Downhole Movable Joint Tool for Wellbore Navigation
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional downhole tools face challenges in navigating wellbores with shear offsets, lateral shifts, and tight bends due to excessive friction and jamming, particularly in cased and open-hole wellbores with uneven surfaces, leading to stuck tools and impeded movement.
Innovation Solution
The implementation of a downhole tool string equipped with movable joint tools that feature flexible joints and rotatable members to facilitate angular and lateral movement, reducing friction and enabling smooth conveyance through complex wellbore geometries by allowing the tool string to bend and adjust to the wellbore shape.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If a conventional rigid tool string is used in a wellbore with tight bends and deviations, then the tool string maintains structural stability and strength, but excessive friction and jamming occur against the wellbore wall, causing the tool string to get stuck
Solution Approach 1:
The tool string incorporates movable joints with rotatable members that allow dynamic adjustment of the tool string configuration. These joints enable the tool string to flex and adapt to wellbore deviations, reducing friction and preventing jamming while maintaining structural integrity during conveyance operations.
Solution Approach 2:
The tool string employs flexible connections between segments rather than rigid fixed joints. This flexibility allows the tool string to conform to curved wellbore paths and tight bends, reducing contact friction with the wellbore wall and enabling successful navigation through complex well geometries.
2Object-affected harmful factors
If the tool string is made more flexible to navigate tight bends, then friction and jamming are reduced, but the structural strength and stability of the tool string may be compromised
Solution Approach 1:
The tool string is divided into multiple segments connected by movable joints. Each segment maintains adequate structural strength, while the joints between segments provide the necessary flexibility. This segmentation allows the tool string to achieve overall flexibility without compromising the strength of individual components.
Solution Approach 2:
The movable joints incorporate rotatable members that provide controlled flexibility only when needed for navigation. During operational phases requiring stability, the joints can be locked or positioned to maintain rigid configuration, thus preserving structural strength while enabling flexibility during conveyance.
3Adaptability or versatility
If conventional fixed joints are used in the tool string, then manufacturing and assembly are simpler, but the tool string cannot adapt to wellbore deviations and tight bends
Solution Approach 1:
The tool string replaces fixed joints with movable joints featuring rotatable members. These dynamic joints automatically adapt to wellbore deviations and tight bends through rotational movement, providing versatility without requiring complex active control systems or multiple specialized components.
Solution Approach 2:
The movable joints with rotatable members self-adjust to wellbore geometry through passive mechanical response to applied forces. The joints automatically orient themselves to accommodate deviations and bends without requiring external control, sensors, or complex actuation systems, thus limiting the increase in device complexity.
Data Source
AI summary
A downhole tool operable to connect within a downhole tool string. The downhole tool may include a first sub, a second sub, and a movable joint movably connecting the first sub and the second sub to facilitate relative angular movement between the first sub and the second sub. The downhole tool may be operable to connect together a first portion of the tool string and a second portion of the tool string and facilitate relative angular movement between the first portion of the tool string and the second portion of the tool string when the downhole tool is connected within the tool string.