The present invention relates to a shock wave generating method and device and, more particularly, to a method and device for repeatedly generating shock waves in a well borehole to enhance oil recovery and increase oil production and to carry out continuous seismic surveys of an hydrocarbon bearing formation.
The U.S. Pat. No. 6,015,010, U.S. Pat. No. 6,899,175 and U.S. Pat. No. 7,980,301 disclose methods and apparatuses for increasing the efficiency of the shock wave stimulation of the hydrocarbon bearing beds. However the implementation of methods in accordance with U.S. Pat. No. 6,015,010, U.S. Pat. No. 6,899,175, U.S. Pat. No. 8,459,351 and U.S. Pat. No. 7,980,301 have their drawbacks, i.e. the methods and apparatuses are not the optimal ones from the point of view of the efficiency of the devices implemented in accordance with U.S. Pat. No. 6,015,010, U.S. Pat. No. 6,899,175, U.S. Pat. No. 8,459,351 and U.S. Pat. No. 7,980,301. In particularly the efficacy of the device's implementation could be substantially enhanced from the point of view matching the generated vibration frequency to so called dominant frequency of the hydrocarbon bearing production horizon.
The present invention was developed to overcome drawbacks of prior methods and devices by providing the improved method and apparatus for producing shock waves in a borehole of the well filled or partially filled by the liquid.
Accordingly, a primary object of a first embodiment of the present invention is to provide the method for producing a shock wave in wells filled or partially filled by a liquid which includes a pumping unit arranged at the wellhead, a tubing string extending downwardly into the well borehole, a damper cylinder connected to the bottom of the tubing string at the upper end and to a damper chamber at the lower end. The damper chamber is connected to an upper cylinder. In addition, the damper cylinder has a different internal diameter than internal diameter of the upper cylinder. The damper plunger is movably arranged within damper cylinder and connected to the pumping unit by means at least one sucker rod and a polish rod at the upper end and to the upper plunger, which in turn is movably arranged within the upper cylinder, at the lower end for creating a constant counterforce inside the damper chamber on upstroke of the pumping unit as a result of a constant flow of the fluid from the damper chamber into the borehole of the well or from the borehole of the well into the damper chamber through at least one hole on the side surface of the damper chamber or, as an alternative, through the channel inside a damper plunger hydraulically connecting damper chamber with tubing string. In addition, the upper cylinder is connected to a lower cylinder via compression chamber and the upper cylinder has a smaller internal diameter than the lower cylinder. A lower plunger movably arranged within the lower cylinder and the upper and lower plungers are connected to each other by means of at least one sucker rod for compressing a liquid contained within the compression chamber and discharging the liquid into borehole of a well when the lower plunger exits out of the lower cylinder on the upstroke of a pumping unit thereby generating a shock wave. In addition, providing a length of the upstroke Lstr of the pumping unit determined by the following expression:
where H1 is the length of the lower cylinder, L2 is the distance between the top of the lower plunger and the bottom of the upper plunger, D1 is the diameter of the lower plunger, D2 is the diameter of the upper plunger, Asw is the required amplitude of the generated shock wave, E is a modulus of the elasticity of the sucker rod's material, dr is the diameter of the sucker rods.
It is another object of the invention to provide the method for producing a shock wave in wells filled or partially filled by liquid in which the pumping unit operates during from 1 minute to 24 hours per day.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide an apparatus for producing a shock wave in wells filled or partially filled by the liquid comprising of the device connected to the bottom of the tubing string in the borehole of the well filled by the liquid and consisting of the damper cylinder connected to the bottom of the tubing string at the upper end and to the damper chamber at the lower end and the damper chamber is connected to the upper cylinder, the damper cylinder has a different internal diameter than the internal diameter of the upper cylinder and the damper chamber has a hydraulic connection with the borehole of the well via at least one hole on its side surface, a damper plunger movably arranged within the damper cylinder and connected to the pumping unit by means at least one sucker rod and polish rod at the upper end and connected to the upper plunger by at least one sucker rod at the lower end for creating the constant counterforce inside the damper chamber on the upstroke of the pumping unit as a result of the constant flow of the fluid from the damper chamber into the borehole of the well or from the borehole of the well into the damper chamber through at least one hole on the side surface of the damper chamber or, as an alternative, through the channel inside a damper plunger hydraulically connecting damper chamber with tubing string, the upper cylinder connected to a lower cylinder via compression chamber and having the smaller internal diameter than the internal diameter of the lower cylinder, the upper plunger connected to the lower plunger by means of at least one sucker rod and the upper and lower plungers movably arranged within the upper and lower cylinders, correspondingly, for compressing the liquid contained within the compression chamber and discharging the liquid into the borehole when the lower plunger exits out of the lower cylinder on upstroke of the pumping unit thereby generating the shock wave. In addition, the lower plunger has at least one truncated conical taper at the lower end and said truncated conical taper has an angle Ψ relatively to a vertical symmetry axis of the lower plunger determined by the following formulae:
It is another object of the invention to provide the apparatus for producing the shock wave in wells filled or partially filled by the liquid in which the length l of the truncated conical taper on the lower end of the lower plunger is determined by the following expression:
where l is the length of the truncated conical taper on the lower end of the lower plunger, D1 is the diameter of the lower plunger, Ψ is the angle of the truncated conical taper on the lower end of the lower plunger.
It is another object of the invention to provide the apparatus for producing the shock wave in wells filled or partially filled by the liquid in which lower plunger has a truncated spherical taper at the lower end and said truncated spherical taper has a spherical radius R and the diameter ds at the bottom of said truncated spherical taper determined by the following expressions:
d
s
=D
1
−l tan ψ
R≧l cos ψ
where l is length of said truncated conical taper on the lower end of the lower plunger, D1 is the diameter of the lower plunger, Ψ is the angle of said truncated conical taper on the lower end of the lower plunger.
It is another object of the invention to provide the apparatus for producing the shock wave in wells filled or partially filled by the liquid in which the lower plunger has a truncated ellipsoidal taper and the diameter de at the bottom of said truncated ellipsoidal taper is determined by the following expression:
d
e
=D
1
−l tan ψ,
where l is length of said truncated conical taper on the lower end of the lower plunger, D1 is the diameter of the lower plunger, Ψ is the angle of said truncated conical taper on the lower end of the lower plunger.
It is another object of the invention to provide the apparatus for producing the shock wave in wells filled or partially filled by the liquid in which the lower plunger has a truncated hyperboloid taper and the diameter dh at the bottom of said truncated hyperboloid taper is determined by the following expression:
d
h
=D
1
−l tan ψ,
where l is length of said truncated conical taper on the lower end of the lower plunger, D1 is the diameter of the lower plunger, Ψ is the angle of said truncated conical taper on the lower end of the lower plunger.
It is another object of the invention to provide the apparatus for producing the shock wave in wells filled or partially filled by the liquid in which the distance L2 between the top of the lower plunger and the bottom of the upper plunger is determined by the following expression:
where H1 is the length of the lower cylinder, H2 is the length of the upper cylinder, l1 is the length of the lower plunger, L1 is the length of the compression chamber, l2 is the length of the upper plunger, Lstr is the length of the upstroke of the pumping unit, D1 is the diameter of the lower plunger, D2 is the diameter of the upper plunger, Asw is the required amplitude of the generated shock wave, E is the modulus of the elasticity of the sucker rod's material, dr is the diameter of the sucker rods.
It is another object of the invention to provide the apparatus for producing the shock wave in wells filled or partially filled by the liquid in which the distance L4 between the bottom of the damper plunger and the top of the upper plunger is determined by the following expression:
H
1
+H
2
+H
3
+L
1
+L
3−(l1+l2+L2+l3+Lstr)≦L4≦(H1+H2+H3+L1+L3+l3)−(l1+l2+L2+Lstr),
where H1 is the length of the lower cylinder, H2 is the length of the upper cylinder, l1 is the length of the lower plunger, L1 is the length of the compression chamber, l2 is the length of the upper plunger, l3 is the length of the damper plunger, H3 is the length of the damper cylinder, L3 is the length of the damper chamber, L2 is the distance between the top of the lower plunger and the bottom of the upper plunger, Lstr is the length of the stroke of the pumping unit.
It is another object of the invention to provide the apparatus for producing the shock wave in wells filled or partially filled by the liquid in which in order to provide the optimum bottom of the pumping unit upstroke the total length of the sucker rods connecting the top of the damper plunger and the bottom of said polish rod is reduced compared with the nominal length L5 of sucker rods connecting the top of damper plunger and the bottom of said polish rod by distance λ determined by the following formulae:
where D1 is the diameter of the lower plunger, D2 is the diameter of the upper plunger, Asw is the required amplitude of the generated shock wave, H is the depth of the bottom of the lower plunger at the bottom of the pumping unit upstroke, E is the modulus of the elasticity of the sucker rod's material, dr is the diameter of the sucker rods, ρs is a density of the pumping means material, ρs is the density of the liquid, π=3.1415, η is a buckling coefficient of the sucker rods inside the tubing per unit of the tubing length.
Other objects and advantages of the invention will become apparent from the study of the following specification when viewed in light of the accompanying drawings, in which:
Referring to
where H1 is the length of the lower cylinder 26, L2 is the distance between the top of lower plunger 34 and bottom of the upper plunger 32, D1 is the diameter of the lower plunger 34, D2 is the diameter of the upper plunger 32, Asw is the required amplitude of the generated shock wave, E is a modulus of elasticity of the sucker rod's material, dr is the diameter of the sucker rods 4, 7 and 13. In particular, length of stroke Lstr≧3.66 m for the following parameters: H1=3.65 m L2=32 m, D1=0.082 m, D2=0.07 m, Asw=24.5 MPa, E=2×1011 Pa, dr=0.0254 m.
As shown on
wherein Cs is a velocity of a shear wave in the hydrocarbon bearing formation sublayer 27 and S is a thickness of the hydrocarbon bearing formation sublayer 27 having the particular dominant frequency fd. On another hand, when the lower plunger 34 exits out of the lower cylinder 26 on every upstroke of the pumping unit thereby generating the shock wave, the discharged flow of liquid, in turn, generates the vibrations due to creating a periodic vortices 14 in accordance with well known phenomenon of an auto-oscillations discovered by V. Strouhal in 19th century. More details about phenomenon of auto-oscillations could be found for example in the articles: Sobey, Ian J. (1982). “Oscillatory flows at intermediate Strouhal number in asymmetry channels”. Journal of Fluid Mechanics, N. 125: 359-373 and Sakamoto, H.; Haniu, H. (1990). “A study on vortex shedding from spheres in uniform flow”. Journal of Fluids Engineering, N 112 (December 1992): 386-392. Therefore the further object of the present invention is to provide an apparatus for producing shock waves which, in turn, generate the vibrations on the frequency equaled the dominant frequency fd thereby providing the resonant mode. Such apparatus in wells filled or partially filled by liquid comprising of the device connected to the bottom of the tubing string 6 in the borehole 19 of the well filled by liquid and consisting of the damper cylinder 12 connected to the bottom of the tubing string 6 at the upper end and to the damper chamber 8 at the lower end and the damper chamber 8 is connected to the upper cylinder 20, the damper cylinder 12 having a different internal diameter than the internal diameter of the upper cylinder 20 and the damper chamber 8 has a hydraulic connection with borehole 19 of the well via at least one hole on the side surface of said damper chamber 8 or, as an alternative, through the channel (not shown) inside the damper plunger 11 hydraulically connecting damper chamber 8 with tubing string 6, the damper plunger 11 movably arranged within the damper cylinder 12 and connected to the pumping unit by means at least one sucker rod 4 and a polish rod 1 at the upper end and connected to the upper plunger 32 by at least one sucker rod 7 at the lower end for creating a constant counterforce inside the damper chamber 8 on the upstroke of the pumping unit as a result of a constant flow of the fluid from the damper chamber 8 into the borehole 19 of the well or from the borehole 19 of the well into the damper chamber 8 through at least one hole on the side surface of the damper chamber 8, the upper cylinder 20 connected to a lower cylinder 26 via a compression chamber 22 and having a smaller internal diameter than the internal diameter of the lower cylinder 26, the upper plunger 32 connected to the lower plunger 34 by means of at least one sucker rod 13 and the upper 32 and lower 34 plungers movably arranged within the upper 20 and lower 26 cylinders, correspondingly, for compressing a liquid contained within the compression chamber 22 and discharging the liquid into the borehole 19 when the lower plunger 34 exits out of the lower cylinder 26 on the upstroke of the pumping unit thereby generating the shock wave. In addition, the lower plunger 34 has at least one truncated conical taper 16 at the lower end (see
wherein Ψ is the angle of the truncated conical taper 16 on the lower end of the lower plunger 34, φ is the total slippage of the fluid between the lower 26 and upper 20 cylinders and the lower 34 and upper 32 plungers, correspondingly, nS is Strouhal number, Lstr is the length of the upstroke of the pumping means, D1 is the diameter of the the lower plunger 34, dr is the diameter of the sucker rods 13, Cs is a velocity of a shear wave in the hydrocarbon bearing formation sublayer 27, Δt is the discharging time of the compressed liquid from the compression chamber 22, S is a thickness of the hydrocarbon bearing formation sublayer 27 having the particular dominant frequency fd.
The angle Ψ of the truncated conical taper 16 on the lower end of the lower plunger 34 provides the flowing regime of discharged liquid from the compression chamber 22 in such manner that the appearing vortices 14 will be occurring on the dominant frequency fd thereby providing the resonant phenomenon. In particularly, for the dominant frequency fd=150 Hz the angle Ψ of the truncated conical taper 16 has to be equaled 170 to provide the resonance under the following parameters: S=2.5 m, φ=0.1, nS=0.21, Lstr=3.6 m, D1=0.082 m, dr=0.0254 m, Cs=1500 msec, Δt=0.04 sec.
At the same time the length 1 the truncated conical taper 16 described by the following expression:
will vary in the range 0.0082 m≦l≦0.134 m for D1=0.082 m and Ψ=170.
Referring to
d
s
=D
1
−l tan ψ and
R≧l cos ψ,
wherein l is the length of the truncated conical taper 16 on the lower end of the lower plunger 34, D1 is the diameter of the lower plunger 34, Ψ is the angle of the truncated conical taper 16 on lower end of the lower plunger
In particular, R≧0.048 v for l=0.05 m and Ψ=170, and ds=0.035 m.
Referring to
During the installation of the device in accordance with invention (see
wherein H1 is the length of the lower cylinder 26, H2 is the length of the upper cylinder 20, l1 is the length of the lower plunger 34, L1 is the length of the compression chamber 22, l2 is the length of the upper plunger 32, Lstr is the length of the upstroke of the pumping unit, D1 is the diameter of the lower plunger 34, D2 is the diameter of the upper plunger 32, Asw is the required amplitude of the generated shock wave, E is the modulus of the elasticity of the sucker rod's material, dr is the diameter of the sucker rods 13. In particular, the distance L2 between the top of the lower plunger 34 and the bottom of the upper plunger 32 varies in the range 28.5 m≦L2≦34.24 m for the following parameters: H1=5.3 m, H2=6.0 m, l1=1.2 m, L1=29 m, l2=1.2 m, Lstr=3.66 m, D1=0.082 m, D2=0.070 m, Asw=24.5×106 Pa, E=2.12×1011 Pa, dr=0.0254 m.
The similar set up of the distance L4 between the bottom of the damper plunger 11 and the top of the upper plunger 32 should fulfill the following expression:
H
1
+H
2
+H
3
+L
1
+L
3−(l1+l2+L2+l3+Lstr)≦L4≦(H1+H2+H3+L1+L3+l3)−(l1+l2+L2+Lstr),
wherein H1 is the length of the lower cylinder 26, H2 is the length of the upper cylinder 20, l1 is the length of the lower plunger 34, L1 is the length of the compression chamber 22, l2 is the length of the upper plunger 32, l3 is the length of the damper plunger 11, H3 is the length of the damper cylinder 12, L3 is the length of the damper chamber 8, L2 is the distance between the top of the lower plunger 34 and bottom of the upper plunger 32, Lstr is the length of the upstroke of the pumping unit.
In particular, the distance L4 between the bottom of the damper plunger 11 and the top of the upper plunger 32 varies in the range 16.64 m≦L4≦19.04 m for the following parameters: H1=5.3 m, H2=6.0 m, H3=6.0 m, l1=1.2 m, L1=29 m, L2=32 m, L3=9.6 m, l2=1.2 m, l3=1.2 m, Lstr, =3.66 m.
During the installation of the device in accordance with invention (see
where D1 is the diameter of the lower plunger 34, D2 is the the diameter of the upper plunger 32, Asw is the required amplitude of the generated shock wave, H is the depth of the bottom of lower plunger 34 at the bottom of the pumping unit upstroke, E is a modulus of elasticity of the sucker rod's material, dr is the diameter of the sucker rods 4, ρs is the density of the sucker rod's material, ρs is the density of liquid, π=3.1415, η is a buckling coefficient of the sucker rods 4 inside the tubing string 6 per unit of tubing length (varies between 0.001 to 0.003 depending on the size of tubing string 6 and sucker rods 4 inside this tubing string 6). The nominal length L5 of sucker rods 4 corresponds to the position of polish rod 1 when the whole sucker rod string consisting of 4, 7 and 13 sucker rods and polish rod 1 are stuck out.
In particular, the distance λ≧2.79 m for the following parameters: D1=0.082 m, D2=0.07 m, Asw=24.5×106 Pa, E=2.12×1011 Pa, H=1500 m, dr=0.0254 m, ρs=7800 kg/m3, ρf=1000 kg/m3, π=3.1415, η=0.0013 (for 1 inch sucker rods and 2⅞ inch tubing), g=9.81 m/sec2.
While in accordance with the provisions of the Patent Statutes the preferred forms and the embodiments of the invention have been illustrated and described, it will be apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art various changes and modifications may be made without deviating from the inventive concepts set forth above.