Patent Application
20200284113
Not Applicable
Not Applicable
The present invention provides a novel apparatus and vibratory assemblage that initiates and maintains mechanical agitation within the horizontal (lateral) section of a wellbore by providing both low and high vibration, in multiple axis and planes, and pulsing of high-pressure fluids within the confines of the apparatus and drilling pipe. Through the judicious and conservative use of fluids, the present invention provides both rotationally accelerated vibration and high-intensity, directed and timed pressured fluid to reduce the cumulative friction between the drill string and bottom hole assembly on a wellbore. Additionally, the present apparatus can be preprogrammed to respond to specific commands, in response to certain predetermined conditions, to stop and start functioning at various times throughout the drilling process.
Manifestly, it is friction within the horizontal sections of a wellbore that ultimately leads to decreases in downhole advancement and overall decreases rate of penetration (ROP). In horizontal drilling, as the drill string transitions through the heal and begins a horizontal advancement down the wellbore, the forces upon the drill string and BHA experience mechanical drag due to frictional forces that work counter to the drill strings ability to advance.
Ultimately, the maximum reach of the drilling assembly is determined, jointly, by driving force and opposing axial frictional forces where these frictional forces consist primarily of torque and drag. While the application of more force results in more weight on bit (WOB), and thereby further advancement of the BHA, it also creates untoward string buckling (helically and/or sinusoidally) that (1) disallows increases in weight to be distributed to the bit proportionally with increased force and (2) unwanted tangential frictional forces along the preceding sections of the wellbore behind the BHA.
To overcome the limits of excess torque and drag, well operators and petroleum engineers have developed several methods to overcome these limitations in order to effectively reach greater and greater depths and lengths within the wellbore. As is the case with unconventional drilling and ultra-extended reach wells (u-ERW), chemical and mechanical methods have been employed to reduce the friction experiences between drill strings, bottom hole assemblies and wellbores. Yet, chemical lubricant additives carry with them excessive cost, both environmental and financial, that make their use untenable. Mechanical methods, though, have proven both cost effective and environmentally safe. By far the most utilized of the mechanical methods of reducing torque and drag is the employment of vibratory technologies. In addition, driller have increasingly turned to a fluid percussive means of advancing the drill string and BHA through the wellbore.
Mechanical systems to vibrate or agitate the pipe as it enters the well are known in the industry as agitators, vibratory or extended reach tools. These extended reach tools are typically attached near the end of the pipe that will be farthest in the well and are made to excite the distal portion of the drill string and bottom hole assembly to avoid or cure the consequences of frictional forces. The extended reach tools currently available, though, cannot be switched “On or Off” when fluid is pumped through them and are designed such that when fluid enters the extended reach tool it automatically starts to vibrate downhole assemblies due to the binomial physical mechanics of the system. They have no “On or Off” switch and no ability to be commanded to activate or deactivate.
Equally, there is also no ability in today's extended reach tools to activate multiple assemblies at different depth in the well using different well bore conditions.
The present invention eliminates automatic activation when fluids are pumped down the drill string and can be set up to be activated only when commanded through a programmable interface. The ability to achieve this configurable setup greatly enhances the ability to deliver pipe and bottom hole assemblies effectively and efficiently to even farther depths of an extended reach horizontal wellbore.
Clearly, there remains an unmet need for a downhole apparatus capable of effectively and efficiently utilizing fluid forces to induce both high and low vibratory forces, while harnessing fluid pressure, to create vibratory and percussive forces that advance a drill string in both a resource constrained and resource efficient manner. Moreover, there is a long-felt and unmet need in a vibratory assemblage that can have its functions initiated and ceased upon experiencing programmed parameters. The present invention seeks to remedy the aforementioned infirmities in the prior art.
The present invention offers vast improvements over that of today's agitation, vibratory and extended reach tools by offering an ergonomic, uniquely ported valve and turbine-linked rotational shaft fluid system to provide pressurized fluid to achieve the dual function of rotational vibratory excitement of a tubular agitator and a timed, pressurized fluid jet to effectuate friction-freeing forces between a drill string and horizontal pipe. It is another goal of the inventor to incorporate an “On and Off” programmable capability, unseen in today's systems, to conserve the finite wear experienced by downhole tools and related bottom hole assemblies.
The present invention provides for a uniquely designed pressurized agitator exhibiting a digital programmable interface which is set to activate the vibratory assemblage only when wellbore or pipe conditions are met (such as well angle well temperature, weight on bit, etc). Subsequently, once a set of conditions are met, a manual brake probe is commanded to unlock a shaft, allow pumped fluid to translocate through a series of rotationally accessible ports, rotate a set of shaft-affixed turbines (thereby permitting rotation of the shaft and a ported rotational plates), create an increasingly pressurized interior environment and to rotate a temporally operated aperture to allow for a forced pressurized exodus to attached bottom hole assemblies. The multi-axis vibration created by the rotation of the shaft and ported plates generates the vibration as well as the delivered fluid pressure jet necessary to deliver the bottom hole assemblies successfully to the end of the wellbore section of the well efficiently and effectively.
In detail, the vibratory assembly uses a series of valves and rotating turbines to induce vibration when fluid is pumped down the drill string and into the assembly where a turning the shaft, fueled via finned turbines, provides rotational movement, as well as pressurized fluid flow to a rotationally operable exit port, to create a high to low range intensity vibration combined with a high intensity fluid jet ahead of the assembly. This turbine-powered, rotationally operable shaft, which may include an integral offset weight, causes fluid-controlled circular rotation in the assembly to induce vibration on the first axis. In both the upper turbine housing and the bearing valve housing of the assembly, rotating plates exhibited circumferentially about the interior of each tubular, and perpendicular to the tubular annular flow direction, allows fluid to pass through reciprocal ports in a secondary static plate to create an environment of increasing pressure as fluid travels from the proximal end to the distal end of the assembly. As the fluid passes through the rotating plate, the ports open and close across the static plate. As will become clear from the present disclosure, differing the ports configuration by opening and occlusion of these ports can induce or relieve the pressure and rotational speed housed within the assembly. Once introduced, fluid entrance causes a momentary pressure increases within each respective distal portions of both the upper turbine housing and the beating valve housing of the assembly. This fluid pressure increase establishes (1) a retrograde pulse that is then directed back up the vibratory tool and along the pipe laying in the horizontal well section and (2) anticipates a forward timed jet of fluid pressure created through a shaft-controlled rotational uni-ported system, similar to the circumferentially designated plurality of ports about the interior of both the upper turbine housing and bearing valve housing, that creates one large egressing fluid pulse forward as a ported rotational disc comes into communicating with a stationary orifice. Vibration rate is controlled by fluid speed and pressure (i.e. as fluid is pumped through the tool at an increasing rate the higher and faster the fluid pulses travel along the pipe, the greater the rotational speed that is experienced by the shaft in revolutions and the rapidity with which exiting pulses is experienced). Further, the parameters of the rotating turbines (e.g. fin pitch, outer diameter, circumference, fin thickness etc..) can positively or negatively affect the frequency of the vibratory forces and the pressure created in the final fluid pressure force. Too, as alluded to, the diameter, shape, placement and number of circumferential ports can have correspondingly inhibitory and promotional influences on the creation of pressure within the agitator's annulus. This pulsing effect causes the pipe to vibrate along its lateral length effecting not only the frictional forces created at the site of the bottom hole assembly but also in a retrograde manner up the drill string. Succinctly, as fluid is pumped down the drill string to the BHA, the rotational plates spins, the first rotational port of the first rotating plate align with the first static plate ports and the fluid is allowed to pass distally through to the assembly turbines which in turn rotates the centrally disposed shaft to propagate fluid flow down the assembly and create vibration, rotate an affixed rotational disc and to expel a concentrated, fluid jet to the forward attached assembly.
Similarly, in the case of an offset weight, as the fluid rate increases, the rotational speed of the turbines increase which in turns makes the weighted shaft rotate at a faster and faster rate. This increase in offset weighted shaft rotation causes the assembly to vibrate at higher rates of speed through increased rotation which in turn increases the vibratory force within the wellbore and reduces the pipe on pipe friction in the lateral direction of the horizonal section of the wellbore.
As above, the weighted shaft, turbines and rotational plate can be readily replaced with higher or lower ratios of weight, ports and propeller configurations to allow for far higher or far lower vibratory functions to be achieved (as well as lower to higher pressure jet pulses expelled distally from the assembly). The modular design, too, allows for inclusion and exclusion of communicating and noncommunicating ports, placement and replacement of differing sixes and shaped turbines and the inclusion, exclusion and sequential placement of complete sections of the assembly itself (e.g. turbine housings, bearing valve housings and vent sub housings)
In terms of conservation of equipment, the assembly that is the present invention can be made to exhibit an onboard digital assembly including a printed circuit board, electrical motor, brake probe, battery power section and onboard sensors to both determine if and when a set of preprogrammed determinates have been satisfied in actuating or stopping the functioning of the assembly. This digital component to the assembly a key feature unique to the operation of the vibratory assembly in that agitation tools typically cannot be turned “on and off” in a wellbore. Customarily, as soon as fluid is pumped down the pipe, the agitation tool will start to vibrate the entire pipe string, pressure will begin to build and timed pressure pulses will begin to be expelled from the assembly. This agitation motion is not required in the vertical section of the well and provides unwanted wear and tear on both surface and downhole equipment unnecessarily.
This onboard digital assembly incorporated into the vibratory assembly allows for agitation to be commanded to start or stop by preprogramming specific instruction into the microprocessor within the tool via a printed circuit board. These programmed commands can follow any number of parameters, set of parameters or sets of parameters which when encountered can stop or start the functional operation of the assembly.
An example of these instructions is listed below which start and stop the agitation motion even when the pumps are switched on and fluid is flowing through the tools:
While the above or only examples of programmed commands to activate the vibratory tool from idle to agitation mode, these are two of the primary features that designate the proper section of the wellbore for initiation of agitation, vibration and fluid pulsation. This programmable configuration allows the tool to remain idle (i.e. not vibrate) in a predefined section of the well (e.g. lateral sections) thereby eliminating unwanted vibration and fatigue on the pipe string and attached tool string (BHA).
Other sensors can easily be incorporated into the assembly at the operator's preference to provide alternate means of “On/Off” activation deactivation commands and some of these would be as follows:
Therefore, as included above, it can be seen that a variety of sensors can be used as the ‘rigger’ without departing from the scope and spirit of the onboard digital assembly and it is the interchangeable and additive predetermined “triggers” that add to the versatile operational selectivity of the various modes of operation and uses.
Structurally, the vibratory assembly is typically attached to the pipe or coiled tubing pipe and or snubbing pipe near the bottom hole assembly. This allows for the bottom hole assembly to be agitated both during deployment along the horizontal section of the well but also while drilling to enhance drilling operations. The agitation system when applied to jointed pipe can be used in multiple locations such as at the bottom hole assembly and along the end of the lateral wellbore, at the well section known as the heel or the lateral curve of the well, from horizontal to vertical and also in various portions of the vertical section as required by the operator. The key advantages of this multiple section vibratory assembly is that tools will activate when a preprogrammed well condition is present (such as well bore angle and well bore temperature) and each tool can be programmed to activate at different well bore conditions.
In opposite from direct drilling actives, upon the pipe and BHA recovery from the well, the preprogrammed vibratory tool can be programmed to again recognize wellbore conditions and or environmental factor (and once conditions are reached), the onboard digital assembly can deactivate the vibratory tool assembly. So in the above example, the tool will activate once 70 degrees deviation is achieved and 100 degree centigrade conditions are met and, conversely, the vibratory tool assembly will stop vibrating (deactivating) once the lesser of these two example conditions are seen (i.e. 69 degrees or less deviation is achieved and/or <100 degree centigrade is experienced). This again eliminates vibration of the entire pipe and bottom hole assembly in the vertical section and greatly reduces wear and tear on surface and downhole equipment.
The advantages and other aspects of the invention will be readily appreciated by those of skill in the art and better understood with further reference to the accompanying drawings in which like reference characters designate like or similar elements throughout the several figures of the drawings and wherein:
Drawings
The present invention allows for pipe vibration to be applied to any joint, seamless, coiled or snubbed pipe configuration whether threaded or not. The present invention allows for pipe to be delivered to lateral sections of a well with the aid of vibratory tools that excite pipe in multiple axes, This agitation process is achieved by pumping fluids through a series of ported discs and turbine-exhibiting shafts that oscillate the vibratory assembly 100 and creates both vibration of the pipe and fluid pulses within the pipe to educe friction between similar and dissimilar materials.
As depicted in
As the fluid energizes and passes through each rotating plate 3, 43, the rotating plate ports 4, 47 of rotating plates 3, 43 come into communication with stationary plate ports 15, 46 which open and close across each static stationary plate 5, 45, Each rotating plate being affixed to shaft 36 further potentiating shaft_36's rotational movement. This fluid entrance causes a sudden, momentary pressure increase within each respective distal portion 24, 44 of both the upper turbine housing 20 and the bearing valve housing 40 of the vibratory assembly 100. This fluid pressure increase is experienced rearward as well as forward where increased pressure establishes (1) a retrograde pulse that is then directed back up the vibratory tool and along the pipe laying in the lateral well section (with the uncommunication of rotational inlet flow ports 4, 47 and stationary inlet flow ports 15, 46) and (2) anticipates a forward timed “jet” of fluid pressure created through a turbine-shaft assembly 30 controlled rotational uni-ported system (created via a temporal, rotational communication between rotating aperture 55 and stationary orifice 56), similar to the circumferentially designated plurality of inlet flow ports 15, 47 made to communicate and uncommunicated with inlet flow ports 15, 46 and about the interior of both the upper turbine housing 20 and bearing valve housing 40, where each smaller inlet flow port 4, 15, 47, and 46 creates incrementally larger increases in internalized tubular pressure, rotating aperture 55 and stationary orifice 58 creates one large egressing fluid pulse forward as the rotating ported rotational disc 50 rotates, through rotational locomotion of the turbine-shaft assembly 30, and comes into communication with a stationary orifice 56 in stationary plate 58 that exists perpendicular to the annular tubing that is the lower vent sub 60. In sum, each rotating plate 3, 43 and 50 creates a retrograde and forward pulsation experienced through closure and opening of ports 4 and 15, 47 and 46 and 55 and 56, respectively.
It should be noted that variations of number, configuration and placement of circumferentially located rotating inlet ports 4, 47 of rotating plates 3, 43 and stationary inlet ports 15, 46 of stationary plates 5, 45, fluid pressure regulation of rotating plates 3, 43 and their temporal communication with corresponding receiving orifices in reciprocating stationary plates 5, 45 and 58, variations of number, configuration and placement of circumferentially located rotating port 55 (or various other ports not shown) in disc 50 (as seen in
As well, the configuration of the turbines 32, 34, in terms of turbine blade length, blade pitch, blade circumference and blade thickness, among other physical features, may be modified to (1) increase or decrease pressure or flow within the vibratory assembly 100, increase or decrease vibratory intensity within the vibratory assembly 100 and/or increase or decrease the pressure pulse expressed through the most distal opening (foot valve 64) of the vibratory assembly 100. And, their placeable and replaceable “keyed” inclusion upon the assembly shaft 36 more readily lends itself to an easily and readily modifiable configuration for different and differing vibration intensities and fluid pressure creation.
The use of a fluid powered turbine is a simple and reliable method for rotation of a drive shaft 36 to operate a valve or other devices. However, a single turbine 32 may require a speed controller to prevent revolutions exceeding the limits of the turbine given a certain flow rate through the turbine. Various methods of speed control exist but can be both complex and expensive such that they reach impracticability (e.g. magnetic speed controllers).
To alleviate thus issue, the present invention utilizes a reverse pitch on the second turbine 34 in the tandem series. Further, a variable diameter turbine 32, 34 is used in the current embodiment to provide speed control of the upper/primary turbine 32 within each power section (upper turbine 2 and lower turbine 34) of the entire turbine-shaft assembly 30. By changing the pitch, diameter, number of blades and/or thickness of blades (or a combination of all features) the operator can alter the revolutions per second of the turbine-shaft assembly 30. Individually, only one turbine requires pitch and or diameter change within the upper and lower power sections, though, and by changing the dimensions of one of the turbines, for example turbine 34, this will provide the required drag to be placed on the other turbine, or example turbine 32, thereby slowing turbine 32 down—each keyed into the same drive shaft.
Too, upper power section turbines 32 can be set up with a different pitch and diameter turbines from the lower power section turbines 34 where the rotational direction of each turbine 32,34 are opposite from one another. For example, if turbine 32 is designed for a clockwise rotation, turbine 34 is designed for a counterclockwise rotation and, conversely, if turbine 32 is designed for a counterclockwise rotation, turbine 34 is designed for a clockwise rotation. Therefore, turbine 34 is creating the necessary deleterious function (i.e. drag) retarding the spin of turbine 32 (as shown in
In addition, because all the turbines 32 and 34 are individually attached to the drive shaft they can be manufactured (e.g. 3D metal printed) with a combination of pitch and diameter augmentations and modifications as to provide for an array of turbine speeds and provide a vast combination of revolution per second variables with due attention paid to the durable thickness and durability required by all downhole equipment. It is this ability to use modular turbines located in series on a primary drive shaft 36 which makes for a truly versatile, variable speed controller.
In
Plainly, each turbine housing 20 and 39 is made up of a ported housing that permits control of fluids to each power section 20 and 39. Each of the individual flow ports 4,15 and 47, 46, within either turbine housing 20 and 39 and bearing housing 29 and 49, respectively, can be threaded to allow for isolation of a number of ports educe or increase the rate of flow through the upper, lower or both upper and lower power sections 20 and 39. The ability to control flow into each power section 20 and 39 and bearing valve housing 29 and 49 allows for variable pressure pulse heights to be readily achieved thereby creating a higher or lower “water hammer” or pulse jet effect. This will also allow for variable pressure drops across the tools that can be readily changed with reconfiguration of the components, of both the vibratory assembly 100, individually, and the sequential vibratory system 110, in combination, by closing off of ports in the event that higher or lower flow rates require rate and adjusting pressure and pulse intensities to achieve desired vibration generation together with maximum pressure pulse effect as the fluid passes through the lower turbines and exits the foot valve 64 in the lower sub (as seen
Moreover, just as vibration rate is controlled by fluid speed and pressure as fluid is pumped through the tool at an increasing rate, the higher and faster the fluid pulses travel along the pipe, the greater rotational speed is experienced by the shaft in revolutions and the rapidity with which exiting pulses is experienced), so too is flow further augmented within the vibratory assembly 110 and the sequential vibratory system 110. It is the case that the parameters of the rotating turbines 32, 34 (e.g. fin pitch, outer diameter, circumference, etc..) can positively or negatively affect the frequency of the vibratory forces and the pressure created in the final fluid pressure force. Too, the diameter, shape, placement and number of circumferential ports 4, 15, 47, 46 can have correspondingly inhibitory and/or promotional influences on the creation of pressure within the agitator's annulus.
In addition to the vibratory forces, pulsing effects cause the pipe to vibrate along its lateral length effecting not only the frictional forces created at the site of the bottom hole assembly but also in a retrograde manner up the drill string. Succinctly, as fluid is pumped down the drill string to the BHA, pressurized fluid contacts and rotates rotational plates 3 and 43, the first rotational ports 4 of the first rotating plate 3 aligning with the first static plate 5 ports 15 wherein fluid is allowed to pass distally, when such ports 4, 15, 47 and 46 are aligned, through to the assembly, turbines 32, 34 which in turn rotates the centrally disposed shaft 36 to propagate fluid flow down the assembly and create vibration, rotate an affixed perpendicularly appended rotational disc 50 and to expel a concentrated, fluid jet through the communication of aperture 55 through stationary orifice 56 of stationary plate 58 that itself is disposed perpendicular to the annular flow of fluid in the lower vent sub 60. Fluid is then expelled fully through the most distal portion (foot valve 64) of the lower vent sub 60 to a forward attached assembly or corresponding downhole device.
As depicted in
As well as novel and ergonomic mechanical inventive features, as depicted in
The brake probe assembly 120 brake probe 111 is attached to a motor 112 that allows the brake probe 113 to move into the “on and off” position to activate and de-activate the brake probe 113 through either an inlet port orifice 4, 15, 47 or 46 or through the aperture 56 and orifice 55 of the vibratory assembly 100 or vibratory assembly system 110. The motor 112 is attached to a condition determining sensor 113 or sensors that provide the stored commands to activate the tools brake probe 111. The brake probe assembly 120 can be powered by various means such as a turbine or batteries (not shown). In the attached drawings, the power supply 114 is assumed to be a battery assembly. The power supply 114 provides the necessary power to power sensors 113, activate the motor 112 and initiate the brake probe 111 The power supply 114 also provides power to the onboard sensors 113 that provide the trigger instructions to operate the brake probe 113.
As depicted in
Diagrammatically, the shaft 36 is attached to the lower end of the assembly via the lower bearing section. A shear plate 109 (in the form of a stationary, rotating or combination) is atop the lower bearing section 37 and each has multiple through inlet ports 4, 15, 47, 46 (collectively 111) to allow the flow of fluid. These inlet ports 4, 15, 47, 46 (collectively 111) can be of various shapes and sizes to provide variable measures of fluid to pass. A second rotating shear plate 108 is attached to shaft 36. As the rotating shear plate 108 rotates, the rotating shear plate 108 ports pass over the ports on the lower shear plate 109 to align the ports thereby allowing the flow of fluid through the entire assembly 100 and or assembly system 110 and into the tools below. As the rotating shear plate 108 continues to revolve, the ports move to a closed position preventing fluid from passing through the assembly. The closure of these ports between the rotating shear plate 108 and the non-rotating shear plate 109 create back pressure within the assembly which causes lateral movement along the length of the pipe forward and back. By rotating the shear plate 108 at high revolutions per minute, the number of pressure pulses increases to a point where the assembly 100 or assembly system 110 and wellbore pipe is constantly vibrating. As detailed above, the higher the volume of fluid pumped through the turbine 106 the faster the turbine 106 spins the shaft 36 and the more pressure pulses are created at the shear plates 108 and 109. This provides for a multi-axis, lateral and axial vibration effect to occur thereby reducing pipe to pipe friction contact along the length of the pipe and bottom hole assembly via the agitator vibratory assembly 100 as shown and described.
Priority claimed to Provisional Application U.S. Serial No. 62/588,378 filed on Nov. 19, 2017.
| Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| PCT/US18/61889 | 11/19/2018 | WO | 00 |
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 62588378 | Nov 2017 | US |
