Universal Wireline Standoff with External Fins Against Borehole Sticking
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Solution Overview
Problem
Wireline cables and logging tools often become stuck in boreholes due to differential sticking, key-seating, and mechanical binding, which can lead to fishing jobs or lost tools, particularly in deviated or directional wells with varying formation pressures and permeabilities.
Innovation Solution
A wireline assembly with wireline standoffs featuring cable inserts made of aluminum or silicon bronze, secured by opposing assemblies with external fins, reduces contact area and friction by minimizing direct contact with the borehole wall, allowing for efficient jar operation and reducing sticking forces.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If the wireline cable contacts the borehole wall directly, then the cable can be supported and positioned, but the cable experiences increased friction and sticking forces that can lead to getting stuck
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a borehole standoff as an intermediary device between the wireline cable and the borehole wall. The standoff has a cable contact surface that interfaces with the cable and a borehole contact surface that interfaces with the wall, thereby mediating the interaction and reducing direct contact friction and sticking forces on the cable.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent segments the cable support function by introducing a separate standoff component rather than having the cable contact the wall directly. This segmentation allows the standoff to bear the friction and sticking forces, isolating these harmful effects from the cable itself.
2Adaptability or versatility
If the wireline cable operates in deviated or directional wells with overbalance conditions, then logging operations can be performed, but the cable is subjected to increased differential sticking forces
Solution Approach 1:
The borehole standoff acts as a mediator that distributes and reduces the differential sticking forces. By providing a larger contact surface area with the borehole wall and optimizing the contact geometry, the standoff reduces the sideways pressure and differential sticking forces transmitted to the cable, enabling successful logging operations in deviated or directional wells with overbalance conditions.
3Productivity
If the wireline cable cuts a groove into the borehole wall, then the cable can be conveyed through the formation, but the groove creates key-seating that traps the cable
Solution Approach 1:
The borehole standoff provides preliminary support and distribution of contact forces before the cable can cut deep grooves into the wall. By maintaining more uniform contact pressure through the standoff's structure, the cable is less likely to concentrate forces that would create key-seating grooves, thereby preventing the cable from becoming trapped.
Data Source
AI summary
A wireline standoff that may ameliorate the effects of wireline cable differential sticking, wireline cable key seating, and high cable drags by reducing or eliminating contact of the wireline cable with the borehole wall during the logging operation. An embodiment includes a wireline standoff. The wireline standoff may comprise a pair of opposing assemblies. The opposing assemblies may each comprise a half shell, a cable insert configured to be disposed in the half shell, and external fins coupled to the half shell. The wireline standoff may further comprise one or more fasteners configured to couple the opposing assemblies to one another.