11th Annual Sucker Rod Pumping

Workshop
Renaissance Hotel
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
September 15 - 18, 2015

Sucker Rod Pump Fluid Pound Avoidance

& Stress Limiting Control

Omar Al Assad, Justin Barton, Rogier Blom,

Gary Hughes, Peter Westerkamp
General Electric
 Motivation
– Unplanned outages due to equipment failures impacts
throughput - typical failures cost $20K-35K without
considering the lost production
– Many unplanned outages can be avoided/managed by
real time equipment health monitoring and appropriate
control action
– Overloading due to internal factors such as the
operational speed of the pump or external factors such
as fluid pound are the root causes of failure
– New computational power capabilities on LWM 2.0
unlocks advanced controls algorithm implementation

LWM
Design a controller to reduce failure rate of parts 2.0
of the pumping system representing the majority
of failure modes : Rod, Gearbox, Motor*

Sept. 15 - 16, 2015 2015 Sucker Rod Pumping Workshop *Patent filed with related inventions 2
 Controller Design

Sept. 15 - 16, 2015 2015 Sucker Rod Pumping Workshop 3

 Controls Implementation Approach

Sept. 15 - 16, 2015 2015 Sucker Rod Pumping Workshop 4

 Intra-stroke Speed Modulation Approach

User defined parameters :

• FPA: % pump speed reduction
• Stress Control : % DN stroke speed
modulation
% UP stroke speed
modulation
Sept. 15 - 16, 2015 2015 Sucker Rod Pumping Workshop 5
 Simulation Platform

Integrated dynamic surface pump and downhole

equipment modeling
Joints, Motor, GB
Rod stress
Stresses
(Wave Equation)
(Matlab/SimMechanics)
Wave Equation

𝜕2𝑢 𝜕2𝑢 𝜕𝑢
= 𝑎2 −𝑐
𝜕𝑡2 𝜕𝑥 2 𝜕𝑡
6
x 10

3
stress (PSI)

-1
0.6 0.8 1 1.2 1.4 1.6 1.8
sample 4
x 10

Sept. 15 - 16, 2015 2015 Sucker Rod Pumping Workshop 6

 Case Study
• Simulation conditions
• Pump Fillage : 60%
• Fillage recovery speed 6.5 SPM
• Simulation scenarios
1 – Baseline
2 – FPA
3 – FPA + rod stress monitoring

1 2 3

Sept. 15 - 16, 2015 7

Case Study Results
Stress control reduces
stress level on taper 1
3

1 2 FPA: Reduces amplitude

of cyclic stress due to
collision of plunger with
fluid surface by 50 %

FPA: Reduced shock loading from

collision reduces gear box torque Stress control reduces
3 gear box torque
2

Production rate
not impacted
~120 Bpd
Sept. 15 - 16, 2015

8
 Dynamics Model of Surface
Pumping Unit Motion

Mechanical equation of motion of crank:

Net Torque = Inertia effect + Pitman moment - CBE

Sept. 15 – 18, 2015 2015 Sucker Rod Pumping Workshop 9

 Validation of Dynamic Gear Box
Torque Calculation
• Validation simulation run with pumping speed of 8 SPM

Sept. 15 – 18, 2015 2015 Sucker Rod Pumping Workshop 10

 Rod String Dynamics
• Displacement along rod string governed by wave
equation:

• Force along rod string governed by Hooke’s Law:

• Stress along rod string governed by:

• Wave equation solved using finite difference numerical

method (Everitt-Jennings method)
Sept. 15 – 18, 2015 2015 Sucker Rod Pumping Workshop 11
 Validation of Finite Difference
Diagnostic Pump Card Algorithm
• Parameters: 3 taper rod string and well depth of 7425 ft.

Sept. 15 – 18, 2015 2015 Sucker Rod Pumping Workshop 12

 Stress Level Monitoring on Pump
Components
• Stress level in gear box, motor and rod continually
monitored against user / manufacturer specified limits

User / manufacturer limit

Control limit
Signal

Control dead band

Physical signal
Stress limiting control action applied

Time

Sept. 15 – 18, 2015 2015 Sucker Rod Pumping Workshop 13

 Conclusion and Perspectives

• New computational power capabilities on LWM 2.0 unlocks

advanced controls algorithm implementation
• Simulation of a novel Fluid Pound Avoidance Controls
algorithm shows a 50% reduction in the amplitude of the
rod stress due to the collision of the plunger with the fluid
• Stress monitoring module aims to operate the pump within
user / manufacturer stress limits and with that reducing the
risk of failure
• Next Generation Advanced Rod Pump Controls will
investigate the impact of proactive stroke planning

Sept. 15 - 16, 2015 2015 Sucker Rod Pumping Workshop 14

Copyright
Rights to this presentation are owned by the company(ies) and/or
author(s) listed on the title page. By submitting this presentation to
the Sucker Rod Pumping Workshop, they grant to the Workshop,
the Artificial Lift Research and Development Council (ALRDC), and
the Southwestern Petroleum Short Course (SWPSC), rights to:
– Display the presentation at the Workshop.
– Place it on the www.alrdc.com web site, with access to the site to be as
directed by the Workshop Steering Committee.
– Place it on a CD for distribution and/or sale as directed by the Workshop
Steering Committee.
Other use of this presentation is prohibited without the expressed
written permission of the author(s). The owner company(ies) and/or
author(s) may publish this material in other journals or magazines if
they refer to the Sucker Rod Pumping Workshop where it was first
presented.

Sept. 15 – 18, 2015 2015 Sucker Rod Pumping Workshop 15

Disclaimer
The Artificial Lift Research and Development Council and its officers and trustees, and the Sucker
Rod Pumping Workshop Steering Committee members, and their supporting organizations and
companies (here-in-after referred to as the Sponsoring Organizations), and the author(s) of this
Technical Presentation or Continuing Education Training Course and their company(ies), provide
this presentation and/or training material at the Sucker Rod Pumping Workshop "as is" without any
warranty of any kind, express or implied, as to the accuracy of the information or the products or
services referred to by any presenter (in so far as such warranties may be excluded under any
relevant law) and these members and their companies will not be liable for unlawful actions and any
losses or damage that may result from use of any presentation as a consequence of any
inaccuracies in, or any omission from, the information which therein may be contained.
The views, opinions, and conclusions expressed in these presentations and/or training materials
are those of the author and not necessarily those of the Sponsoring Organizations. The author is
solely responsible for the content of the materials.
The Sponsoring Organizations cannot and do not warrant the accuracy of these documents beyond
the source documents, although we do make every attempt to work from authoritative sources.
The Sponsoring Organizations provide these presentations and/or training materials as a service.
The Sponsoring Organizations make no representations or warranties, express or implied, with
respect to the presentations and/or training materials, or any part thereof, including any warrantees
of title, non-infringement of copyright or patent rights of others, merchantability, or fitness or
suitability for any purpose.

Sept. 15 - 18, 2015 2015 Sucker Rod Pumping Workshop 16