New Technologies Eliminate Drill Bit Wear in Oil Sands Applications

Abstract

Oil sands applications are well known to be one of the most demanding drilling environments in the industry with regard to durability. The bodies of the cutters and the body of the bit experience severe wear in these applications, leading to inconsistent drilling performance. Extensive efforts in the past decade to solve this issue have been met with limited success. In oil sands applications, the sands are highly abrasive and unconsolidated. The result is that the sand particles quickly become suspended in the drilling fluid and mimic the effect of sandblasting the bit for the duration of the run. In many cases, the bit body wear around the cutters is extensive enough to cause premature bit failure due to cutter loss. The bodies of the PDC cutters themselves also suffer extreme material loss, which leads to cutter breakage and an associated reduction in drilling performance. Finally, in the lateral interval, the sands in cutting beds lying on the low side of the hole cause serious wear to both the gage and backreaming portions of the bit. This paper will discuss new technologies that have proven to eliminate bit wear in the horizontal reservoir interval. Comparisons will be made detailing the severe wear experienced with conventional bits and the absence of wear experienced with identical bit designs using a new body construction technology. A novel PDC cutter will also be presented that has been developed to eliminate cutter body wear. The requirements for improving drilling performance in oil sands applications are as unconventional as the wear experienced in these applications. Unlike traditional applications where improving performance includes an effort to drill faster or further, oil sands applications are typically control drilled and the entire interval is almost always completed in one run. The focus in these applications to augment performance is to improve directional control, enhance backreaming efficiency and hole quality, and increase bit durability. The new technologies detailed in this paper have proven to dramatically enhance each of these key performance indicators, resulting in the ability to drill further and faster, while improving the possibility of success of the well completion.

Influence mechanism of polycrystalline diamond compact bit temperature rise based on thermo-fluid–solid coupling

“…Zhang et al 23 used the finite element method to simulate the temperature field of the PDC bit during rock breaking by thermo-solid coupling, and concluded that the main failure part of the cutting teeth was concentrated on the top of the crown of the cutting teeth; and the temperature of the cutting teeth of granite was found to be about two times that of marble and three times that of sandstone under the verification of experiments. Beaton et al 24 proposed a new technique that can eliminate bit wear and improve the drilling ability as well as the drilling life when compared with the wear of conventional bits. Karasawa et al 25 proposed a calculation model for estimating cutting teeth wear, conducted room experiments using different types of bits, and proposed a method for measuring wear on cutting teeth surfaces based on the experimental results.…”

“…More than 70% of PDC drill failures are caused by damage to the PDC cutting teeth, mainly in the appearance of wear and fracture of the cutting teeth. Glowka et al 15 , 16 developed a model to predict the average wear temperature of the PDC bit by simulating the working conditions of the PDC bit under steady-state as well as transient operating conditions and concluded that the wear rate of the PDC bit will increase significantly when the drilling temperature is higher than 350 °C. What's more, a numerical analysis model was established for predicting the temperature of the PDC bit under drilling with fluid flow.…”

Predicting the overall equipment efficiency of core drill rigs in mining using ANN and improving it using MCDM

“…Core drilling operation involves more of grinding and hence time duration would be more [25]. This increased duration of contact between the tool and the surface induces tool damage [33], bending of segment holders [109], excessive drill vibration [91], slurry wear and barrel cracking [7]. The vital site parameters and sensitive equipment details are to be known so that the equipment can be run in an efficient manner [5].…”