Estimating casing wear during drilling using multiple wear factors along the drill string

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9745844-B2
Application number	US-201515027172-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 12, 2015
Priority date	Jun 12, 2015
Publication date	Aug 29, 2017
Grant date	Aug 29, 2017

Abstract

Estimating casing wear for individual portions or lengths of a casing may take into account that individual drill string sections cause different amounts of casing wear based on the physical and material properties of each drill string section. In some instances, a method performed during a drilling operation may involve tracking a location of the plurality of drill string sections along the wellbore; corresponding a casing section with the drill string wear factors of the drill string sections radially proximate to the casing section the drilling intervals of the drilling operations; and calculating a drilling casing wear for the casing section based on the drill string wear factors corresponding to the casing section.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A method comprising:
drilling a wellbore with a drill bit coupled to an end of a drill string extending into the wellbore, wherein a portion of the wellbore is lined with casing and the drill string includes a plurality of drill string sections each having a drill string wear factor;
tracking a location of the plurality of drill string sections along the wellbore;
analytically dividing progress of the drill bit into a plurality of drilling intervals, wherein each drilling interval has a depth;
analytically dividing the casing into a plurality of casing sections, wherein each casing section has a length;
corresponding at least some of the plurality of casing sections with the drill string wear factor of the drill string section radially proximate to each of the plurality of casing sections for at least some of the plurality of drilling intervals; and
calculating a drilling casing wear for at least one of the plurality of casing sections based on the drill string wear factors corresponding to the at least one of the plurality of casing sections.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein calculating the drilling casing wear for the at least one of the plurality of casing sections comprises calculating an average casing wear factor (CWF avg ) for the at least one of the plurality of casing sections according to Equation 1 and calculating the drilling casing wear based on the CWF avg , wherein n is the number of drill string factors associated with the at least one of the plurality of casing sections and N DSWF is number of times each drill string factor is correlated with the at least one of the plurality of casing sections

CWF
avg

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∑

i
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1

n

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DSWF
i

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N

DSWF
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i

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i
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1

n

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N

DSWF
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i

.

Equation
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1

3. The method of claim 1 further comprising:
assigning a threshold value for the drilling casing wear for the at least one of the plurality of casing sections; and
performing a remedial operation on the at least one of the plurality of casing sections when the drilling casing wear exceeds the threshold value.

4. The method of claim 1 further comprising:
assigning a threshold value for the drilling casing wear for the at least one of the plurality of casing sections; and
applying a drill string protector to one or more drill string sections when the drilling casing wear exceeds the threshold value.

5. The method of claim 1 further comprising:
assigning a threshold value for the drilling casing wear for the at least one of the plurality of casing sections; and
sending an alert signal when the drilling casing wear approaches, reaches, or exceeds the threshold value.

6. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
calculating a total casing wear for the at least one of the plurality of casing sections drilling using a casing wear model based on the drilling casing wear and at least one of a tripping casing wear, a reciprocation casing wear, a backreaming casing wear, a rotating off bottom casing wear, or sliding casing wear.

7. The method of claim 5 further comprising:
assigning a threshold value for the total casing wear for the at least one of the plurality of casing sections; and
performing a remedial operation on the at least one of the plurality of casing sections when the total casing wear exceeds the threshold value.

8. The method of claim 5 further comprising:
assigning a threshold value for the total casing wear for the at least one of the plurality of casing sections; and
applying a drill string protector to one or more drill string sections when the total casing wear exceeds the threshold value.

9. The method of claim 5 further comprising:
assigning a threshold value for the total casing wear for the at least one of the plurality of casing sections; and
sending an alert signal when the total casing wear approaches, reaches, or exceeds the threshold value.

10. A method comprising:
simulating a drilling operation with a mathematical model of drilling a wellbore with a drill bit coupled to an end of a drill string extending into the wellbore, wherein a portion of the wellbore is lined with casing and the drill string includes a plurality of drill string sections each having a drill string wear factor, the mathematical model being stored in a non-transitory medium readable by a processor for execution by the processor;
tracking a location of the plurality of drill string sections along the wellbore;
analytically dividing progress of the drill bit into a plurality of drilling intervals, wherein each drilling interval has a depth;
analytically dividing the casing into a plurality of casing sections, wherein each casing section has a length;
corresponding at least some of the plurality of casing sections with the drill string wear factor of the drill string section radially proximate to each of the plurality of casing sections for at least some of the plurality of drilling intervals; and
calculating a drilling casing wear for at least one of the plurality of casing sections based on the drill string wear factors corresponding to the at least one of the plurality of casing sections.

11. The method of claim 10 , wherein calculating the drilling casing wear for the at least one of the plurality of casing sections involves calculating an average casing wear factor (CWF avg ) for the at least one of the plurality of casing sections according to Equation 1 and calculating the drilling casi

Assignees

• Landmark Graphics Corp

Inventors

• Aniket
• Gonzales Adolfo
• Samuel Robello

Classifications

• E21B47/007 Primary

  Measuring stresses in a pipe string or casing (for locating blocked portions of pipes E21B47/09) · CPC title

• E21B12/02 Primary

  Wear indicators · CPC title

• E21B44/00

  Automatic control systems specially adapted for drilling operations, i.e. self-operating systems which function to carry out or modify a drilling operation without intervention of a human operator, e.g. computer-controlled drilling systems; Systems specially adapted for monitoring a plurality of drilling variables or conditions · CPC title

• E21B47/00

  Survey of boreholes or wells (monitoring pressure or flow of drilling fluid E21B21/08) · CPC title

• E21B41/0092

  Fixed Constructions · mapped topic