Electrically Actuated Explosives for Controlled Downhole Perforation
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current wellbore servicing methods, such as hydraulic fracturing and explosive fracturing, are costly, complex, and pose safety risks due to the use of volatile and sensitive explosives, and lack control over perforation and fracture creation.
Innovation Solution
The use of electrically actuated, excited, or ignited charge carriers with Digital Solid State Propulsion technology to create controlled perforations and fractures, reducing unintended explosions and enhancing safety and control over the perforation process.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If volatile and sensitive explosives are used for fracturing, then fracturing effectiveness is improved, but safety deteriorates due to unintended explosions
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces traditional mechanical detonation systems with electrically actuated explosives. The explosives are initiated by electrical signals rather than mechanical means, providing precise control over when and where explosions occur. This substitution eliminates the sensitivity to mechanical shock and vibration that causes unintended detonations, while maintaining the fracturing effectiveness through controlled electrical initiation.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent changes the initiation parameter from mechanical (shock, vibration) to electrical (voltage, current). By using electrically actuated explosives with specific electrical resistance characteristics, the system achieves controlled detonation only when the correct electrical parameters are applied. This parameter change allows precise timing and location control of fractures while preventing accidental explosions from mechanical disturbances.
2Manufacturing precision
If traditional explosives are used, then perforation capability is achieved, but control over perforation timing and location deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent incorporates feedback mechanisms where the electrical initiation system monitors and responds to downhole conditions. The electrical signals are controlled based on real-time information about wellbore conditions, fracture propagation, and perforation effectiveness. This feedback loop enables precise control over when and where perforations occur, improving both manufacturing precision and ease of operation.
Solution Approach 2:
The replacement of mechanical detonation with electrical initiation provides programmable control capabilities. Electrical signals can be timed, sequenced, and targeted to specific locations along the wellbore, enabling precise control over perforation timing and location. This electrical control system is more easily programmed and adjusted than mechanical systems, improving operational ease while maintaining precision.
3Reliability
If hydraulic fracturing is used to create fractures, then fracture creation is achieved, but cost and process time increase due to complex equipment and lengthy procedures
Solution Approach 1:
The patent uses periodic electrical impulses to initiate explosives at controlled intervals along the wellbore. Instead of continuous hydraulic pressure application, the system applies discrete electrical signals at specific times and locations. This periodic action creates a series of controlled fractures more efficiently than continuous hydraulic fracturing, reducing both equipment complexity and operation time while maintaining effective fracture creation.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent extracts the fracturing function from the complex hydraulic fracturing process and consolidates it into simple explosive detonation. By removing the need for high-pressure pumping equipment, fluid injection systems, and extensive monitoring infrastructure, the system achieves fracture creation through direct explosive action. This extraction of the core function eliminates unnecessary complexity and reduces operational time and cost.
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
This approach minimizes damage, maximizes the effect of perforations or fractures, and allows for multiple uses of the electrically actuated explosive material, providing safer and more efficient wellbore servicing operations.
Implementation Method 1
The electrically actuated, excited, or ignited charge carrier, for example, a perforating gun, may be utilized to create the necessary or intended perforations and fractures
Implementation Method 2
explosive charge to shatter a formation and thereby permit hydrocarbons to flow through the formation to the well
Data Source
AI summary
Electrically ignitable and electrically controllable explosive material (EIECEM) may be disposed within a shaped charge for deployment downhole. An explosion of the EIECEM is controlled by limiting the duration of excitation at the EIECEM, for example, the duration that an electrical source provides an electrical charge, electrical current or electrical signal. The shaped charge may be insulated from an electrical source to prevent explosion of the EIECEM and coupled to the electrical source to create ignite or explode the EIECEM. A plurality of shaped charges may be disposed downhole and may be ignited or exploded in any suitable order. The EIECEM may be ignited multiple times such that multiple explosions are created. The explosion of the EIECEM creates or extends a perforation or fracture in a formation. The perforation or fracture (or cavity) may be filled by a fluid to repair or plug and abandon a well.