Eventos Anais de eventos
COBEM 2019
25th International Congress of Mechanical Engineering
MULTIPHASE FLOW SIMULATION OF CUTTINGS TRANSPORT ON HORIZONTAL WELLS - THE INFLUENCE RATE OF PENETRATION ON THE CLEANING PROCESS PERFORMANCE
Submission Author:
Joao Henrique Sartori , ES , Brazil
Co-Authors:
Joao Henrique Sartori, Renato Siqueira, Ayrton Cavallini Zotelle, Michel de Oliveira dos Santos
Presenter: Joao Henrique Sartori
doi://10.26678/ABCM.COBEM2019.COB2019-0416
Abstract
The exploration of oil reservoirs by means of horizontal wells is used in large scale worldwide because it increases the contact area between the wellbore and the reservoir, providing a higher productivity to the extraction process. However, some aspects related to this technique, like for instance the efficiency of cuttings transport through the annulus, need to be better understood in order to avoid the formation of a cuttings bed, due to gravitational effects, which decreases the process efficiency. The present study uses computational fluid dynamics (Ansys CFX 16.0 Software) to evaluate how the penetration rate (ROP) influences cuttings bed formation and pressure drop along the well, which are critical parameters for the cleaning process. The flow is laminar and the Herschel-Bulkley rheological model characterizes the non-Newtonian behaviour of the fluid. The results show that the increase of the penetration rate leads to an increase of the cuttings bed, changing the flow pattern and decreasing efficiency or even blocking the drill column, interrupting the process. The pressure drop along the well also increases with the penetration rate, due to the obstruction of the flow by the sediments, what can damage the formation besides requiring more power to perform the process.
Keywords
multiphase flow, cuttings transport, drilling hydraulics, Horizontal Wells, Penetration rate
