ÇAĞRILI KONUŞMALAR / KEYNOTES Invited Speeches ... - TPJD

Determination of Cuttings Transport Properties of Aerated Drilling Fluids
A. Murat Özbayoğlu 1 , Reza Ettehadi Osgouei 2 , M. Evren Özbayoğlu 3 , Ertan Yüksel 1
1 TOBB Economy and Technology University, Department of Computer Engineering, Ankara
2 METU, Department of Petroleum and Natural Gas Engineering, Ankara
3 The University of Tulsa, Department of Petroleum Engineering, USA
Two-phase (water-gas or water-cuttings) and three-phase (water-gas-cuttings) flow is studied
in eccentric annular pipes. An annular pipe configuration with rotating inner pipe at different
controllable speeds under different inclination angles is used. Experiments using different
inclinations are implemented; flow videos, pressure drop values are collected. Liquid, gas flow
rate, pipe inclination angles, cuttings penetration rate, inner pipe rotation speed are controllable
parameters. Different flow patterns, liquid holdup, pressure drop, cuttings concentration and
cuttings speed values are measured using different input values. Appropriate empiric and
mechanistic models are developed. Also, a novel approach different than most studies in the
literature is used by obtaining all mentioned flow properties except pressure drop by using
flow images through implementing image processing techniques. There is a lack of research in
literature for inclined annular pipe experiments for flow patterns identification, liquid holdup
estimation, cuttings concentration estimation, cuttings transport characteristics using image
processing models. The experimental data is tested using the models developed in this study,
provided in literature, and some artificial intelligence techniques. Developed models had good
overall performances.
Keywords: Drilling, cuttings transport, inclined drilling, horizontal drilling, gasified liquids,
multiphase, underbalanced drilling, drilling fluids, flow patterns, image processing
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