Development of High Temperature Resistant Soft Metal Sealing Components in Downhole Tools

Abstract

Abstract The sealing components plays the role of sealing and pressure resistance of downhole tools, which is a key component that determines the safe and reliable operation of downhole tools. With the development of oil and gas exploitation towards deep and ultra-deep wells, the performance requirements of sealing components for downhole tools are gradually improved. Rubber materials are prone to aging and deterioration in downhole high temperature and corrosive environment, resulting in sealing failure and difficulty in maintaining good sealing for a long time. Soft metal materials have the characteristics of high temperature resistance, high sealing pressure and corrosion resistance. The application of high temperature resistant soft metal materials in petroleum engineering sealing components can better solve the problem of aging failure of rubber sealing components, which is of great significance for ensuring the safety of downhole sealing. Based on the introduction of the application of soft metal materials in petroleum engineering, this paper studies the refining method of copper-based soft metal materials, and determines the formula of soft metal materials with excellent performance by analyzing the microstructure of soft metal materials. Based on the developed soft metal material, the high temperature tensile mechanical properties test, high temperature elastic modulus test were carried out. The feasibility of using copper-based soft metal as sealing element in petroleum engineering was analyzed, and the soft metal sealing element for expansion pipe sealing was designed. The research results show that: (1) Metal material seals have been widely studied at home and abroad, and some products have been maturely applied in the market, with good mechanical properties and sealing performance. (2) By adding Ga, Rh, Si and other alloying elements to copper metal, the metal wettability, temperature resistance and elastic properties of the material can be improved, and the sealing function can be realized. (3) The CuRh alloy soft metal material has good deformation ability and high temperature mechanical properties stability. The expansion tube sealing element designed with soft metal material has better sealing performance than rubber material. The soft metal material sealing element can solve the aging failure problem of common rubber materials in high temperature and corrosive environment. It has good high temperature resistance and corrosion resistance, and can be widely used in the sealing of downhole tools in the development of deep and ultra-deep wells with corrosive media.