Incident during construction of an underwater passage by directional drilling

Abstract

Relevance. This paper considers the issue of construction of underwater passages of trunk pipelines by the directional drilling method using concrete weight coated pipes. This issue is relevant, since at the present moment there is no standards and technical documentation regulating the calculation procedure of the minimum allowable elastic bend radius of a pipeline with concrete coating in a well. There are situations when design institutes made incorrect design decisions as a result, the pipe string got stuck during works. Those incidents led to unnecessary economic expenditures and a delay in the work implementation plan. Aim. To study the issues which related with the sticking of the pipe string during the construction of the underwater passage of the main pipeline by the method of directional drilling; calculate the minimum allowable elastic bend radius of a pipeline with concrete coating and the actual parameters of the pilot drillhole. Objects. An underwater passage of a trunk pipeline constructed by the method of directional drilling. Methods. Study of standards and technical documents on the construction of underwater crossings of main pipelines and an analysis of the incident in which a pipeline with concrete weight coating got stuck. Results. The authors substantiate the calculation of the minimum allowable elastic bend radius of a pipeline with a concrete coating based on the requirements of domestic standards and technical documentation. The authors have calculated this value by an analytical method, based on studies of the bending stiffness of concrete structures by foreign scientists, as well as actual parameters of the pilot drillhole. The obtained results of the studied values were analyzed and a conclusion was given about the causes of the incident associated with the sticking of the pipe string.