Probeless Packer With Rigid Inserts for Borehole Sealing
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing packer systems for sampling hydrocarbon fluids from subterranean formations face challenges in achieving a reliable seal against curved borehole walls due to their rigidity, which affects differential pressure and sample integrity, and often require complex extendable probe assemblies and additional components that complicate the sampling process.
Innovation Solution
The use of packers with rigid metallic inserts fixed to their walls, which extend partially through the packer body, allowing for compressibility and flexibility to conform to borehole curvatures, combined with sliding tubes for fluid passages and integrated filters with sliding pistons for active cleaning, eliminates the need for extendable probes and provides a robust seal without a setting piston, enhancing sample quality and operational efficiency.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Strength
If rigid packer systems are used to maintain structural integrity, then differential pressure resistance is improved, but the ability to conform to curved borehole walls deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The packer system is divided into rigid inserts (for structural strength) and flexible elastomeric portions (for conformability). The rigid inserts are positioned at specific locations to provide differential pressure resistance, while the flexible portions between them allow the packer to conform to curved borehole walls.
Solution Approach 2:
The packer combines rigid materials (metallic or polymer inserts) with flexible materials (elastomeric compounds) to create a composite structure that simultaneously provides both strength for pressure resistance and flexibility for conformability to borehole curvature.
2Reliability
If extendable probe assemblies are added to achieve reliable sealing, then seal reliability is improved, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The extendable probe assembly is removed from the system. Instead, the packer itself is designed with rigid inserts that extend into the borehole wall to provide sealing contact, eliminating the need for separate extendable probe mechanisms while maintaining seal reliability.
Solution Approach 2:
Instead of extending a probe outward to seal, the rigid inserts are positioned to engage directly with the borehole wall surface, inverting the traditional approach by using the packer body structure itself for sealing rather than an additional extendable component.
3Strength
If rigid inserts extend fully through the packer body, then structural support is improved, but compressibility and flexibility deteriorate
Solution Approach 1:
The rigid inserts extend only partially through the packer body thickness, positioned at specific locations where structural support is needed. The remaining portions of the packer body maintain full flexibility and compressibility, allowing local optimization of both strength and adaptability.
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 solution enables effective fluid sampling by maintaining a strong seal against borehole walls, preventing contamination, and allowing for efficient filter cleaning, thereby improving the accuracy and reliability of hydrocarbon fluid analysis while simplifying the sampling process and reducing equipment complexity.
Implementation Method 1
preserve compressibility of the packer, thereby enabling the packer to better conform to a curvature of the borehole wall
Implementation Method 2
slidably engaged with openings in the inlets of the packers to provide fluid passages through the packers
Implementation Method 3
one or more filters with pistons that slide within the filters to actively clean the filters
Data Source
AI summary
An apparatus described herein includes a formation sampling tool having a body; a packer extendibly mounted to the body and having a first inlet, the first inlet having a first rigid insert fixed to walls of the packer to define the first inlet, the first rigid insert extending partially through the packer; a first filter disposed within the body to filter fluid extracted from a subterranean formation via the first inlet; a first fluid passage to fluidly couple the first inlet to the first filter; and a first piston to slide within the first filter to clean the first filter.