This application is a national stage entry of PCT/US2015/039640 filed Jul. 9, 2015, said application is expressly incorporated herein in its entirety.
The present disclosure relates generally to wellbore plugging operations. In particular, the subject matter herein generally relates to a downhole plug assembly that can be used to isolate sections within a wellbore.
Wellbores are drilled into the earth for a variety of purposes including accessing hydrocarbon bearing formations. A variety of downhole tools may be used within a wellbore in connection with accessing and extracting such hydrocarbons. Throughout the process, it may become necessary to isolate sections of the wellbore in order to create pressure zones. Downhole tools, such as frac plugs, bridge plugs, packers, and other suitable tools, may be used to isolate wellbore sections.
Downhole tools, such as frac plugs, are commonly run into the wellbore on a conveyance such as a wireline, work string or production tubing. Such tools typically have either an internal or external setting tool, which is used to set the downhole tool within the wellbore and hold the tool in place. Once in place, the downhole tools allow fluid communication between sections of the wellbore above the plug and below the plug until another downhole tool, such as a ball, is pumped down to seat in the plug and interrupt fluid communication through the plug, and a sealing assembly, which can be made of rubber and extends outwards to seal off the flow of liquid around the downhole tool.
Implementations of the present technology will now be described, by way of example only, with reference to the attached figures, wherein:
It will be appreciated that for simplicity and clarity of illustration, where appropriate, reference numerals have been repeated among the different figures to indicate corresponding or analogous elements. In addition, numerous specific details are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of the embodiments described herein. However, it will be understood by those of ordinary skill in the art that the embodiments described herein can be practiced without these specific details. In other instances, methods, procedures and components have not been described in detail so as not to obscure the related relevant feature being described. Also, the description is not to be considered as limiting the scope of the embodiments described herein. The drawings are not necessarily to scale and the proportions of certain parts have been exaggerated to better illustrate details and features of the present disclosure.
Disclosed herein is a sealing assembly for substantially prohibiting fluid communication through and around a downhole tool within a wellbore. The sealing assembly as disclosed herein includes a sealing sleeve extending from the uphole end of the downhole tool and is shaped to seat a ball, and having deformable walls. When being seated into the sleeve, the ball can deform the walls such that the walls are forced into contact with the inner surface or casing of the wellbore. When seated, the ball substantially blocks fluid communication through the downhole tool, and the deformed walls substantially block fluid communication around the tool. Due to the deformability of the sleeve walls, the sealing process of a downhole tool may be simplified, and furthermore, the sealing apparatus may also permit the size of the downhole tool to be greatly decreased as well as allow for the omission of various internal setting mechanisms.
The sealing assembly disclosed herein may be used in combination with any of a variety of downhole tools, including, but not limited to, frac plugs, packers, and bridge plugs, or other tools with sealing assemblies.
A frac plug may include an elongated tubular body member with an axial flowbore or channel extending therethrough, and be used in combination with a ball, together acting as a one-way check valve. The ball, when seated on an upper surface of the flowbore, acts to seal off the flowbore and prevent flow downwardly therethrough, but permits flow upwardly through the flowbore. Frac plugs typically include a seating mechanism for the ball formed at the upper end of the tubular body member to retain the ball.
A packer generally includes a mandrel having an upper end, a lower end, and an inner surface defining a longitudinal central flow passage. More specifically, a packer element assembly can extend around the tubular body member; and include one or more slips mounted around the body member, above and below the packer assembly. The slips can be guided by mechanical slip bodies.
A bridge plug generally includes a plug mandrel, one or more slips, and a rubber sealing element and is typically used for zonal isolation within a wellbore. More specifically, a bridge plug is a mechanical device installed within a wellbore and used for blocking the flow of fluid from one part of the wellbore to another.
An anchoring assembly may also be included in a downhole tool such as a packer or a frac plug. An anchoring assembly allows the downhole tool to hold its position within the wellbore. For example, the anchoring assembly can include deformable locking arms, which can be deformed radially from the longitudinal axis of the wellbore plug, thereby engaging the wellbore casing or surface. Such anchoring assemblies can be engaged by movement of the downhole tool upward, forcing a portion of the downhole tool onto an internal wedge and expanding the locking arms outwardly toward the wellbore casing.
The wellbore sealing assembly can be employed in an exemplary wellbore system 300 shown, for example, in
Illustrated in
The walls of sealing sleeve 100 may be elastically or plastically deformable, and may be composed of any suitable elastically or plastically deformable material including, but not limited to, elastomers (including but not limited to rubber), polymers (including but limited to plastics), or metal. One of ordinary skill in the art will understand that the material selected and the deformable nature (elastic or plastic) is an understood design choice generally dictated by the application of the system and method described herein. Furthermore, one of ordinary skill in the art will understand that the material may be further selected to ease the removal of downhole tool 200 by, for example, choosing a material that easily broken up if drilled out or a material that is dissolvable.
In the above description, reference to up or down is made for purposes of description with “up,” “upper,” “upward,” “uphole,” or “upstream” meaning toward the surface of the wellbore and with “down,” “lower,” “downward,” “downhole,” or “downstream” meaning toward the terminal end of the well, regardless of the wellbore orientation. Correspondingly, the transverse, axial, lateral, longitudinal, radial, etc., orientations shall mean orientations relative to the orientation of the wellbore or tool. The term “axially” means substantially along a direction of the axis of the object. If not specified, the term axially is such that it refers to the longer axis of the object.
Several definitions that apply throughout the above disclosure will now be presented. The term “coupled” is defined as connected, whether directly or indirectly through intervening components, and is not necessarily limited to physical connections. The connection can be such that the objects are permanently connected or releasably connected. The term “outside” or “outer” refers to a region that is beyond the outermost confines of a physical object. The term “inside” or “inner” refers to a region that is within the outermost confines of a physical object. The terms “comprising,” “including” and “having” are used interchangeably in this disclosure. The terms “comprising,” “including” and “having” mean to include, but not necessarily be limited to the things so described.
Numerous examples are provided herein to enhance understanding of the present disclosure. A specific set of statements are provided as follows.
Statement 1: A downhole tool sealing mechanism, comprising: a tubular body with a first end and a second end, allowing fluid communication along the longitudinal axis of the tubular body from the first end to the second end; a sleeve extending from the first end of the body shaped to seat a ball, and having radially deformable walls; and wherein the sleeve is shaped such that seating the ball substantially blocks the fluid communication through the tubular body when the ball is seated, and such that the ball radially deforms the walls during the seating.
Statement 2: The downhole tool sealing mechanism of Statement 1, wherein the sleeve walls are shaped such that deformation of the walls by the ball causes the walls to come into contact with a wellbore.
Statement 3: The downhole tool sealing mechanism of Statement 2, wherein the wellbore is substantially sealed when the ball is seated.
Statement 4: The downhole tool sealing mechanism of Statements 1-3, wherein the sleeve walls are elastically deformable.
Statement 5: The downhole tool sealing mechanism of Statements 4, wherein the sleeve walls are rubber.
Statement 6: The downhole tool sealing mechanism of Statements 1-5, further comprising: a plastically deformable layer on the inside surface of the sleeve.
Statement 7: The downhole tool sealing mechanism of Statement 6, wherein the seating of a ball plastically deforms the plastically deformable layer, and elastically deforms the deformable wall.
Statement 8: The downhole tool sealing mechanism of Statement 7, wherein the plastically deformed layer maintains the elastic deformation of the deformable wall when the ball is unseated.
Statement 9: A downhole tool sealing system, comprising: a tubular wellbore plug shaped to insert into a wellbore in the direction of plug's longitudinal axis; an internal channel along the longitudinal axis of the plug permitting fluid communication through the wellbore plug between wellbore sections uphole and downhole of the plug; a ball, insertable into the wellbore; a sleeve coupled to the uphole end of the plug shaped to seat the ball, and having deformable walls; wherein the sleeve is positioned to substantially block the fluid communication through the channel when the ball is seated, and wherein seating the ball deforms the walls into contact with a wellbore surface.
Statement 10: The downhole tool sealing system of Statement 9, wherein fluid communication around the wellbore plug is substantially blocked when the walls are deformed.
Statement 11: The downhole tool sealing system of Statements 9 or 10, wherein the sleeve walls are elastically deformable.
Statement 12: The downhole tool sealing system of Statement 11, wherein the sleeve walls are rubber.
Statement 13: The downhole tool sealing system of Statement 9-12, further comprising: a plastically deformable layer on the inside surface of the sleeve.
Statement 14: The downhole tool sealing system of Statement 13, wherein the seating of a ball plastically deforms the plastically deformable layer, and elastically deforms the deformable wall.
Statement 15: The downhole tool sealing system of Statement 14, wherein the plastically deformed layer maintains the elastic deformation of the deformable wall when the ball is unseated.
Statement 16: inserting into a wellbore a wellbore plug with an internal channel allowing fluid communication through the wellbore plug between a zone uphole of the plug and a zone downhole of the plug; providing a sealing sleeve on an uphole side of the plug with deformable walls shaped to be in close adjacent proximity to a wellbore surface when the plug is inserted into the wellbore; seating a sealing ball, sized to deform the walls of the sleeve and thereby bringing the sleeve walls into contact with the wellbore casing; and wherein the seating of the ball substantially blocks the fluid communication through the wellbore plug, and the sleeve wall deformation substantially seals the wellbore.
Statement 17: The method of sealing a wellbore zone Statement 16, wherein the sleeve walls are elastically deformable.
Statement 18: The method of sealing a wellbore zone of statement 16 or 17, further comprising: providing a plastically deformable layer on the inside surface of the sleeve.
Statement 19: The method of sealing a wellbore zone of Statement 18, wherein the seating of a ball plastically deforms the plastically deformable layer, and elastically deforms the deformable wall.
Statement 20: The method of sealing a wellbore zone of Statement 19, wherein the plastically deformed layer maintains the elastic deformation of the deformable wall when the ball is unseated.
The embodiments shown and described above are only examples. Even though numerous characteristics and advantages of the present technology have been set forth in the foregoing description, together with details of the structure and function of the present disclosure, the disclosure is illustrative only, and changes may be made in the detail, especially in matters of shape, size and arrangement of the parts within the principles of the present disclosure to the full extent indicated by the broad general meaning of the terms used in the attached claims. It will therefore be appreciated that the embodiments described above may be modified within the scope of the appended claims.
Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind |
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PCT/US2015/039640 | 7/9/2015 | WO | 00 |
Publishing Document | Publishing Date | Country | Kind |
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WO2017/007475 | 1/12/2017 | WO | A |
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Number | Date | Country | |
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20180148993 A1 | May 2018 | US |