Directional Drilling Motor Bent Housing Guide Element

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Solution Overview

Problem

Directional drilling motors face challenges in maintaining directional control and minimizing side loads on the drill bit, leading to inefficiencies and potential failures, especially when drilling through hard-rock formations or in horizontal wells, due to the limitations of existing bent housing designs and three-point contact methods.

Innovation Solution

The design incorporates a bent housing with strategically positioned bends and pads to bias the housing sections, reducing side loads and maintaining a consistent bit angle, featuring a first bend with a 1.5-degree angle and a second bend with a 1-degree angle, along with a centralizer and wear pads to stabilize the motor within the wellbore, allowing for both curved and straight drilling sections with reduced interference and side loading.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Ease of operation

If a bent housing is used for directional drilling, then directional control is achieved, but side loads on the drill bit increase

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvedirectional controlVSAvoidside loads on drill bit

Core Design Contradiction:

Ease of operationVSForce

Solution Approach 1:

The bent housing is divided into multiple straight sections connected by bends, with guide elements positioned at specific locations. This segmentation allows the housing to maintain directional control through the bends while the straight sections with guide elements reduce side loads by providing stable contact points with the wellbore wall.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #1Segmentation

Solution Approach 2:

Guide elements act as intermediaries between the bent housing and the wellbore wall. These elements distribute the contact forces and reduce the direct side loads transmitted to the drill bit, while still maintaining the directional control function of the bent housing.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #24Intermediary (Mediator)

2Force

If guide elements are added to reduce side loads, then side loading decreases, but device complexity increases

Engineering Contradiction:

Improveside loadingVSAvoidhousing structure

Core Design Contradiction:

ForceVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

Guide elements are added only at specific locations (straight sections) of the bent housing where they are most effective, rather than throughout the entire housing. This localized approach reduces side loads without unnecessarily increasing overall device complexity.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #3Local quality

3Measurement precision

If multiple bends are used to maintain bit angle, then directional precision improves, but interference with wellbore increases

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvebit face angle consistencyVSAvoidwellbore interference

Core Design Contradiction:

Measurement precisionVSObject-affected harmful factors

Solution Approach 1:

The bent housing is segmented into multiple straight sections separated by bends. This segmentation allows the housing to follow the wellbore curvature more closely, reducing interference, while the bends maintain the necessary bit face angle consistency for precise directional control.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #1Segmentation

Data Source

PatentUS9963938B2Directional drilling motor

Publication Date: 2018.05.08 ACT ENERGY TECHNOLOGIES LTD

AI summary

A drilling motor for directional drilling in a wellbore has a drill bit at a downhole end, a bent housing having a first bend spaced above the drill bit and defining a first angle, the first bend having an inside bend surface and an outside bend surface, and a guide element that biases the first bend toward the first angle when the bent housing is positioned within a straight section of the wellbore. The guide element may be a pad, a centralizer or a second bend in the bent housing.