Numerical stress analysis for the multi-casing structure inside a wellbore in the formation using the boundary element method

A multi-casing structure in drilling engineering can be considered as an inhomogeneous body consisting of many different materials. The mechanical behavior of the inhomogeneous body in an infinite domain is very com- plicated. In this paper, a detailed expression about the fictitious stress method of the boundary element method （BEM） is demonstrated for the inhomogeneous body. Then the fictitious stress method is deployed to investigate the stresses for the multi-casing structure under non-uniform loading conditions and an irregular wellbore. Three examples of the multi-casing structure in the borehole imply the high effectiveness of BEM for complex geometries related to the borehole in an infinite formation. The effects of casing eccentricity and the interfacial gap on the stress field are discussed. The eccentric casing takes the potential yield when the eccentric orientation is along the direction of Sh. Under different eccentric orientations, the yon Mises stress in the casing increases with increasing degree of eccentricity. The radial stress in the multi-casing structure is always continuous along the radius, but the circumferential stress is discontinuous at the interface. The radial stress decreases and the circumferential stress increases with the increasing of the interfacial gap between the adjacent materials.

Method of suspender line trajectory design

Based on the mechanical model of an elastic rod,a new trajectory design method was established.The advantages of the suspender line trajectory in reducing drag and torsion were compared,and the main controlling factors of drag and torque and their influence rules were analyzed.Research shows that the suspender line trajectory reduces drag and torque more effectively than the conventional trajectory in a certain parameter interval and has more controllable parameters than that of the catenary trajectory.The main factors affecting the drag reduction and torque reduction of the suspender line trajectory include the friction coefficient,vertical distance,horizontal distance,and deviation angle at the initial point in the suspended section.The larger the friction coefficient and deviation angle,the less the drag reduction and torque reduction.The suspender line trajectory has the best drag reduction effect when the horizontal and vertical distances are more than 3000 m and the ratio is close to 1.5.The drag in sliding drilling can be reduced up to 60%,and the torque in rotary drilling can be reduced by a maximum of 40%.Therefore,the trajectory design of the suspender line has unique application prospects in deep extended-reach wells.

Influence of lunar regolith compressibility on sampling performance of thick wall spiral drills

A 2 m class robotic drill was sent to the Moon and successfully collected and returned regolith samples in late 2020 by China.It was a typical thick wall spiral drill(TWSD)with a hollow auger containing a complex coring system to retain subsurface regolith samples.Before the robotic drill was launched,a series of laboratory tests were carried out to investigate and predict the possible drilling loads it may encounter in the lunar environment.This work presents how the sampling performance of the TWSD is affected by the regolith compressibility.Experiments and analysis during the drilling and sampling process in a simulated lunar regolith environment were conducted.The compressibility of a typical lunar regolith simulant(LRS)was measured through unidirectional compression tests to study the relationship between its inner regolith stress and bulk density.A theoretical model was established to elucidate the cutting discharge behavior by auger flights based on the aforementioned relationship.Experiments were conducted with the LRS,and the results show that the sampling performance is greatly affected by the flux of the drilled cuttings into the spiral flight channels.This work helped in scheduling reasonable drilling parameters to promote the sampling performance of the robotic drill in the Chinese Chang’E 5 mission.

RECENT PROGRESS IN RESIDUAL STRESS MEASUREMENT TECHNIQUES

Residual stress measurement is of critical significance to in-service security and the reliability of engineering components, and has been an active area of scientific interest. This paper offers a review o[ several prominent mechanical release methods for residual stress measurement and recent developments, focusing on the hole-drilling method combined with advanced optical sensing. Some promising trends for mechanical release methods are also analyzed.