Study on flow pattern transition of cuttings transport in extended-reach drilling

Abstract

Inadequate hole cleaning is one of the major challenges in extended-reach drilling, especially prominent in large-sized hole sections, such as 121/4-in. section. As the drilling parameters including flow rate, ROP and rotational speed change, the cuttings flow pattern converts between fully suspended flow, two-layer flow, and three-layer flow. However, most existing cuttings transport models only study the problem of cuttings transport under a certain flow pattern and do not consider the dynamic conversion of different cuttings flow patterns. Pipe rotation plays a key role in cuttings transport in rotary drilling, but the existing studies have not fully revealed the effect of pipe rotation on the conversion of cuttings transport patterns. In this paper, a stirring diffusion factor is presented to quantify the effect of pipe rotation on cuttings transport, and the mathematical expression of the stirring diffusion factor is obtained through numerical simulations and the nonlinear regression method. Secondly, the critical conditions for the conversion of cuttings flow patterns are obtained by combining mechanical analysis and numerical simulation results, clarifying the applicable scope of different cuttings flow patterns. According to the comparison with experimental results, the prediction error of the new model considering the conversion of cuttings flow patterns is not higher than 11.1%, and the minimum prediction error is only 3.07%. Thirdly, the flow pattern maps for cuttings transport under different drilling parameters are drawn to provide guidance for the identification of cuttings transport pattern and optimization of drilling parameters. Finally, the flow pattern maps are applied to a case study of an extended-reach drilling. The results show that there is a delay effect in the conversion of cuttings flow patterns due to the nonlinear characteristics of annular geometry. Furthermore, the effects of flow rate, ROP and rotational speed on cuttings transport patterns are not independent, but mutually reinforcing and constraining each other. Inappropriate selection of drilling parameters will result in three-layer flow of cuttings transport, and then pipe sticking is likely to occur. The cuttings transport pattern can be converted from three-layer flow to two-layer flow by optimizing drilling parameters, which can significantly improve the hole cleaning effect.