Repairing force for deformed casing shaping with spinning casing swage and damage behaviour of cement sheath

Abstract

In oil and gas fields, the repairing force (bit weight) is generally determined by experience when the deformed casing is repaired using the spinning casing swage. However, unreasonable repairing force easily damages the cement sheath around the deformed casing and causes pipe sticking, which results in failure of the wellbore integrity. Hence, based on the Hertz contact theory, the present study established a mechanical model to calculate the repairing force required to repair the deformed casing without a cement sheath by spinning casing swage, and the reshaping force was determined by combining the structural features of the spinning casing swage with the method of mechanics and kinetics analysis regarding axial loading and circumferential deformation of the deformed casing. Finally, a mechanical model was presented that could calculate the repairing force of the deformation casing with cement sheath using the inversion method. Repairing experiments involving three types of deformed casings (casing without cement sheath, casing with undamaged cement sheath and casing with damaged cement sheath) were performed, from which the accuracy and reliability of the mechanical model was validated. The damage behaviour of the cement sheath after casing repair was investigated based on the experimental results and the damage mechanism was analysed based on Saint-Venant's deformation compatibility principle. Analysis results showed that three types of damage, including micro-annulus, transverse fracture and longitudinal fracture, were caused by high contact pressure between the steel ball on the spinning casing swage and the internal wall of the deformed casing and pressure fluctuation during repairing. The research results provide important guidance and decision making for practical repairing measures.