Stranger Things 4: Placement Simulators Accuracy For ECD and Pressure Predictions

Abstract

Cement placement simulators are valuable tools predicting anticipated pressures and equivalent circulating densities (ECD) for a given application. The simulators guide users in maintaining wellbore stability for a range of operating conditions unique to the application while helping to achieve the isolation requirements. There are various functions in the simulators, based upon the inputs, which contribute to the pressure and ECD predictions. Most of the available literature shows consistency for the solving the various transport equations of fluid dynamics including pressure losses as a function of flow regime, wellbore geometry, and fluid rheological model. Therefore, a comparison study should demonstrate consistency to avoid uncertainties in a given simulators prediction accuracy. The manuscript investigates the prediction differences in four available simulators that depending on the type of variability observed, could affect a well's integrity.