Dynamic stability of lateral vibration of a tubing string in flowing production

Abstract

Tubing string is one of the most important tools in flowing production. In the state of lateral vibration instability of the tubing string, severe collisions between the string and casing may lead to tubing string failure and borehole wall sloughing. Stability of the tubing string is a potential safety hazard in the process of oil and gas production and discussed in this paper. Considering interaction among the gravity, internal fluid hydrodynamic force, reservoir pressure and liquid cushion in the annular, a mechanical model of lateral vibration of the tubing string, which is simplified as a uniform pipe conveying fluid upwards in vertical well, is developed, and the stability of the system is analyzed by the finite element method. The influences of the flow velocity, the bottom hole pressure and the height and density of liquid cushion on the stabilities of tubing string are discussed. It is found that the increase of either the flow velocity or the bottom hole pressure can cause the buckling of tubing string, however, increasing the height or density of liquid cushion is helpful to improve the stability of tubing string.