Shear Toe Sleeve for Unplugged Cased Hole Conduits
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional toe sleeves in directional drilling often get plugged due to cementation or limited opening areas, hindering effective communication with the formation during frac operations in horizontal wells.
Innovation Solution
A toe sleeve design that allows disconnection from the casing by pumping fluid to create a dynamic opening, preventing cementation and ensuring ports remain unobstructed, utilizing a lower body that can shear from an upper body to expose communication ports directly to the formation.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If conventional toe sleeves are used with cement pumping, then the toe sleeve can be installed in cased hole, but the toe sleeve ports get plugged by cement sheath
Solution Approach 1:
A bypass channel is created around the toe sleeve before cement is pumped, allowing cement to flow through the bypass rather than through the toe sleeve ports. This preliminary routing of cement prevents the ports from getting plugged while still allowing the toe sleeve to be installed in the cased hole.
Solution Approach 2:
The system is divided into separate flow paths: one through the toe sleeve and another through the bypass channel. This segmentation allows cement to be directed through the bypass while maintaining the toe sleeve structure intact and unplugged for its intended function.
2Ease of manufacture
If wipers are used to clean cement from casing, then cement removal is attempted, but the geometric properties of wipers and casing prevent effective cleaning
Solution Approach 1:
A bypass channel acts as an intermediary pathway that allows cement to flow around the toe sleeve area. This mediator enables effective cement removal from the casing without requiring the wipers to directly clean the toe sleeve ports, which have limited access due to geometric constraints.
3Area of stationary object
If toe sleeve opening area is limited, then the toe sleeve structure remains compact, but the opening area gets plugged during pressure up
Solution Approach 1:
Instead of increasing the opening area in the traditional sense, a bypass channel is created in a different dimensional space around the toe sleeve. This allows substantial flow capacity without increasing the footprint or opening area of the toe sleeve itself, preventing plugging during pressure up operations.
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 effective communication with the formation by preventing plugging, allowing for efficient fluid circulation and frac operations without cementation, thereby enhancing the productivity of horizontal wells.
Implementation Method 1
The lower body may be configured to be sheared/disconnect from a distal end of the upper body to create a dynamic opening that does not get plugged
Data Source
AI summary
A toe sleeve that is configured to disconnect from casing. More specifically, a toe sleeve that is configured to shear from casing creating a dynamic opening that does not get plugged.