Measurement, Prediction, and Modeling of Bit Wear During Drilling Operations

Abstract

Modelling wear of drill bits can increase the efficiency in the drilling operations. Related to the subject, it is aimed to investigate the wear mechanism of drill bits. Wear in drill bits is influenced by many factors related to the drilling and rock properties. The type and intensity of wear are dependent on several complicated factors that are required to be considered in anticipating the rate of wear in the field and laboratory conditions. The laboratory tests have been performed in order to specify the relationships between the bit wear rate and the physico-mechanical properties, drillability, abrasive properties, and brittleness of rocks. Statistical analysis has been used to obtain equations for estimating the bit wear rate based on the rock properties. In this work, an ensemble technique is used to estimate the confidence interval and the prediction intervals for the regression models. This paper summaries the rock properties and bit wear mechanism, and argues the options to determine the bit wear rate. The test models indicate that the rock properties can give an idea of bit wear. They also show a good correlation between the bit wear rates. Also some models are developed to represent the wear quantification, and an approach is suggested in order to estimate the bit wear rate. The results obtained from studying the developed models provide a good agreement with the performance evaluation of an efficient drilling, which provide an indirect evaluation of drill bit wear rate during a drilling process, which can help to reduce the specific energy consumption and lower costs for the exchange of drill bits.