Determining foaming regularities enabled by a five-nozzle foam generator for drilling technologies under conditions of abnormally low pressures

Abstract

When studying the construction of oil and gas wells, it was found that the volume of drilling wells with abnormally low reservoir pressures increases over the years. This is due to significant difficulties such as a large absorption of drilling mud, possible clogging of a productive reservoir with drilling mud, and a failure to obtain the expected effect. These complications can be prevented by using gas-liquid mixtures as drilling mud, which have a number of advantages compared to washing liquids and make it possible to eliminate the above-mentioned negative phenomena. When opening productive horizons at low anomaly coefficients, foams must be used to flush wells. It has been established that at present in the practice of drilling oil and gas wells with foam there is no equipment that makes it possible to form foam with certain specified structure and dispersion. The use of a modernized foam generator for the preparation of foam has been proposed. To study the foaming process, computer modeling was carried out, with the help of which the processes that take place during the movement of flows of liquid, gas, and gas-liquid mixture along the foam generator were investigated, namely the distribution of pressure and speed in the longitudinal cross-section of the foam generator under changing boundary conditions, that is, at a pressure in the supply pipe of 10 and 7.5 MPa. Computer studies have confirmed the possibility of using an improved foam generator design to increase the efficiency of foaming. The results could be the basis for the development of foam generators and their experimental and industrial research and testing.