Drilling dysfunctions related to vibration

With the recent improvements in drilling technology, we are seeing faster drilling and as a consequence the industry is currently registering a level of downhole vibrations that seem to be significantly in excess of vibration levels experienced 10 years ago. At the same time, advances in downhole technology has allowed us to record vibrations on the three main axis (Axial, Lateral and Torsional) bringing to light and allowing us to correlate drilling issues with vibration events. Vibrations bring an array of undesirable issues including short bit life, reduced ROP and early failure of downhole equipment. Vibrations can be reduced by altering the drilling parameters in cases where the vibrations are related to a known resonating mode of the drill string but in most cases, the solution is to either drill slowly or accept downhole failures.

APS Technology has introduced two solutions to mitigate or annihilate drilling vibrations.

SureDrill is a drilling optimization process which combines drill string modeling analysis, the experience acquired from offset wells and real time surface data. This is a relatively common approach. SureDrill is going one step further by analyzing downhole events including vibration recorded by the MWD tools to minimize MSE and maximize ROP while drilling. The optimum drilling parameters (RPM, Mud Flow and WOB) are then presented continuously to the driller. A possible extension of this solution is to feed the drilling parameters directly to the automated drilling console on modern rigs.

The Active Vibration Damper (AVD) is a "smart" shock sub. This shock sub brings technology that is widely available in other industries to the drilling market. Non Newtonian magneto-rheological fluids have been used in smart and active suspensions in high end sport and luxury cars for years. The concept is to change the property of the dampening fluid based on current conditions in order to attenuate vibrations. The AVD looks at vibrations on the 3 axis and changes the characteristics of the dampening fluid every 100 ms to actively remove any vibrations exceeding a predefined threshold.

While SureDrill helps in reducing vibrations across geological horizons through optimization of the drilling parameters, the AVD will look at instant changes in downhole conditions to actively dampen any vibrations. Both the SureDrill and AVD solutions have demonstrated significant savings by improving ROP, increasing bit footage, reducing the number of bit trips needed to attend to downhole tool failures and generally reducing the dreaded NPT (Non Productive Time).