Active Vibration Control for Subterranean Drilling Operations

Abstract

An active vibration control device improves drilling by actively applying a dampening profile and / or a controlled vibration to a drill string and / or bottomhole assembly (BHA). Embodiments of the present invention control the behavior of a drill string and / or BHA in order to prevent or minimize the occurrence of harmful drill string / BHA motion and / or to apply a vibration to the drill string / BHA that improves one or more aspects of the drilling process. Measurements of one or more selected parameters of interest are processed to determine whether the undesirable vibration or motion is present in the drill string or BHA and / or whether the drill string and / or BHA operation can be improved by the application of a controlled vibration. If either or both conditions are detected, corrective action is formulated and appropriate control signals are transmitted to one or more devices in the drill string and / or BHA.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS[0001]This application is a divisional of U.S. Utility application Ser. No. 11 / 471,231, filed Jun. 20, 2006.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0002]1. Field of the Invention[0003]In one aspect, this invention relates generally to systems and methods for controlling the behavior or motion of a drill string and / or bottomhole assembly to optimize drilling operations.[0004]2. Description of Related Art[0005]To obtain hydrocarbons such as oil and gas, boreholes are drilled by rotating a drill bit attached at a drill string end. Conventionally, the drill bit is rotated by rotating the drill string using a rotary table at the surface and / or by using a drilling motor in a bottomhole assembly (BHA). As can be appreciated, the cutting action of the drill bit against the earthen formation and the rotation of the drill string within the wellbore can produce a number of vibrations and motion that can cause a number of non-beneficial conditions such as a reduction ...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0009]The present invention provides systems, methods and devices for improving the drilling process by actively applying a dampening profile and / or a controlled vibration to a drill string and / or bottomhole assembly (BHA). Embodiments of the present invention control the behavior of a drill string and / or BHA in order to prevent or minimize the occurrence of harmful drill string / BHA motion and / or to apply a dampening profile and / or a vibration to the drill string / BHA that improves one or more aspects of the drilling process (e.g., borehole quality, tool life, rate of penetration, etc.).

[0010]In one application, measurements of one or more selected parameters of interest are taken along one or more locations of a drill string or BHA during drilling and processed to determine whether an undesirable vibration or motion is present in the drill string or BHA. This processed data can also be used to determine whether the drill string and / or BHA operation can be improved by the application of a dampening profile and / or a controlled vibration. If the processed data indicates that improvement of conditions is possible, then corrective action is formulated and appropriate control signals are transmitted to one or more devices in the drill string and / or BHA to generate vibrations that minimize the undesirable vibration and / or improve operation of the drill string and / or BHA.

Problems solved by technology

As can be appreciated, the cutting action of the drill bit against the earthen formation and the rotation of the drill string within the wellbore can produce a number of vibrations and motion that can cause a number of non-beneficial conditions such as a reduction in the effectiveness of the cutting action, damage to tooling, reduction in tool life, impairment of the effectiveness of downhole tools, etc.

One drawback to such conventional systems is that they cannot in a real time or near real time basis adapt to the dynamic drilling environment.

Such a shock absorber may have diminished value if the damaging vibrations are outside the range of the pre-set frequency and amplitude.

It will be appreciated, however, that such alterations may result in drilling at non-optimal conditions, e.g., reduced rate of penetration.

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