Failure mechanisms of polycrystalline diamond compact drill bits in geothermal environments

Abstract

Over the past few years the interest in polycrystalline diamond compact (PDC) drill bits has grown proportionately with their successful use in drilling oil and gas wells in the North Sea and the United States. This keen interest led to a research program at Sandia to develop PDC drill bits suitable for the severe drilling conditions encountered in geothermal fields. Recently, three different PDC drill bits were tested using either air or mud drilling fluids: one in the laboratory with hot air, one in the Geysers field with air, and one in the Geysers field with mud. All three tests were unsuccessful due to failure of the braze joint used to attach the PDC drill blanks to the tungsten carbide studs. A post-mortem failure analysis of the defective cutters identified three major failure mechanisms: peripheral nonbonding caused by braze oxidation during the brazing step, nonbonding between PDC drill blanks and the braze due to contamination prior to brazing, and hot shortness. No evidence was found to suggest that the braze failures in the Geysers field tests were caused by frictional heating. In addition, inspection of the PDC/stud cutter assemblies using ultrasonic techniques was found to be ineffective for detecting themore » presence of hot shortness in the braze joint.« less