Organization
College of Petroleum Engineering, Northeast Petroleum University, Daqing 163318, China
Xinmu Oil Production Plant, Jilin Oilfield Company, PetroChina, Songyuan 138000, China
No.5 Oil Production Plant, Daqing Oilfield Co. Ltd., PetroChina, Daqing 163513, China
Abstract
In order to study the distribution of cuttings in annulus and pressure drop of cuttings and drilling fluid two-phase flow in high angle section of complex structural wells, 3D model of highly inclined sections of complex structural well is established and CFD dynamic grid technique is used to simulate the rotary effect of drillpipe. Realizable viscous model is adopted to calculate Navier-Stokes equation of cuttings and drilling fluid two-phase flow. The simulation results show that drillpipe rotation makes the cuttings asymmetrically distribute along the wellbore circumference, and improves the drag effect of drilling fluid in the tangential speed, which significantly enhances hole cleaning efficiency. Based on the numerical simulation results of CFD and combined with Buckingham-π theorem, least square method is applied to establish the empirical correlations for estimating the ratio of cuttings bed area and wellbore area and the annular pressure drop.