Evaluation of Cuttings Transport in Well Annulus Using Power Law Model

The efficiency of cuttings transport is very important factor for a good drilling operation program. The transportation of these cuttings through the annulus is a complex problem that is affected by many parameters. For effective cuttings transport prediction, it will require that all these parameters be considered simultaneously. Predictions of pressure losses and cuttings transportation through the annulus are very complex during drilling operation due to the combination of interacting drilling parameters. Success during drilling program is due to efficiently cleaned hole. For better understanding of the effects of some of these parameters that affect cutting transportation, the power law of non-Newtonian viscosity model was adopted to establish the mathematical model of the cutting transport process in the well annulus. Some of the hole-cleaning challenges focused are: the absence of the basic data needed to fully evaluate present field practices and current concepts on drill cutting transport, the combined effect of operational parameters and drilling fluid properties, the effect of operational parameters and cutting properties and what is the effect of rheology model on cutting transport simulation. Poor hole-cleaning during drilling can lead to a lot of bore hole issues which has a negative effects. The overall effect is increase in drilling time and drilling cost. The proposed tool allows more precise prediction of cuttings transport property in the whole range of the well. In this paper, the effects of annular fluid velocity, transport ratio, size and density of cuttings are investigated. The results obtained showed that the most important factors controlling cutting transport are annular velocity and the fluid rheological properties. From the simulation result, it can be observed that an optimum transport ratio was obtained at 1.42m/s. The transport ratio increases rapidly with velocity but then begins to level out or increase more slowly in the velocity range of 1.42 to 1.62 m/s. We can also deduce from the result that cuttings velocity increases with the flow rate; but this increment does not follow a linear behaviour.