Numerical Simulation of Effective Hole Cleaning by Using an Innovative Elliptical Drillpipe in Horizontal Wellbore

Guoshuai Ju, Tie Yan and Xiaofeng Sun
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Guoshuai Ju: College of Petroleum Engineering, Northeast Petroleum University, Daqing 163318, China
Tie Yan: College of Petroleum Engineering, Northeast Petroleum University, Daqing 163318, China
Xiaofeng Sun: College of Petroleum Engineering, Northeast Petroleum University, Daqing 163318, China

Energies, 2022, vol. 15, issue 2, 1-18

Abstract: In the drilling of horizontal wells, the drill cuttings tend to settle down on the low side of the annulus due to gravity and form a stationary bed, which results in hole cleaning problems. In this paper, a novel type of drillpipe with an elliptical shape was proposed to alleviate inadequate hole cleaning during the drilling of horizontal wells. A three-dimensional computational fluid dynamic (CFD) Eulerian-Eulerian approach with the Realizable k - ɛ turbulence model was developed to predict the solid–liquid two-phase flow in the annular space. Numerical examples were given to investigate the influence of different parameters on cuttings’ transport behavior, and the elliptical drillpipe was compared with the circular drillpipe. The annular cuttings concentration, annular pressure drop, and hole cleaning efficiency were evaluated. The numerical results clarify the potential of the elliptical drillpipe to enhance the hole cleaning efficiency without significantly increasing the annular pressure drop. Due to the swirl flow and secondary flow caused by the rotation of the curvature wall, the swaying phenomenon of drill cuttings’ distribution along the rotation direction of drillpipe was observed and enhanced the cuttings transport ability. Using the elliptical drillpipe as a joint-type tool can improve hole cleaning performance. Under the optimum conditions applied in this study, the hole cleaning efficiency increased by nearly 18%.

Keywords: numerical study; horizontal well; hole cleaning; computational fluid dynamic (CFD); elliptical drill pipe (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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