DRILLING TECHNOLOGY
A Review of Cuttings Transport in Directional-Well Drilling
Hole cleaning during directional-well
drilling is a major concern in the oil
field and must be monitored and
properly controlled during the entire
drilling operation. Inadequate drilled-
cuttings removal can cause many
costly problems. Low annular-fluid
velocity, lack of drillpipe rotation, and
the wrong mud properties are pri-
mary factors in ineffective hole clean-
ing. The full-length paper presents a
review of previous hole-cleaning stud-
ies and discusses an approach that is
better suited for monitoring and con-
trolling hole-cleaning problems.
Introduction
The rotary-drilling process consists of a
rock-cutting tool (drill bit) upon which
a downward force is applied [weight on
bit (WOB)] and rotation (rev/min) is
imposed. The drilled cuttings generated
by the drill bit are removed by circulat-
ing a drilling fluid from surface to bot-
tomhole and back to surface (cuttings
transport) (Fig. 1).
During directional-well drilling, cut-
tings removal becomes more difficult
and if not controlled properly can result
in serious problems such as mechani-
cal pipe sticking (fishing or hole loss),
excessive frictional torque (increase in
rotary-power requirement) and frictional
drag (inability to reach target), difficulty
in landing casing, channeling problems
This article, written by Assistant Tech-
nology Editor Karen Bybee, contains
highlights of paper SPE 132372,
Review of Cuttings Transport in
Directional-Well Drilling: Systematic
Approach, by T. Nazari, SPE, and G.
Hareland, SPE, University of Calgary,
and J.J. Azar, SPE, University of Tulsa,
originally prepared for the 2010 SPE
Western Regional Meeting, Anaheim,
California, 2729 May. The paper has
not been peer reviewed.
For a limited time, the full-length paper is available free to SPE members at www.spe.org/jpt.
52
during cementing, and difficulty in log-
ging. The factors that are known to affect
hole cleaning include annular eccentric-
ity, inclination angle, drillpipe rotation,
fluid flow rate (annular velocity and
flow regime), rate of penetration (ROP),
mud rheology and density, and cuttings
(i.e., size, shape, and density). It is well
documented that flow rate and drillpipe
rotation have the most positive effect on
hole cleaning. However, an increase in
flow rate causes an increase in frictional
pressure losses, which in turn causes an
increase in equivalent circulating den-
sity (ECD), pump-pressure requirement,
and potential hole erosion. An increase
in pipe rotation can result in prema-
ture pipe fatigue failures caused by the
induced cyclic stresses.
Cuttings-Transport Problem
In contrast to other industrial process-
es, the cuttings-transport problem in
the drilling industry is more complex
because of the many parameters that
are interconnected nonlinearly. In sim-
pler processes, some of the steps could
be neglected.
Comparing this scheme to a drilling
process results in the following cor-
relations:
Processdrilling procedure
ReferenceECD limitation, pump
hydraulic-horsepower limitation, hole
erosion, ROP limitation, geological-tar-
get limitation, rotary-power limitation
Process inputsflow rate, rev/min,
hookload
Process outputspressures, ROP,
torque
Internal statesWOB, eccentricity,
hole cleaning
Monitoring/controllost circula-
tion, drag, torque, cuttings returns,
ROP, circulating standpipe pressure
For a complete and reliable automat-
ed design process, the following steps
must be taken:
1 Mud pumps
2 Swivel
3 Kelly
4 Drill bit
5 Drillpipe
6 Annular space
7 Cuttings
8 Shakers
9 Mud pits
10 Rotary table
Fig. 1Drilling-rig schematic.
Signal measurements
Monitoring of critical parameters
Modeling
Control
Design Parameters
In any system, including drilling, there
are various design parameters to be con-
sidered. There are parameters that are
referred to as effective parameters or
control signals, which are process
inputs, and there are affected param-
eters, which are the internal-process
states or the outputs. Any change
in the effective parameters will cause a
change in the affected parameters. The
affected parameters are divided into two
groupsinternal states and outputs. The
outputs are measured parameters such
as circulating standpipe pressure, while
internal states such as annular cuttings-
bed height or pipe eccentricity cannot be
measured while drilling is taking place.
During drilling, it is essential to main-
tain certain drilling parameters (e.g.,
bottomhole pressure, flow rate, annu-
lar cuttings concentration, and torque)
within the proper range. The desired
value of any of the affected parameters
JPT FEBRUARY 2011
will be designated as the reference.
Comparing the measured signals with
the references, the controller will adjust
the effective parameters automatically
so that the reference values will be sat-
isfied. In most cases, it is essential for
the controller to optimize the effective
parameters so that they are in some
specific operational range. For example,
flow rate as an input cannot be greater
than some specific value determined
by pump characteristics. The controller
and some of the monitoring methods are
based on real time or an offline model. A
verified general model can be presented
on the basis of the physical relations of
the process parameters or measured
datasets of process parameters. Hybrid
methods for modeling of different drill-
ing processes also have been presented.
If there were no limitations on the
internal states, the monitoring process
would be less complicated. Because
some important drilling parameters that
cannot be measured have to be kept
in specific working regions, the moni-
toring process becomes important for
the drilling process. Monitoring also is
important in setting up alarms to alert
Drill safer, drill greener
AND save rig days
JPT FEBRUARY 2011
when undesirable conditions occur.
Measurement and monitoring during
drilling operations have been practiced
for a long time. However, to ensure a
systematic control of the process, an
automated monitoring by use of inter-
nal-states estimation must be carried
out first. In the full-length paper, the
focus is on hole cleaning as an internal
state that should be monitored.
Cuttings Removal
Drilled-cuttings removal (cuttings
transport) from the annulus during
drilling has been the subject of research
for several decades. Different investiga-
tors have taken different approaches in
dealing with the hole-cleaning problem.
To set the stage for the present work, it
is important to summarize the drilling-
process parameters, which leads to a
detailed review of past studies.
Past studies investigated the effects
of some or most of the process inputs
on hole-cleaning parameters such as
cuttings concentration. A summary of
their results includes:
Mud flow rate has a significant
positive effect.
Riserless Mud Recovery (RMR)
from AGR Drilling Services
Visit us on Stand 224 at the SPE/IADC Drilling
Conference and Exhibition, Amsterdam,
March 1 - 3
Mud rheology has a moderate posi-
tive or negative effect, depending on
cuttings size, pipe rotation, hole incli-
nation, and annular eccentricity.
Hole angle has a significant nega-
tive effect with increase in inclination.
Mud weight has a small positive
effect.
Mud type has a small-to-moderate
positive effect.
Hole size has a small-to-negligible
effect for the same annular fluid veloc-
ity.
Rotation speed has a significant
positive effect.
Eccentricity has a significant nega-
tive effect.
ROP has a moderate negative effect.
Drill-bit type has an unknown
influence as a result of the regrinding of
cuttings after they have been generated.
Cuttings size has a small negative
or positive effect, depending on several
conditions.
Parameter Combinations
Investigation of the sensitivities of com-
binations of parameters results in the
following points:
agr.com/ds
53
 Hole inclination, annular mud of a universal model can be very
velocity, and drillpipe rotation are the beneficial.
most important parameters. Some powerful investigations of
Consideration of combinations of sensitivity analysis have been con-
fluid velocity and mud rheology reveals ducted, with confirmed conclusions
that low viscosity in turbulent flow released on controllability of hole
has the same result as high viscosity in cleaning by input vectors.
laminar flow in vertical wells. A turbu- Previously, misinterpretations of
lent flat flow profile is more effective inputs have occurred. Adding and
in inclined wellbores. Increasing the clearly defining more parameters as
viscosity causes a peak in the minimum inputs, internal states, or outputs will
transporting velocity. generalize the structure of drilling hole-
Low flow rate and high rotary cleaning processes.
speed in horizontal wells provide an Some datasets in previous experi-
enhancement in cuttings transport. mental investigations caused uncertain-
In an attempt to find a global ties that cannot be removed using sta-
condition for sufficient hole cleaning, tistical analysis. Gathering of complete
water-based, low-gel-strength, low- datasets with field and experimental
viscosity mud with pipe rotation was data will be highly useful in sensitiv-
introduced. ity analysis or verification of new sys-
tematic hole-cleaning models. Different
Conclusions and data-mining methods such as principal-
Recommendations components analysis can be used to
Some of the weak and strong points of find a confirmed mathematics-based
research in addition to some recom- sensitivity-analysis measurement.
mendations for future investigations Previously presented models of
are listed below. hole cleaning were confirmed on the
There currently is no generalized basis of some specific condition of drill-
systematic model developed for hole ing or by a limited number of experi-
cleaning; therefore, the development ments. Because the drilling process is
highly nonlinearly dependent, a gener-
alized model of this process, or at least
part of it, can be obtained by a hybrid
data-/physics-based method, such as
fuzzy modeling.
For design of an automatic moni-
toring system for hole cleaning, com-
plete datasets including different failure
points or a complete set of models
that covers different failures and their
results on outputs is required.
A reliable monitoring system is a
must for an automatic and online hole-
cleaning control package.
Steps toward automation of a hole-
cleaning process are initiated by dis-
covering all the effective and critical
affected parameters. More research on
presenting a drilling process (or part of
it) in a systematic view will increase the
generality of the results.
The relations between effective and
affected parameters can be reached by
both theoretical and data-mining meth-
ods, or even a combination of the two.
Any efforts toward global modeling of
the different drilling processes will help
the other steps of hole-cleaning-mon-
itoring automation (such as real-time
torque-and-drag modeling). JPT

Organized by THE ONLY SHALE EVENT TO

Sa 00
qu
FOCUS ON WATER MANAGEMENT

ot

$2
v
e
be ist
IN THE MARCELLUS

e
re

fo ra
g

re tio
April 13-14, 2011,

Fe n
b co
Hilton Garden Inn, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

25 de
- JP
Examining Cutting Edge Technologies And Best Practices To

T
11
Optimize Water Sourcing, Maximize
Re-Use & Efficiently Manage Flowback
Water In Shale Gas Production
Expert Insight From 25+ Industry Professionals Including Major E&P Companies and Regulatory Authorities

Ray Walker Margaret Hoffman Jeff Formica Tim Svarczkopf Dawn Coughlin Douglas Brett Bryce Yeager Kathryn Klaber
SVP Marcellus Shale Chief Environmental VP Production Director Water Senior Manager CEO Lead Technical Engineer President and Executive
RANGE Council, SENECA Management Environment CANADIAN ENERGY Director

RESOURCES CHEVRON RESOURCES ATLAS HESS QUANTUM CORPORATION MARCELLUS

ENERGY CORPORATION OF AMERICA SHALE
COALITION

www.shale-gas-water-management-2011.com Co-Sponsors

call: 1-800-721-3915 mail: info@american-business-conferences.com

54 JPT FEBRUARY 2011