Wellbore multiphase flow behaviors of gas kick in deep water horizontal drilling

Abstract

During the deepwater drilling, the complicated gas-liquid-solid multiphase flow will occur if the formation gas enters and migrates in the wellbore. Through understanding of the wellbore flow behaviors is of great importance for the blowout prevention and well control. Considering the dynamic mass and heat transfer process in wellbore caused by alternating ambient temperature field, a multiphase flow model of multicomponent fluid in wellbore is deduced and developed, including the continuity equation, momentum conservation equation and energy conservation equation. Furthermore, the corresponding initial and boundary conditions are proposed for different working conditions in deepwater drilling, and an efficient numerical solution method is established, including dynamic mesh generation method and discrete solution method of partial differential equations. Applied in a deep-water kicking well, the proposed model is used to analyze the multiphase flow rules in the wellbore. The results show that in the process of annular fluid returning from the bottomhole, the pressure generally decreases linearly, while the temperature change is nonlinear. The temperature first rises and then falls at the formation section, and first falls and then rises at the seawater section. Furthermore, the pit gain increases approximately in a quadratic polynomial relationship, caused by the rise and expansion of gas in the wellbore, and the pressure drop and gas influx rate increase at the bottomhole. In the process of kick evolution, the standpipe pressure and bottomhole pressure gradually decrease, which can be an important sign for kick detection.