Experimental Cuttings Transport in Horizontal Wellbore: The Determination of Cuttings bed Height

Abstract

Poor hole cleaning problems during drilling operations has been the reason for several unwanted issues encountered during drilling. Hence, the numerous researches work on cuttings transportation. This project work presents an experimental and theoretical approach to the determination of stationery bed height during drilling operations. An experimental flow loop was used to simulate the oil field drilling process in which flow velocity was used to obtain a stable bed height. In the experimental work, drilling fluids of varying viscosity was used in order to ascertain the effect of fluid viscosity on cuttings deposition and how it affects other parameters. Also, theoretical models from past studies were used to compare with the laboratory results. In order to ensure that the model was used independent of experimental work, the author developed a simple geometry transformation from bed perimeter to height based on circle geometry. The result obtained showed that the theoretical results for bed height and perimeter were approximately the same as that of the practical result. The minimum flow velocity obtained from the adopted model was higher than the recommended flow rate from pump due to restrictions, as a result of laboratory and safety conditions at the time experiment was carried out.