Sampling and Analysis of drilled

cuttings
Rotary Drilling and Cuttings Generation

Rotary Drilling and the Generation of Well Cuttings

While the environment and purpose of drilling will control the type, design, and
capabilities of the rig used, the essential components used to "make hole" remain
the same. All rotary rigs require hoisting, rotating, and circulating systems in order
to locate and power the drilling tool on the bottom of the borehole.

 Rotary drilling is accomplished by the rotation of a drill bit at the end of a rigid drillstem.
The cooling of the drill bit and removal of rock cuttings is performed by the circulation of
drilling mud down through the hollow drillstem and back to the surface. It is important
for the present discussion to realize that although drilling fluid is commonly called
"mud," it has, in fact, a complex and carefully controlled composition. The drilling fluid is
required to:
 have sufficient density to control subsurface pressures and prevent borehole collapse;
 provide the carrying capacity to remove rock cuttings from the hole;
 form a gel when circulation is halted in order to suspend the cuttings in place;
 cool and lubricate the drill bit and drillstem;
 line the borehole wall with an impermeable clay filter cake to protect exposed
formations from contamination;
 release the rock cuttings and debris readily at surface;
 provide buoyancy to help support the weight of the drillstem when it is being lifted from
the hole;
 cause minimum pollution damage to the drilled formations and the surface environment;
 minimize corrosion of and abrasion damage to the drilling equipment caused by
downhole formation fluids.

In general, the drill bit is the most important component of the drillstem to the
geologist not simply because it is the means of penetrating and exposing fresh
formations, but because the process of penetration-the interaction between the drill
bit and rock-yields important geological information. An understanding of this
interaction allows the geologist to correlate the drill time, or rate-of-penetration
log, with the cuttings recovered at surface to construct a lithological section with
true boundaries and relationships.

Bit Type and Its Influence on Penetration

Drag Bit

The earliest type of rotary drill bit was the drag, or fishtail, bit ( Figure 1 , Drag bit
courtesy of Petroleum Extension Service, University of Texas, Austin ).

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 Figure 1

Its simple scraping action is efficient at high rotational speeds in soft and plastic
formations, and it is still sometimes used for this task, However, harder or more
abrasive rocks produce rapid blade wear, even when the blades are hardfaced with
tungsten carbide. Excessive rotary torque may subject such blades to "twist-off"
failures; they also have a tendency to deviate from the vertical by following
structural weaknesses, such as steeply dipping bedding planes or fault lines.

Tricone Bit

In 1934, the tricone rock bit was introduced; with subsequent refinements, it has
remained the standard drilling tool. The tricone bit ( Figure 2 , A soft formation
tricone bit), with its intermeshing rotating teeth, has a self-cleaning action that is
an important contribution to drilling efficiency.

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 Figure 2

The cutting process of the tricone bit is the result of the crushing action of the teeth
as they roll across the formation. Beyond a certain threshold weight per inch of bit
diameter required to initiate rock failure, increasing the weight on bit will produce
increased rate of penetration. However, a limiting weight on bit exists, beyond
which further increase cannot induce increased crushing and may result in the bit
becoming embedded and clogged in compacted debris.

The rate of penetration will also increase with increasing rotary speed up to a
limiting maximum beyond which the buildup of crushed debris will again prevent
further penetration. Additionally, both the use of excessive weight on the bit or of
excessive rotary speed will result in accelerated wear and decreased bit life.

The key to optimum bit performance is to use suitable drilling fluid viscosity and
flow rate so that cuttings can be removed effectively as they are created. Without
this, increasing either the weight on the bit or the rotary speed will not only be
ineffective in increasing rate of penetration, but will shorten the lifetime of and
therefore the total footage drilled by the bit.

In order to maximize bit life, the teeth on bits designed for hard formations are
short, broad, and closely spaced. This gives maximum tooth impact per bit
revolution and reduces tooth wear and breakage. With this type of bit, rate of
penetration will increase as rock strength decreases. In general, this indicates
increasing porosity and decreasing cementation and rock cohesion. However, where
rock matrix strength decreases, e.g., in clays, the soft material will clog the short,
closely spaced teeth and prevent penetration. Thus in very soft formations, the
hard formation bit will drill slowest!

By contrast, the teeth of soft formation bits are more widely spaced and are longer
and more slender to allow better fluid circulation and removal of soft debris. Each
tooth penetrates more deeply into the formation with a gouging action that
removes a greater volume of formation per impact. Such bits will drill very quickly
in soft lithologies, but the long teeth are easily broken when encountering a hard

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rock matrix or strong cementation. In this case, rates of penetration will decrease
rapidly and the bit will soon be useless.

Jet Bit

The introduction of the jet bit ( Figure 3 , Drilling fluid path in the conventional and
jet tricone bit courtesy of Petroleum Extension Service, University of Texas,
Austin ) greatly increased drilling efficiency and rate of penetration.

Figure 3

Instead of flowing freely between the cones, drilling fluid is forced through three
narrow jet ports in the face of the bit. This helps penetration by improving the
removal of cuttings and soft debris from the bottom of the hole while
simultaneously cleaning the face of the bit. In very soft formations, jetting alone
may result in penetration, even without the bit touching the bottom of the hole,

Tungsten carbide inserts for tricone bits provide little or no improvement over the
performance of an equivalent steel tooth bit. They do, however, extend bit life
substantially.

Observing the performance of a tricone rock bit can be useful to the geologist. The
bit will provide small but identifiable cuttings at the shale shaker. Its efficiency
naturally depends upon the formation strength and porosity; thus its rate-of-
penetration log will show sharp changes at lithological boundaries and relatively

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uniform, characteristic rates of penetration for each lithological type. A note of
caution must be observed, however. While a bit will show increasing rate of
penetration with decreasing rock strength (increasing porosity) for the range of
formations it is designed to drill, outside of that range its performance may be
anomalous. For example, a short-toothed bit designed for hard formations will
become clogged with debris when drilling a soft formation and cease to drill.

Diamond Bit

The cutting action of the diamond bit consists of a continuous crushing and
scraping process as the diamonds move over the surface of the bottom of the hole.
Because the diamonds are small ( Figure 4 , Diamond drill bit courtesy of NL
Hycalog ), they do not individually penetrate very deep; therefore, only sufficient
weight on bit to cause compressive failure of the rock is required.

Figure 4

Extra weight cannot give further penetration or cuttings removal. Because of their
construction, diamond bits are vulnerable to damage caused by jolts or metal
debris. On the other hand, rate of penetration is a direct function of rotation, and
this relationship holds up to very high rotary speeds. It is common to operate
diamond bits in combination with down hole motors to give maximum rates of
penetration. Such rates do not commonly exceed those possible with tricone bits,
but the strength and simplicity of the cutting structure allows very long bit life.

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