Calculation Analysis of Pressure Wave Velocity in Gas and Drilling Mud Two-Phase Fluid in Annulus during Drilling Operations

Abstract

Investigation of propagation characteristics of a pressure wave is of great significance to the solution of the transient pressure problem caused by unsteady operations during management pressure drilling operations. With consideration of the important factors such as virtual mass force, drag force, angular frequency, gas influx rate, pressure, temperature, and well depth, a united wave velocity model has been proposed based on pressure gradient equations in drilling operations, gas-liquid two-fluid model, the gas-drilling mud equations of state, and small perturbation theory. Solved by adopting the Runge-Kutta method, calculation results indicate that the wave velocity and void fraction have different values with respect to well depth. In the annulus, the drop of pressure causes an increase in void fraction along the flow direction. The void fraction increases first slightly and then sharply; correspondingly the wave velocity first gradually decreases and then slightly increases. In general, the wave velocity tends to increase with the increase in back pressure and the decrease of gas influx rate and angular frequency, significantly in low range. Taking the virtual mass force into account, the dispersion characteristic of the pressure wave weakens obviously, especially at the position close to the wellhead.