Drill String Motion Mapping via Acceleration Data
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current drilling technologies fail to provide insight into how the drill string moves around the borehole, limiting the ability to rapidly identify and mitigate drilling dysfunctions such as excessive torque, shocks, and vibrations, which can lead to equipment failures.
Innovation Solution
A system and method that maps three orthogonal accelerations into drill-string motions, providing 2D/3D visualizations of deviations from ideal drilling conditions, allowing for real-time optimization and control of drilling operations by transforming acceleration data into continuous position measurements and quantifying dysfunction attributes.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If tri-axial accelerometers are used to measure acceleration data, then the ability to qualitatively evaluate drill string vibration is improved, but the ability to understand actual drill string motion and deviation from ideal drilling conditions deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
A coordinate transformation system acts as an intermediary to convert acceleration data from the accelerometer's local coordinate system to the wellbore's global coordinate system. This transformation enables the derivation of drill string motion characteristics (radial and tangential components) from raw acceleration measurements, bridging the gap between what is measured and what is needed for dysfunction detection
Solution Approach 2:
The patent replaces direct mechanical measurement of drill string position and orientation with an indirect approach using acceleration sensors combined with mathematical transformation. Instead of using complex mechanical position sensors in the downhole environment, the system uses readily available acceleration data and transforms it through coordinate systems to derive motion information
2Measurement precision
If complex mathematical processes are used to remove gravitational and centripetal acceleration, then acceleration data accuracy is improved, but system complexity and processing time increase
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary coordinate transformation of acceleration data immediately upon acquisition, converting from the rotating accelerometer frame to the stationary wellbore frame before further analysis. This preliminary action simplifies subsequent dysfunction detection by providing motion data that is already referenced to the correct coordinate system, avoiding the need for complex real-time gravitational and centripetal acceleration calculations
3Productivity
If real-time transformation of acceleration data to drill string position is implemented, then detection speed of drilling dysfunctions is improved, but computational requirements and processing complexity increase
Solution Approach 1:
The computational process is segmented into distinct stages: (1) coordinate transformation from accelerometer frame to wellbore frame, (2) integration to derive velocity and position, and (3) dysfunction detection based on motion characteristics. This segmentation allows for optimized processing at each stage and enables real-time operation by breaking down the complex transformation into manageable computational steps
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
Enables proactive detection of drilling dysfunctions, improving rate of penetration and minimizing well bit failures by providing efficient and robust workflows for real-time control and optimization of drilling operations.
Implementation Method 1
Tri-axial accelerometers have been widely used in the drilling industry to measure three orthogonal accelerations related to shock and vibration during drilling operations
Data Source
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AI summary
Systems and methods compute dysfunctions via mapping of tri-axial accelerations of drill pipe into drill-string motions. The methods remove gravitational and centripetal accelerations to yield corrected acceleration data due to the vibration only, transform the corrected acceleration data, and maps resulting transformed acceleration data into continuous drill-string positions. The maps provide 2D/3D visualization of drill-string motions to enable real-time optimization and control of well drilling operations and other scenarios where proactive detection of temporal events in automated systems may aid in avoiding failures.