Modular Cellar Trailer Shear Wall Drill Floor Stiffening
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Solution Overview
Problem
Drilling operations in the Arctic face challenges with large, heavy drilling rigs that require extensive setup and teardown times at multiple wells, leading to increased operational time and weight limitations during rig moves, especially with cantilevered rigs that deflect under load.
Innovation Solution
A modular, detachable cellar trailer is designed to house wellhead equipment and provide structural support to the drill floor, featuring a shear wall that extends between the trailer and the ground to stiffen the drill floor, allowing for independent setup and teardown of wellheads and reducing the overall weight and load on the drilling rig.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Shape
If a cantilevered drill floor design is used to provide vertical clearance for blowout preventer equipment, then the equipment can be accommodated, but the drill floor deflects downward under increasing hookload during drilling operations
Solution Approach 1:
The drill floor system is segmented into a movable cantilevered portion and a fixed support portion. The cellar trailer acts as a separate modular unit that can be positioned to provide support only when needed at specific well locations, rather than requiring continuous rigid support along the entire drill floor span.
Solution Approach 2:
The cellar trailer serves as an intermediary support structure between the drill floor and the ground. It provides the necessary vertical support to prevent drill floor deflection under load, while allowing the drill floor to maintain its cantilevered configuration for equipment clearance.
2Strength
If vertical stiff legs are added to support the cantilevered drill floor, then drill floor deflection is reduced, but the rig becomes more cumbersome and heavier to move along a row of wells
Solution Approach 1:
The support system transitions from static, permanently attached stiff legs to a dynamic, movable cellar trailer that can be repositioned as needed. The trailer can be moved along with the rig as it progresses from well to well, providing support only when and where required, thus maintaining rig mobility while ensuring drill floor stiffness during operations.
Solution Approach 2:
The support function is segmented into a separate, independently movable cellar trailer unit rather than being integrated into the rig structure itself. This allows the trailer to be positioned selectively under the drill floor to provide support without adding permanent structural complexity to the rig.
3Reliability
If the drilling rig remains at each wellhead for setup, preparation, and testing operations, then equipment can be properly configured, but significant time is spent at each well increasing overall operational time
Solution Approach 1:
The cellar trailer is prepared and positioned at each well location in advance of the main drilling rig. Wellhead equipment can be installed and pre-configured in the trailer before the rig arrives, allowing setup operations to occur beforehand rather than delaying the drilling operations.
Solution Approach 2:
Wellhead equipment and preparation operations are segmented into the separate cellar trailer unit, which can be independently positioned and prepared at each well location. This separates the preparation timeline from the rig mobilization timeline, allowing parallel execution of activities.
Data Source
AI summary
A drilling rig may include a detachable, modular cellar arranged beneath a drill floor of the drilling rig. The cellar may be or include a cellar trailer and it may also be configured to house drilling equipment, such as well head equipment and/or one or more blowout preventers. The cellar trailer may provide work areas, such that the well head equipment may be prepared, tested, or generally operated within the cellar trailer. The cellar trailer may additionally be configured to provide stiffening support to the drill floor in order to mitigate deflection of the drill floor during drilling operations. The stiffening support may be provided by a shear wall extending from the cellar trailer. The cellar trailer may be towable. The cellar trailer may additionally be skiddable and/or walkable.