Zhonghou Shen

Hydraulic Pulsed Cavitating Jet-Assisted Drilling

Abstract How to improve drilling rate in deep wells has been a hot subject. Based on modulating pulse jet and cavitating jet, a new drilling tool is designed which couples advantages of both pulse jet and cavitating jet. When drilling fluid flows through the tool during the drilling process, fluid is modulated to pulse and cavitate. Thus, pulse cavitating jet is formed at the outlet of the bit nozzle. Because of jet pulsation, cavitating erosion and local negative pressure affect bottomhole rock. Cleaning and breaking is enhanced and penetration speed is improved. Oil field tests in five wells show good applicability of the tool to bit types, formation, drilling densities, flow rates, and dynamic hydraulic drilling motors, etc. As a result, penetration rates are improved ranging from 10.1 to 31.5%; the maximum working time is about 235.5 hr in downhole. Pulse and cavitating jet coupling will afford an effective means to improve drilling rate for deep wells.

STUDY OF TREATMENT OF NEAR WELL-BORE FORMATION PROCESSED WITH HIGH PRESSURE ROTATING WATER JETS

ABSTRACT High pressure water jet removing impurities in formations is a new way developed recently to increase oil production and injected-water. First of all, this paper presents the main reasons of formation plugging, the basic principles of high pressure rotating water jets removing impurities and the laws of the tools rotating speeds, impact pressure and relations between impact pressure and nozzle stand-off. The field-test results obtained from over 500 oil and water-injection wells in Liaohe, Shengli, Zhongyuan, Huabei etc., indicate that this technology has such advantages as simplicity of use, cost effective, high success rate, wide adaptability, and significant effectiveness. From this, it is profitable and promising to increase production in highly water-cut oilfields.

Pressure controlling method for managed pressure drilling with supercritical carbon dioxide as the circulation fluid

Abstract Heat transfer along the wellbore was analyzed, and then a closed mathematical model, which fully couples the hydrostatic pressure, temperature, physical properties of CO2 and friction, was established to keep bottom-hole pressure constant during drilling process. Based on the pressure profile in wellbore achieved for a certain surface back pressure, a pressure controlling method for managed pressure drilling with supercritical carbon dioxide was presented. The influences of mass flow rate, well depth and inlet temperature on the annulus pressure profile and surface back pressure were investigated. The results show that, the pressure profile is almost in linear correlation with well depth in the annulus, which provides convenience for well control. The needed back pressure (applied by surface choke) decreases with increasing mass flow rate and decreasing well depth. The impact of inlet temperature on the annulus pressure profile, surface back pressure and flow friction is negligible. It also shows that the density of CO2 increases significantly and abruptly at a critical pressure. It is suggested that the storage pressure of CO2 in surface tank be larger than the critical pressure for a certain temperature.

Numerical simulation of the abrasive supercritical carbon dioxide jet: The flow field and the influencing factors

The supercritical carbon dioxide (SC-CO2) jet can break rocks at higher penetration rates and lower threshold pressures than the water jet. The abrasive SC-CO2 jet, formed by adding solid particles into the SC-CO2 jet, is expected to achieve higher operation efficiency in eroding hard rocks and cutting metals. With the computational fluid dynamics numerical simulation method, the characteristics of the flow field of the abrasive SC-CO2 jet are analyzed, as well as the main influencing factors. Results show that the two-phase axial velocities of the abrasive SC-CO2 jet is much higher than those of the abrasive water jet, when the pressure difference across the jet nozzle is held constant at 20 MPa, the optimal standoff distance for the largest particle impact velocity is approximately 5 times of the jet nozzle diameter; the fluid temperature and the volume concentration of the abrasive particles have modest influences on the two-phase velocities, the ambient pressure has a negligible influence when the pressure difference is held constant. Therefore the abrasive SC-CO2 jet is expected to assure more effective erosion and cutting performance. This work can provide guidance for subsequent lab experiments and promote practical applications.

Study on the wellbore flow and phase transition during formation H2S invasion

Considering the special physical properties of hydrogen sulphide (H2S) and its phase transition in the wellbore, a mathematical model for wellbore flow and heat transfer during formation H2S invasion was established. Heat transfer and pressure were calculated along with H2S physical properties parameters, and a solution method of the model was proposed. The results indicate that liquid H2S transforms into gas state during its rising process in the annulus when choke pressure is low; the flow above phase transition point is two-phase flow while the flow below phase transition point is single-phase flow in the annulus. The paper exhibits the results and the reasons of the bottom-hole pressure and the depth of phase transition varying with different H2S influx rate, injection rate, choke pressure, and land surface temperature. The study is of certain significance for improving the safety during the exploration of acidic oil and gas reservoirs.