

Suggested Citation

  • Xiaohua Zhu & Keyu Shen & Bo Li & Yanxin Lv, 2019. "Cuttings Transport Using Pulsed Drilling Fluid in the Horizontal Section of the Slim-Hole: An Experimental and Numerical Simulation Study," Energies, MDPI, vol. 12(20), pages 1-22, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jeners:v:12:y:2019:i:20:p:3939-:d:277395
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/12/20/3939/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/12/20/3939/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Xiaohua Zhu & Keyu Shen & Bo Li, 2021. "Investigation: Cutting Transport Mechanism in Inclined Well Section under Pulsed Drilling Fluid Action," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(8), pages 1-16, April.
    2. Camilo Pedrosa & Arild Saasen & Jan David Ytrehus, 2021. "Fundamentals and Physical Principles for Drilled Cuttings Transport—Cuttings Bed Sedimentation and Erosion," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(3), pages 1-13, January.
    3. Yang Tang & Jiaxin Yao & Guorong Wang & Yin He & Peng Sun, 2020. "Analysis of Multi-Phase Mixed Slurry Horizontal Section Migration Efficiency in Natural Gas Hydrate Drilling and Production Method Based on Double-Layer Continuous Pipe and Double Gradient Drilling," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(15), pages 1-20, July.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jeners:v:12:y:2019:i:20:p:3939-:d:277395. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.