This paper presents Virtual Reality Mechanism Design Studio (VRMDS), an intuitive virtual environment for supporting the interactive design and simulation of mechanisms. The studio allows users to build spatial or planar mechanisms through intuitive operations and subsequently simulate their dynamic motion. Written in Python script language, VRMDS provides 3D stereoscopic immersive visualization, haptic enabled interaction, head and hand tracking and a user-friendly graphical user interface. A data model for organizing the data structure of links and commonly used mechanical joints is designed and implemented upon the basis of the Vizard Virtual Reality (VR) library. Within the virtual environment, the user can create links and assemble them into a mechanism by defining joints between links. Simultaneously, a corresponding MATLAB's SimMechanics model is automatically created at run time. The dynamics simulation of mechanisms is enabled by interfacing with the dynamics solver built-in SimMechanics. The user may choose to run the system in an immersive VR environment or a desktop environment. The result is a versatile mechanism design tool that is beneficial to the early stages of the design process. A case study of a spatial mechanism is provided to demonstrate the usefulness of this system in mechanism design.
Extended Reach Drilling (ERD) and Maximum Reservoir Contact (MRC) well design can drastically decrease development costs. A critical ERD and MRC challenge is frictional drag encountered when running long casing and liner strings. If the frictional drag becomes too great the string will stall before reaching total depth (TD), severely compromising the completion of the well. This paper presents the implementation of the casing swivel tool to effectively mitigate this friction risk. String rotation can provide a large reduction in axial drag by shifting the friction vector to primarily affect the torsional direction. Full string rotation offers the largest benefit, but the torque required often exceeds both the casing connection rating and top drive capability. The use of a swivel enables partial string rotation above the swivel to reduce the torque requirement. With increasing production lateral lengths the swivel was moved from the running string into the liner to increase the rotating length of pipe while managing rotational torque. The drill pipe swivel has a long history of effectively providing a reduction in axial drag by allowing for the running string to be rotated when running long MRC lower completion liners. As lateral lengths have increased from 10,000 feet up to 20,000 feet in Extended MRC (EMRC) wells, the ratio of liner length to running string length has greatly increased. To accommodate this shift in well design the swiveling point needed to be pushed deeper into the well, from running string to the liner. The fit-for-purpose design of the sacrificial casing swivel allows it to be integrated permanently into the completion and enables increased partial string rotation. To date the casing swivel has been deployed on eight wells, including a world record single-run 6-5/8″ production liner. In one well, the liner stalled and only reached TD after engaging the swivel. The use of the casing swivel has reduced the required well count and capital investment by enabling lateral sections of up to 20,000 feet while also decreasing drilling risk due to less overburden drilling. The application of casing swivel in the Giant Offshore Oilfield Abu Dhabi was a first for this size and length of lower completion liner. The casing swivel has become a key enabler to maximizing the length of production laterals resulting in substantial well construction cost savings.
The long term development from four artificial islands of this giant offshore field in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) is requiring longer and longer ERD wells. This can only be achieved by drilling higher angle, higher departure and increasing lateral lengths. Horizontal departure ratios have increased from 2:1 to 3:1 and will, before the development has finished approach 4:1. Maximum Reservoir Contact (MRC) lateral lengths at the beginning of the development were planned to average 10,000ft but are already being lengthened to 20,000ft, and beyond. This paper describes the many challenges that have arisen and have been successfully overcome to enable deployment of 6 5/8" horizontal lower completions of lengths up to 20,000ft into wells that are greater than 30,000ft MD. These challenges have been surmounted through the use of proprietary in-house software, leveraging partner resources and global experience, close collaboration between drilling, completion and field development teams, new technology equipment development and deployment methodologies. Several case histories will be presented and discussed at length in this paper. These will focus on specific aspects for each of the wells such as the; high strength liner connections, high load liner running tools, reservoir drilling fluid composition, swellpacker design, use of drillpipe or casing swivels, centraliser type and the effect of dog leg severity in the long reservoir lateral.
This paper presents a software architecture that enables VRMDS (Virtual Reality Mechanism Design Studio) to simulate multi-body dynamics of computer-aided design (CAD) assemblies. VRMDS is a recently developed virtual environment dedicated to the conceptual design of mechanisms and machines. It allows users to build spatial or planar mechanisms through intuitive operations. In this paper, we develop Python’s parsing modules that import CAD assembly models in either XML or MDL format files into VRMDS and visualize them through the use of WRL or OSG geometry files. CAD assembly models consist of parts as well as kinematic constraints among them. These parts and constraints can be translated into links and kinematic joints of mechanisms and machines. The dynamics simulation for the assembly is achieved by MATLAB SimMechanics solver that communicates with VRMDS through a dedicated Pymat interface and M-script files. Finally, two case studies are provided to demonstrate the feasibility and validity of using assembly models in this virtual reality system for mechanism design. The high fidelity of the SimMechanics dynamics solver makes the simulation justified scientifically. The result is a highly integrated virtual reality design environment that is dedicated to both the concept design and virtual prototyping of machines.
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