Directional Drilling

Design
→ Survey Calculations
 Survey Calculations
Survey calculations are used to predict the position
of the wellbore relative to the surface location

• Terminology used in this section

– MD = Measured depth – Length of the wellbore measured by
the drill string
– TVD = True vertical depth – Vertical component of the
measured depth
– North = North component of the horizontal departure
 Survey Calculations
– East = East component of the horizontal displacement
– = Delta meaning the difference in
– Subscript 1 = The upper survey of two survey points
– Subscript 2 = The lower survey of the lower survey point
– I = Inclination from vertical
 Survey Calculations

– A = Azimuth of the survey (0 to 360 degrees)

– r = Radius of curvature
– VS = Vertical section
– DLS = Dogleg severity
– DEP = The departure in the horizontal plane
 Survey Calculations
• Common terminology for RKB
a directional profile
KOP

Build Section
EOB

TVD, ft
Tangent or Hold

Drop
Section

Departure, ft
 Survey Calculations
• Most common survey methods
– Tangential
– Balanced Tangential
– Average Angle
– Radius of Curvature
– Minimum Curvature
 Survey Calculations
• Tangential method uses only the lower survey point and
is the least accurate survey method
 Survey Calculations
• The tangential method assumes the wellbore course
is a straight line tangent to the lower inclination or
azimuth
• Tangential method equations

TVD  MD  Cos I2

North  MD  Sin I2  Cos A2
East  MD  Sin I2  Sin A2
 Survey Calculations
• The balanced tangential survey method assumes the
wellbore course is two straight lines with half the
wellbore course tangent to the upper survey point and
the other half to the lower survey point
 Survey Calculations
• The balance tangential is an accurate survey method
but seldom used
• Balanced tangential equations

MD
TVD  Cos I1  Cos I 2 
2
MD
North 
2
 
Sin I1  Cos A1   Sin I2  Cos A2  
MD
East 
2
  
Sin I1  Sin A1    Sin I 2  Sin A2 
 Survey Calculations
• The average angle method assumes the wellbore
course is a straight line tangent to the average angle
 Survey Calculations
• The average angle method is accurate as long as the
surveys are not too far apart and there is no large
change in azimuth at low angles
• Average angle equations

 I  I2 
TVD  MD  Cos 1 
 2 
 I  I2   A1  A2 
North  MD  Sin 1   Cos  
 2   2 
 I  I2   A1  A2 
East  MD  Sin 1   Sin 
 2   2 
 Survey Calculations
• Radius of curvature method assumes that the wellbore
course is an arc of a circle
• Used for planning but not for final survey
 Survey Calculations
• Radius of curvature has problems when inclinations
and azimuths are equal because the radius of
curvature in infinite
• Radius of curvature also has problems when the well
walks past north
 Survey Calculations
• Radius of curvature equations

TVD 
180MD Sin I 2  Sin I1 
 I 2  I 1 

North 
180 MDCos I1  Cos I 2 Sin A2  Sin A1 
2

 2 I 2  I1  A2  A1 
1802 MD Cos I 1  Cos I 2 Cos A1  Cos A2 
East 
 2 I 2  I 1  A2  A1 
180 MDCosI1  CosI2 
DEP 
  I 2  I1
I 2  I1 r
180
MD 
Br   DLS 
 Survey Calculations
• Minimum Curvature method is the balanced
tangential method but the straight lines are smoothed
into an arc by a correction factor
 Survey Calculations
• Minimum curvature is suitable for a computer or
programmable calculator
• The inclinations and azimuths must be changed to
radians before entering them in the equations
• It is considered the most accurate survey method
 Survey Methods
• Minimum curvature equations
 MD 
TVD    Cos I1  Cos I2  FC
 2 
 MD 
North  
 2 
 
  Sin I2  Cos A2    Sin I1  Cos A1  FC

 MD 
East  
 2 
 
  Sin I2  Sin A2    Sin I1  Sin A1  FC

D1  CosI 2  I1   SinI 2  SinI1  1  Cos A2  A1 

 1 
D 2  Tan 1  2   1
 D1 
2  D2 
FC   Tan 
D 2
• Note: inclination 2 and azimuth must be entered in radians
 Survey Calculations
• Closure distance and direction is the North and East coordinate expressed as
polar coordinates rather than rectangular coordinates
• Closure distance is a2 + b2 = c2
 Survey Calculations
• Closure distance and direction equations

Closure Distance   North   East 

2 2

1East 
Closure Direction  Tan  
 North 
 Survey Calculations

• Vertical section is the horizontal length of a projection of

the borehole into a specific vertical plane and scaled with
the vertical depth
 Survey Calculations
• Vertical section equations
VS  Cos Azvs  Azcl   Closure Distance
Survey Calculations
Survey Calculations
 Survey Calculations
• Dogleg severity is a measure of the amount of change in the inclination and/or
azimuth of a borehole, usually expressed in degrees per 100 feet or degrees
per 30 meters course length
 Survey Calculations
• If I1 = 2o, I2 = 4o and ΔMD = 100’, then the dogleg
severity would be

DLS 
4  2
 20 / 100'
• If I1 = 2o,100
I2 = 4o and ΔMD = 50’, then the dogleg
severity would be

DLS 
4  2 2
x  40 / 100'
50 2
 Survey Calculations
• If I1 = 10o, I2 = 10o, A1 = 10o, A2 = 20o and ΔMD =
100’, what would the dogleg severity be?
• 1.74o/100’
 Survey Calculations

Curvature at 90 degrees

Curvature at 10 degrees
 Survey Calculations

• For a change in azimuth, the dogleg severity is a

function of the sine of the inclination (ΔA x Sin I)
 Survey Calculations
• Dogleg severity equations (English Units)

 100  1
DLS   Cos Sin I 1  Sin I 2 Sin A1  Sin A2   Cos A1  Cos A2   Cos I 1  Cos I 2 
 MD 

2100 1
2 2
  A2  A1    I 2  I1 
DLS  Sin SinI1 SinI 2 Sin   Sin 
MD   2    2 
• In the metric system, replace the 100 with 30
 Survey Calculations
• To make it a little easier to understand, the dogleg severity
is approximately equal to the vectorial sum of the change in
inclination and the change in azimuth
• The equation does not work well at low inclinations

2
  I 2  I1  
DLS 
100
I 2  I1 
2
 sin  A2  A1 
MD   2  
 Survey Calculations
DLS

I 2  I1  a b  c
2 2 2
2
  I  I1  
DLS 
100
I 2  I1 
2
 sin 2  A2  A1 
MD   2  

I I 
sin 2 1  A2  A1 
 2 

The dogleg severity can be estimated by

the above means
 Survey Calculations
• Class Problem
– Calculate the dogleg severity for the following
surveys

MD1 = 100’ MD2 = 200’

I1 = 1o I2 = 1o

A1 = 0o A2 = 180o
 Survey Calculations
• DLS equations

 100 
Cos Sin I 1  Sin I 2 Sin A1  Sin A2   Cos A1  Cos A2   Cos I 1  Cos I 2 
1
DLS  
 MD 

 100 
Cos Sin1 Sin1Sin0  Sin180  Cos0  Cos180  Cos1 Cos1
1
DLS  
 200  100 

DLS  2.000 / 100'

2100 Sin1 SinI SinI Sin A2  A1 

2 2
  I  I 
DLS  2      Sin 2 1 
MD
1
  2    2 

2100
2 2

DLS  Sin1 Sin1Sin1Sin 180  0   Sin 1  1 

200  100   2    2 

DLS  2.000 / 100'

 Survey Calculations
• Problems caused by doglegs
– Torque and drag
– Keyseats and casing wear
– Fatigue
 Survey Calculations
• Torque and drag are caused by the
friction between the drill string and
the wall of the hole
• Higher tension and doglegs result in
higher torque and drag
Survey Calculations

• Keyseats and casing wear

are caused by the drill
string being rotated in a
dogleg with higher tension
 Survey Calculations
• Fatigue is caused by rotating the drill
string in a bend
• The cyclic stresses cause fatigue

• As the amount of tension increases

in a dogleg, the amount of bending
that can be tolerated before
causing fatigue decreases