Dynamic Wellbore Stability Analysis Under Tripping Operations

Abstract

The loadings which act on the wellbore are more frequently dynamic than static, such as the surge/swab pressure caused by tripping operations. The changing rate of loading could induce a change in wellbore stress and result in wellbore instability. The conventional Kirsch solution to calculate wellbore stress is only applicable to the steady state without considering the coupled deformation–diffusion effect. To account for these deficiencies, this paper introduces a coupled poroelastodynamics model to obtain wellbore stress distribution under dynamic loading. The model is solved by the implicit finite-difference method with the surge/swab pressure caused by tripping operations taken as the specific dynamic loading source. Then, failure criteria are applied to analyze dynamic wellbore stability and the hemisphere plots of minimum mud density (MMD) to avoid wellbore collapse are generated. The effect of in-situ stress regimes, failure criteria, and permeable properties on the instability of the borehole has been investigated, and the applicability and accuracy of the conventional failure criteria for dynamic loading conditions have been studied by the extensive triaxial compression tests performed on Bedford limestone under different strain rates. Furthermore, two specific cases have been analyzed and results show that compared with the poroelastodynamics model, the conventional method either overestimates or underestimates the MMD, the difference of which can be as significant as 0.11 g/cm3. Not limited to the tripping operations, the developed poroelastodynamics model can be applied to any specific dynamic loading conditions with the fluid inertia neglected.