Drilling Rig Research Articles

Features of mathematical modeling transmission parameters of drilling rigs with planetary gears

The features of the approach to the mathematical modeling of power transmission parameters of drilling rigs (DR), which include gear planetary gear mechanisms in the kinematic structure, are considered. At the same time, the modeling features consist in the special properties of the kinematics and dynamics of planetary gears, as well as the presence of elements of complex relative motion in them. This circumstance requires a thorough analysis of the parameters at the design stage, which should be based on the use of available and promising methods of mathematical modeling with the possibility of using modern mathematical apparatus and numerical methods of calculations. In order to solve this problem, the authors proposed a method for mathematical modeling of mechanical processes in the transmissions of DR with planetary gears. This makes it possible, based on the results of theoretical studies, to predict the optimal parameters of the power transmission of DR.

Vegetation mantle change in the open pit mining area of Sin Quyen Copper Mine in Vietnam by satellite imagery data

The article presents the estimation results on the change in vegetation mantle in the region of Sin Quyen Mine (Bat Xat District, Lao Cai Province, Northern Vietnam) in the area of 19012 hectares. The normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) and the vegetation mantle density change were calculated using satellite images Landsat 5 TM and Landsat 8 obtained between 1990 and 2020. In the period of copper mining for 30 years in the test area, the plant ecosystem has suffered the essential changes in the structure. From the remote sensing data and analytical results in 2020, the plant community is structured as follows. In the phase of high-rate mining (2000–2020), the sites with NDVI in the range of 0.4–0.6 prevailed (60.74%). The area of sites having NIDVI > 0.6 reduced by 3330 times—to 0.2%. The area of sites with NDVI in the range of 0.2–0.4 grew to 33.78%. The areas of sites with NDVI less the 0 and from 0 to 0.2 made 1.42 and 4.04%, respectively. Such structural changes are explained by drilling-and-blasting and by operation of drill rigs, shovels, dump trucks and dozers. The dusting objects are pit walls, working and nonworking sites, and overburden dumps. At the same time, an increasing trend is revealed in the areas of sites with low NDVI (by 1.5–6 times). The analytical estimation produced an inverse dependence of decrease in the area of sites with dense vegetation cover with increasing areas of mining and dumping. This dependence is explained by the progressive degradation of ecological situation in the region of open pit mining of the deposit composed of sulfide-bearing rocks. The studies were carried out in the framework of international cooperation in the sphere of wider application of remote sensing.

Design and Application of Trenchless Drill Rig Manipulator for Automatic Drill Pipe Loading and Unloading from the Soil

Design and Application of Trenchless Drill Rig Manipulator for Automatic Drill Pipe Loading and Unloading from the Soil

Development and application of high-power advanced exploration drilling rig for coal mining TBM

With the continuous popularization and application of TBM equipment and technology in the field of coal mine, aiming at the problems of small torque and small propulsion of existing TBM advanced exploration drilling rigs for coal mine, which is difficult to drill long borehole, and lack of special high-power drilling equipment to match with it, a high-power drilling rig for coal mine TBM is developed. This paper introduces the structure of the drilling rig, analyzes the structure and principle of the luffing mechanism and the rotary table protection device, also the strength of the key parts. Through the application in Guineng Group Heilaga Juxin coal mine shows that this equipment has large torque and propulsion, the hydraulic system and operation mode meet the requirements of long-distance separate layout in TBM. The drilling rig has good stability and high efficiency, and can meet the various needs of long drilling for advanced exploration, which promotes the application of TBM equipment and technology in the field of coal mine.

Technology Focus: Drilling Automation and Innovation (February 2022)

What was impossible a few short years ago is reality today.” This quote, taken from the opening paragraph of featured paper IPTC 19671, is a most relevant statement for the state of drilling technology today. Adverse effects of economic down cycles, commodity fluctuation, geopolitical events, weather patterns, and the pandemic have imposed harsh realities on the energy sector along with almost every aspect of life on Earth as we know it. As these events have continued to unfold in recent years, surprising trends with unexpected outcomes have resulted. For example, demand destruction because of commodity price collapse necessitated increased emphasis on efficiency and productivity. Business as usual was out of the question. Higher productivity, lower cost, environmental stewardship, and increased safety standards have become more critical than ever before. As these forces persist, changes in our industry have accelerated at a dramatic rate in an array of key technologies. Some of these initiatives have been under way for years and are familiar themes to SPE readers: artificial intelligence, automated decision making, data analytics, and visualization, to name a few. Papers selected for this feature were chosen to highlight some of these areas of advancement, with particular emphasis on breakthrough technologies where step changes have been delivered or are seen as imminent. For instance, much has been written about the profound impact of managed-pressure-drilling (MPD) systems with ongoing breakthroughs in areas such as advanced modeling, automation, and analytics. Likewise, automated directional drilling has been established as a pre-eminent technology destined to continue to revolutionize the way in which wells are constructed. While many of the published manuscripts highlight onshore applications, offshore, deep water, and high-pressure/high-temperature operations are being transformed as well. Finally, don’t miss paper IADC/SPE 199573, “World’s First Hybrid Drilling Rig,” a recommended reading paper. Several key opportunities for improvements specific to drilling rig machinery and power are addressed in this manuscript, including reduced fuel consumption, emissions, and well costs, and increased overall generator efficiency. Although hybrid drilling rigs are still in the early stages with regard to practical application within the global fleet of active rigs, it is difficult not to recognize as legitimate the basic ideas and potential breakthroughs being detailed. Recommended additional reading at OnePetro: www.onepetro.org. SPE/IADC 199573 - World’s First Hybrid Drilling Rig by Memet Bilgin, CleanDesign Power Systems, et al. IPTC 19817 - Automated Steering With Real-Time Model-Based Control by Nazli Demirer, Halliburton, et al.

Quaternary marine tephrochronology of Rock Garden accretionary ridge, Hikurangi Subduction Margin, New Zealand

The Taupō Volcanic Zone (TVZ) of the North Island, New Zealand (NZ), is one of the most active Quaternary rhyolitic systems globally, producing voluminous eruptions and associated tephra that punctuate the NZ stratigraphic record. Due to dominantly westerly winds tephras are well preserved in the marine sedimentary record off NZ's east coast and provide important isochrons for chronostratigraphic correlation of marine sediment cores. Two MeBo200 (Bremen seafloor drill rig) sediment cores (GeoB20824–4 and GeoB20846–1) were collected from Rock Garden (RG) offshore of Hawke Bay in water depths of 610–670 metres below sea level (mbsl) with 24 tephra beds (both primary and secondary) that provide a well-dated proximal marine record of TVZ volcanism. The tephra layers are dated by a combination of accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) 14C of the underlying biogenic carbonates, secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS), and correlation of onshore deposits using geochemical fingerprinting. Here we present SIMS U-Pb dating of 189 zircons extracted from five tephra layers from core GeoB20824–4 and six from core GeoB20846–1. AMS radiocarbon ages were carried out on sediments at three depths in core GeoB20824–4 and two depths in core GeoB20846–1, all within the upper 4 metre below seafloor (mbsf). We present major element data for 11 tephra deposits from core GeoB20824–4 and 13 from core GeoB20846–1 analysed by electron microprobe (748 analyses). We identify 10 significant Quaternary tephra horizons including: Kawakawa/Oruanui, Onepuhi (or Rangitawa), Kaukatea, Kidnappers-B, Potaka/Kidnappers, Rewa, and Sub-Rewa. Three tephra layers are geochemically correlated to unnamed but previously recognized tephra from Ocean Drilling Program (ODP) cores further east of RG. In addition to these previously identified tephra, several tephra layers are present in both MeBo200 cores that have not been recognized in existing published on- or offshore records. We attribute the finding of these new tephra deposits to the proximal location of the cores to the source location (unlike existing ODP records), the expanded stratigraphic record at these proximal locations afforded by the new coring technique applied here, and the potentially poor preservation of equivalent deposits in the terrestrial record. The identification of Quaternary TVZ tephras within MeBo200 cores, and their correlation to on- and offshore records is a significant advance as it provides: (1) a tool for correlation of marine sediment cores at the tectonostratigraphically important RG site, (2) a more detailed history of the TVZ from a proximal marine tephra record, (3) a well-dated tephra bed record from marine sediment cores with radiocarbon ages for younger ( ≤45 kyr), and U-Pb zircon ages for older (up to 1.3 Myr) tephra beds, and (4) a first approximation to the regional tephra distribution of key tephra beds

Research on control system of small intelligent drilling rig based on lithology identification

Intelligent oil drilling rig can automatically complete the whole drilling process without human intervention, and can integrate big data with drilling, geology, logging and other disciplines. Aiming at the problem of insufficient rock breaking capacity and complex and changeable drilling process, a small intelligent drilling rig control system is designed. The structural drilling parameter samples such as WOB and rotating speed obtained by the sensor are used for lithology identification in the software MATLAB by using the neural network pattern recognition toolbox and GRNN generalized regression neural network respectively, and the control block diagram of the automatic drilling system is designed in Matlab / Simulink. The neural network control algorithm is used to compare with the classical PID control, The results show that the overshoot and rise time are significantly reduced, and the effect is good. When applied to the oil rig to realize constant WOB drilling, it is conducive to reasonably select the bit type, timely adjust the drilling parameters and improve the drilling efficiency, so as to realize the real intelligence of the oil rig.

Design and engineering of a jack-up drilling rig for exploration drilling in the Russian Arctic and the Far East regions

Design and engineering of a jack-up drilling rig for exploration drilling in the Russian Arctic and the Far East regions

TRIBOTECHNICAL MATERIALS FOR THE MAINTENANCE OF AGRICULTURAL MACHINERY

Research and development of domestic artificial preventive and repair-restoration tribopreparations is an urgent task. (Research Purpose) The research purpose is evaluating the prospects for the use of boehmite as a preventive and repair-restoring additive. (Materials and methods) Nanostructured boehmite obtained by hydrothermal synthesis from industrial aluminum powders was used. The boehmite was rubbed with a surfactant and the suspension was treated by ultrasound. The D-243 diesel engine was run-in on the KI-3540-GOSNITI run-in stand and the gearbox of the mobile drilling rig. Tribotechnical studies were carried out on the friction machine model 2070 SMT-1M and on the upgraded friction machine model 77MT-1M. (Results and discussion) The working oil with the addition of boehmite reduces the time of complete running-in of the cylinder-piston group of diesel and the run-in wear. For gearbox parts, the composition containing diesel waste oil, kaolin, talc, boehmite and surfactants showed the best results. The efficiency of running-in depends not only on the physical and chemical properties of the additive components, but also on the particle size of the components and the surface roughness of the lapped parts. Tribotechnical studies have shown that the introduction of boehmite into oils reduces the friction coefficient, slows down the wear rate of resource interfaces during operation. The article presents a scheme explaining the increase in resource by reducing the running-in time and wear rate. According to many physicochemical properties (dispersion, dehydration temperature, hardness, ability to form chemical compounds and solid solutions with iron oxides, catalytic properties), boehmite is similar to serpentine, which makes it promising for repair and restoration applications. (Conclusions) Nanostructured boehmite of hydrothermal synthesis serves as an effective pre-production and preventive additive, promising and as a repair and restoration.

Experimental Study on Reflection Superiority of Multisensors Measurement-While-Drilling of Roof Bolter

The measurement-while-drilling (MWD) technology of roof bolter can reveal properties and structure of drilling medium through various monitoring indicators. Studying the reflection superiority of different indicators under certain basic conditions is of great significance for the indicator selection and development of on-site MWD instrumentation. So, in this study, relatively precise experiments are carried out to study the feedback effect of various parameters on different lithology under a certain Rotation rate, multi-sensors acquisition is adopted relying on two kinds of rocks and their combination. The MWD indicators of Propulsion speed, Torque, Thrust, and Vibration speeds in three directions of drill rig are analyzed, and the reflection superiority sequencing of the indicators is obtained. In addition, the influences of shallow drilling difficulty and deep drilling difficulty on the MWD indicators are also discussed to prompt precautions when applying the indicators. Results show that the Torque and Z-Vibration indicators can not only better reveal the rock strength, but also eliminate the influence of shallow and deep drilling difficult areas to some extent, which should be firstly selected. The revealed results lay a foundation for optimization indicators selection of roof bolter MWD method, the development of field instrumentation and site project design.

Dynamic Response of Drill String When Sonic Drilling Rig is Applied to Blasting Hole Operation

Dynamic Response of Drill String When Sonic Drilling Rig is Applied to Blasting Hole Operation

Differential self-adapting drilling machine with three degrees of freedom

A critical factor for engineering progress both in surface and underground mining of extremely hard minerals is the expensive and labor-hungry process of drilling. A top priority task is to create highproduction and energy-efficient drill rigs. It is only possible to improve greatly the drilling process performance through automation of the drilling machine mechanisms which effect the drill column with certain force and kinematic parameters to implement a certain mode of drilling. Actually, the rotary percussive drill rigs mostly possess three mutually independent dynamic systems—axial drive, rotary drive and percussion mechanism. These systems never coordinate their drive signals with the drill column response when interacting with rock mass, which leads to overloads, unwanted vibrations and other adverse effects. Improvement of productivity and energy efficiency of drill rigs is impossible without automation. This article examines the mechanism of a differential self-adapting rotary percussive drilling machine with programmable drilling mode control. The mechanism and its operation are extensively described. The proposed layout of the differential self-adapting drilling machine with three degrees of freedom, with feedback between the drilling column and the axial drive, rotary drive and percussion mechanism toward the automated control of the feed force and velocity, as well as the impact energy and frequency, enables neutralization of adverse effects in rotary percussion drilling.

Micro-Testing While Drilling for Rate of Penetration Optimization: Experiments and Simulations

Abstract The rate of penetration (ROP) is one of the key parameters related to the efficiency of the drilling process. Within the confines of operational limits, the drilling parameters affecting the ROP should be optimized to drill more efficiently and safely, to reduce the overall cost of constructing the well. In this study, a data-driven optimization method called Extremum Seeking (ES) is employed to automatically find and maintain the optimal weight on bit (WOB) which maximizes the ROP. The ES algorithm is a model-free method that gathers information about the current downhole conditions by automatically performing small tests with the WOB and executing optimization actions based on the test results. In this paper, this optimization method is augmented with a combination of a predictive and a reactive constraint handling technique to adhere to operational limitations. These methods of constraint handling are demonstrated for a maximal limit imposed on the surface torque, but the methods are generic and can be applied to various drilling parameters. The proposed optimization scheme has been tested with experiments on a downscaled drilling rig and simulations on a high-fidelity drilling simulator of a full-scale drilling operation. The experiments and simulations show the method’s ability to steer the system to the optimum and to handle constraints and noisy data, resulting in safe and efficient drilling at high ROP.

An Integrated Petrophysical Characterization of a Siliciclastic Tight Gas Reservoir in Neuquén Basin, Western Argentina

The Río Neuquén Field is located between Neuquén and Río Negro provinces, Argentina. Historically, it has been a conventional oil producer, but it was converted to a tight gas producer from deeper reservoirs. The targeted geological formations are Lajas, which is already a known tight gas producer, and the less-known overlaying Punta Rosada Formation, which is the main objective of the current work. Punta Rosada presents a diverse lithology, including shaly intervals separating multiple stacked reservoirs that grade from fine-grained sandstones to conglomerates. The reservoir pressure can change from the normal hydrostatic gradient to up to 50% of overpressure. There is little evidence of movable water. The key well in this study has a comprehensive set of openhole logs, including pulsed-neutron spectroscopy data, and is supported by a full core study over 597 ft. Additionally, data from several offset wells were used, containing sidewall cores and complete sets of electrical logs. This allowed the development of rock-calibrated mineral models, adjusting the clay volume with X-ray diffraction data, porosity, and permeability with core measurements, and linking the log interpretation to dominant pore-throat radius models from MICP Purcell tests. Several water saturation models were tested, attempting to adjust the irreducible water saturation with NMR and Purcell tests at reservoir conditions. As a result, three hydraulic units were defined and characterized, identifying a strong correlation with lithofacies observed in cores and image logs. A cluster analysis model allowed the propagation of the facies to the rest of the wells (50). Finally, lithofacies were distributed in a full-field 3D model, guided by an elastic seismic inversion. In the main key well, in addition to the openhole logs and core data, a casedhole pulsed-neutron log (PNL) was also acquired, which was used to develop algorithms to generate synthetic pseudo-openhole logs such as bulk density and resistivity, integrated with the spectroscopy mineralogical information and other PNL data, to perform the petrophysical evaluation. This enables the option to evaluate wells in contingency situations where openhole logs are not possible or too risky, and also in planned situations to replace the openhole data in infill wells, saving considerable drilling rig time during this field development phase. Additionally, the calibrated casedhole model can be used in old wells. This paper explores the integration of different core and log measurements and explains the development of rock-calibrated petrophysical and rock type models addressing the characterization challenges found in tight gas sand reservoirs. The results of this study will be crucial to optimize the field development.

Large-scale testing of a sandwich shaft-sealing system at the Mont Terri rock laboratory

Abstract. Shaft-sealing systems for nuclear waste repositories are constructed to limit fluid inflow from the adjacent rock during the early stage after closure of the repository and to delay the release of possibly contaminated fluids from the repository at later stages. Current German concepts of shaft seals contain the hydraulic sandwich sealing system as a component of the lower seal in host rock (Kudla and Herold, 2021). The KIT-developed sandwich sealing system consists of alternating sealing segments (DS) of bentonite and equipotential segments (ES) that are characterized by a high hydraulic conductivity. Within the ES, fluid is evenly distributed over the cross section of the seal. Water bypassing the seal via the excavation-damaged zone or penetrating the seal inhomogeneously is contained, and a more homogeneous hydration and swelling of the DS is obtained. The functionality of such a system was proven in laboratory and semi-technical-scale experiments (Schuhmann et al., 2009). After a joint international pre-project (Emmerich et al., 2019) dedicated to the planning of a large-scale in situ test that demonstrates the feasibility and effectiveness of the sandwich shaft-sealing system in interaction with the host rock, the large-scale experiment was launched at the Mont Terri rock laboratory in July 2019 with partners from Germany, Switzerland, Spain, UK, and Canada. It consists of two experimental shafts of 1.18 m diameter and 10–12.6 m depth, constructed using a core drilling technique with a custom-made drill rig in a new niche in the sandy facies of the Opalinus Clay. The seal in shaft 1 consists of four DS (calcigel) of 1 m thickness and five ES (fine-grained quartz sand), each 30 cm thick (Fig. 1). Shaft sinking began in August 2020 and was completed in November 2020. In the following months, the sealing system and instrumentation of shaft 1 were installed. The sealing system is saturated from a pressure chamber located at the shaft bottom via an inclined lateral feeding borehole. Hydration of the system started in May 2021. Shaft 2 will host a slightly modified system emplaced 1–1.5 years later, in order to integrate experience obtained during the early operation phase of shaft 1. In contrast to shaft 1, the excavation-damaged zone around shaft 2 will have had time to develop. The seals and the surrounding rock are intensely monitored. Measurements in the rock (geophysics, pore pressure, and total stress) were started between August 2019 and March 2020. Characterization of the excavation-damaged zone along the wall of shaft 1 was performed by geophysical and surface packer measurements prior to seal emplacement. Measurements inside the shaft comprise water content, relative humidity, and temperature, pore pressure, stress, and displacements. The in situ work is backed by laboratory testing and model simulation. Data and experience obtained to date will be presented. The sandwich experiment is funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy under contract 02E11799.

Improvement of Working Conditions and Opinions of Mine Workers When Battery Electric Vehicles (BEVs) Are Used Instead of Diesel Machines \u2014 Results of Field Trial at the Kittil\xe4 Mine, Finland

A major part of the European Union’s (EU) project Sustainable Intelligent Mining System (SIMS) is investigating the development of diesel-free/carbon–neutral underground mines in order to ensure sustainable underground mining in the future. Replacing diesel machines with electric vehicles in underground hard rock mines has been widely acknowledged by the mining industry worldwide as a critical step to improve working conditions by reducing diesel exhaust–related contaminants, to reduce mine ventilation electrical power cost by reducing mine airflow quantity, and to reduce mine greenhouse gas emissions. All of these are major requirements to achieve sustainable future underground mining practices. A field trial of Epiroc’s 2nd generation of Battery Electric Vehicles (BEVs) at Agnico Eagle Finland’s Kittilä mine was conducted during 2019–2020. Vehicles tested were MT42 mine truck, ST14 Load-Haul-Dump (LHD), and Boomer E2 jumbo drill rig. This paper outlines the improvement of the working conditions observed in the field trial, and the opinions of the mine personnel at Kittilä mine on using BEVs instead of diesel machines. Measurements of atmospheric contaminants and air temperatures taken during the field trial clearly demonstrated a significant improvement of working conditions when BEVs were operating as opposed to diesel machines. This field observation was supported by the opinion of the majority of the Kittilä mine workers. However, some remaining concerns must be addressed before BEVs can replace diesel machines.

Investigation of Heavy Metal Traces during Drilling Operations in the Bibi Hakimeh Oil Field, Iran

Drilling operations release considerable amounts of drilling fluids that contain pollutants such as heavy metals and hydrocarbons. By means of the ICP-OES device, the concentration of metals in the drilling mud deposited in the accumulation pools (around the drill rigs), the drilling mud used in the well (initial, input, and output mud), the soil around the drilling rig, and the control sample can be determined. Comparison of metal accumulation volume with current standards (upper crust and the region’s soil) indicates that the initial drilling mud contains As, Cd, Mo, Cu, and Ag metals. Also, the outflow and associated cuttings are contaminated with Sb, showing a geological formation origin for this metal. In case of Pb, Ba, Cr, and Mn, the level of contamination is in a medium range wherein the source of the contamination is recycled mud and drilling rocks in the previous phases. Contamination of other metals is evaluated in the low range. Geo-accumulation index (Igeo), Enrichment Coefficient (EF), and Contamination Factor (CF) are used to determine the level of pollution. Results show that As, Pb, Ba, Mn, Mo, Cd, Co, Cu, and Zn have caused a lot of pollution in the area and their amounts should be controlled.

Vibration Behavior during Underground Drilling Based on an Innovative Measurement Method and the Application

Pressure relief drilling is one of the most common techniques to reduce the impact of rock burst, but the useful dynamic phenomena in the drilling process are ignored due to the lack of corresponding technical methods. Based on the fact, an innovative measurement method for vibration signals during the drilling construction by pneumatic drill rig is presented in this study. The acquisition and analysis of vibration signals show that the vibration information can reflect the drilling depth, the amplitude of different depth can reflect the pressure, and the vibration events of different depths can reflect the pressure relief effect. The method proposed in the study is of great significance to the supervision of the relief work quantity, the disclosure of the pressure situation, and the evaluation of the pressure relief effect.

Development and application of ZDY4300LF narrow split drilling rig

The inconvenient drilling rig relocation, stabilization and azimuth adjustment lead to many problems in the construction of gas drainage drilling in narrow roadway, such as long auxiliary time, labor intensity of workers, low comprehensive drilling efficiency. Through the innovative layout, the power unit and the drilling unit are respectively arranged on two crawlers, and the ZDY4300LF narrow-body split crawler drilling rig is developed. The drilling rig adopts a modular design idea, Arranged the pump station and console on the pump truck. The feed revolving device and the stabilizing device are arranged on the drill carriage. The drilling rig and the pumping station are connected by high-pressure hoses. When drilling for gas drainage, the location of the drilling rig and pump truck can be arranged according to the terrain conditions to obtain the best orientation for the drilling construction. The industrial test of the drilling rig shows that the ZDY4300LF narrow-body split crawler drilling rig has the characteristics of compact structure, convenient operation, and convenient moving and relocation, which can solve the problem of gas drainage in narrow tunnels in underground coal mines. Industrial test of drilling rig shows that ZDY4300LF narrow split crawler drill has the characteristics of compact structure, convenient operation, convenient moving and moving, etc.

Application of Hydraulic Control Make-up and Rreak-up Device in Improvement Design of Drilling rig

Tunnel drilling rig is widely used in coal mine gas drainage, hidden disaster detection and other construction. In view of the serious problem of thread wear when loading and unloading drill pipe thread of underground drilling rig in coal mine, a pure hydraulic control device is developed. By adjusting the corresponding angle parameters of the hydraulic control device, two actions of rotary feeding can be realized, and the thread can be loaded and unloaded automatically according to the thread pitch. The design of the device is completed, and the structure is applied to the improved design of ZDY750L and ZDY2-300LM drilling rigs. The matching control of feed and rotation of the two drilling rigs when loading and unloading the drill pipe is realized, which can reduce the wear of the drill pipe thread when the full hydraulic drilling rig is loading and unloading, and provides a new idea and solution for the implementation of the full hydraulic drilling rig automatic loading and unloading.