In situ strength profiles along two adjacent vertical drillholes from digitalization of hydraulic rotary drilling

Drilling speed and associated analyses from factual field data of hydraulic rotary drilling have not been fully utilized.The paper provides the reference and comparison for the utilization of drilling information from two adjacent vertical drillholes that were formed with the same hydraulic rotary drilling machine and bit.The analysis of original factual data is presented to obtain the constant drilling speed during net drilling process.According to the factual data along two adjacent drillholes,the digitalization results respectively include 461 linear zones and 210 linear zones with their constant drilling speeds and associated drilling parameters.The digitalization results can accurately present the spatial distributions and interface boundaries of drilled geomaterials and the results are consistent with the paralleled site loggings.The weighted average drilling speeds from 2.335 m/min to 0.044 m/min represent 13 types of drilled geomaterials from soils to hard rocks.The quantitative relation between drilling speed and strength property is provided.The digitalization results can statistically profile the basic strength quality grades of III to VI from soils to hard rocks.The thickness distributions of four strength quality grades are presented for each individual type of geomaterials along two drillholes.In total,50.2%of geomaterials from drillhole A are grade IV and 57.4%of geomaterials from drillhole B are grade III.The digitalization results can offer an accurate and cost-effective tool to quantitatively describe the spatial distribution and in situ strength profile of drilled geomaterials in the current drilling projects.

In situ digital testing method for quality assessment of soft soil improvement with polyurethane

This study purposes an in situ testing method on quality assessment of soil improvement.Factual drilling data includes the spatial distribution and in situ strength of untreated and treated soil along three different drillholes measured by on-site drilling monitoring method.These factual drilling data can characterize the degree of soil improvement by penetration injection with permeable polyurethane.Result from on-site drilling monitoring shows that the linear zones represent constant drilling speeds shown in the plot of drill bit advancement vs.net drilling time,which indicates the spatial distributions of soil profile.The soil profile at the study site is composed of four layers,which includes fill,untreated silty clay,treated silty clay,and mucky soil.The results of soil profile are verified by the parallel site loggings.The constant drilling speeds profile the coring-resistant strength of drilled soils.By comparing with the untreated silty clay,the constant drilling speeds of the treated silty clay have been decreased by 13.0-62.8%.Two drilling-speed-based indices of 61.2%and 65.6%are proposed to assess the decreased average drilling speed and the increased in situ strength of treated silty clay.Laboratory tests,i.e.uniaxial compressive strength(UCS)test,have been performed with core sample to investigate and characterize in situ strength by comparing that with drilling speeds.Results show that the average predicted strengths of treated silty clay are 2.4-6.9 times higher than the average measured strength of untreated silty clay.The UCS-based indices of 374.5%and 344.2%verified the quality assessment(QA)results by this new in situ method.This method provides a cost-effective tool for quality assessment of soil improvement by utilizing the digital drilling data.

Simulation of proppant transport at intersection of hydraulic fracture and natural fracture of wellbores using CFD-DEM

Proppants transport is an advanced technique to improve the hydraulic fracture phenomenon,in order to promote the versatility of gas/oil reservoirs.A numerical simulation of proppants transport at both hydraulic fracture(HF)and natural fracture(NF)intersection is performed to provide a better understand-ing of key factors which cause,or contribute to proppants transport in HF-NF intersection.Computational fluid dynamics(CFD)in association with discrete element method(DEM)is used to model the complex interactions between proppant particles,host fluid medium and fractured walls.The effect of non-spherical geometry of particles is considered in this model,using the multi-sphere method.All interaction forces between fluid flow and particles are considered in the computational model.Moreover,the inter-actions of particle-particle and particle-wall are taken into account via Hertz-Mindlin model.The results of the CFD-DEM simulations are compared to the experimental data.It is found that the CFD-DEM sim-ulation is capable of predicting proppant transport and deposition quality at intersections which are in agreement with experimental data.The results indicate that the HF-NF intersection type,fluid velocity and NF aperture affect the quality of blockage occurrence,presenting a new index,called the blockage coefficient which indicates the severity of the blockage.

Optimization of closing law of turbine guide vanes based on improved artificial ecosystem algorithm

Optimization of the closing law of the guide vane is the most economical and efficient way to reduce the risk incurred by pressure and speed excursions,thus guaranteeing the security of the hydro-turbine and the whole hydraulic network.In order to optimize the closing law of the guide vane of hydraulic turbine,an improved artificial ecosystem optimization algorithm was proposed(IAEO).The reverse learning was used to initialize the population,multi-strategy bound handing schemes was used to improve the algorithm convergence speed.Twenty-three mathematical benchmark functions were used to test the IAEO.Results showed an improvement in the IAEO algorithm convergence speed and a stronger exploration than other algorithms.IAEO algorithm was used to optimize the closing law of the guide vane of hydraulic turbine based on the hydraulic transient calculation.The results showed that the maximum pressure in the spiral casing inlet,the minimum pressure in the draft tube inlet and the maximum speed all meet the design requirements by use of the closing law of the guide vane optimized by IAEO.Compared with other algorithms such as particle swarm optimization(PSO),artificial ecosystem-based optimization(AEO)and grey wolf optimizer(GWO),the closing law of the guide vane optimized by IAEO algorithm was proved to be of great advantages in distribution of safety margin of each optimization goal.

Reversible adhesion surface coating proppant

Proppant is a key material in the hydraulic fracturing process,which has been widely used in unconventional oil exploitation.Normal proppants are easy to sedimentate and accumulate at the entrance of shale fracture,which will block the diversion of water,oil and gas.Coated proppants(CPs) are fabricated by coating resin on normal ceramic proppants through a simple method,which is dramatically enhanced the supporting properties in shale fracture and easy to scale up.Compared with uncoated ceramic proppants,the self-suspension ability of CPs is ~11 times higher,which are able to migrate and distribute farther and deeper inside the fracture.At the same time,Coating enhanced the 23.7% of adhesive force in maximum,which makes the CPs easier to adhere on the fracture surface to supportthe shale fracture.Besides,the liquid conductivity of CPs is 60% higher than uncoated ceramic proppants at13.6 MPa pressure.This method is expected to fabricated varieties of proppantsfor shale fracture supporting to improve the exploration of unconventional oil and gas resources.