Testing Results: Erosion Testing Confirms the Reliability of the Fluidic Diode Type Autonomous Inflow Control Device

Abstract

Inflow Control Devices (ICDs) have become a common technology in horizontal completions for balancing oil influx and delaying water and gas breakthrough which allows total oil recovery to be maximized. ICDs are commonly used in both sandstone and carbonate formations. When ICDs are applied to sand control applications typically only the sand screen needs to be varied according to the specific application. The screen is designed to filter most sand particles while allowing finer sized particles to pass.An Autonomous Inflow Control Device (AICD) is a next generation ICD which upon breakthrough of the unwanted fluid will autonomously change behavior, creating a greater pressure restriction. An AICD has no control lines or communication to the surface. The AICDs work as a system in the reservoir causing greater flow restriction at high gas and water zones.ICDs and AICDs alike need to be able to survive real well conditions in a sandstone application. This paper presents erosion testing of the fluidic diode type AICD. Water-sand slurries were circulated through the device at high sand concentration levels to accelerate the lifetime well testing. Pre-and post-erosion flow performance tests are compared to show the change in flow performance over time as erosion occurs.

The Effect of the Operation of Downhole Equipment on the Processes of Corrosive Wear (by the Example Inflow Control Devices of Nozzle Type)

“…Having analyzed the parameters that affect the course of corrosion processes (the proportion of water in the flow, the presence and concentration of CO 2 and H 2 S, the type of flow, and the tangential stresses it creates on the wall) [ 1 ] and erosion processes (the volume of mechanical impurities in the flow, the particle sizes of mechanical impurities, speed flow, etc.) [ 2 ], the parameters that have the greatest impact on the operation of downhole equipment were identified.…”

“…This is especially true in the presence of such complicating factors as significant sand production in terrigenous poorly consolidated reservoirs, strong geological stratification of the deposit, the presence of closely spaced water and gas–oil contact, a strong heterogeneity of reservoir properties, and the presence of conditions for intensive corrosion processes. In the studies [ 1 , 2 , 3 ] carried out on the topic under consideration, in most cases, only the one-sided influence of corrosion processes on the operation of downhole equipment was described, and the effect of the operation of downhole equipment on corrosion processes inside the well was not considered. However, the effect of downhole equipment operation on downhole corrosion can be catastrophic.…”

Characterization and Erosion Modeling of a Nozzle-Based Inflow-Control Device

“…To quantify the difference in materials, the results will be analyzed with both tungsten carbide and carbon steel as wall materials, because these two materials are already used by the manufacturer. The erosion resistance for both materials is found in Haugen et al (1995), and the density is provided from the manufacturer, q steel ¼ 8200 kg/m 3 and q tungsten ¼ 19,600 kg/m 3 .…”

“…The particle diameter is set as default to be d p ¼ 250 mm, which Haugen et al (1995) show is the typical sand size for North Sea reservoirs. The particle density is set to q sand ¼ 2650 kg/m 3 equal to sand density used in the erosion experiment by Zhang et al (2007), which was also used as a validation case in the work by Boye (2015).…”