SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR ESTIMATING REMAINING USEFUL LIFE OF A DOWNHOLE TOOL

• US 20120089336A1
• Filed: 07/12/2011
• Published: 04/12/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 07/14/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Baker Hughes Incorporated (Baker Hughes Company)
• Original Assignee: Baker Hughes Incorporated (Baker Hughes Company)
• Inventors: Garvey, Dustin R., Baumann, Joerg, Lehr, Joerg, Hummes, Olof, John, Martin
• Granted Patent: US 8,825,414 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 702/9
• CPC Class Codes: E21B 47/00 Survey of boreholes or wells monitoring pressure or flow of drilling fluid E21B21/08

Abstract

A system for determining the amount of life consumed for a tool includes at least one sensor associated with the tool for generating observation data, a memory in operable communication with the at least one sensor, the memory including a database for storing the observation data generated by the sensor, and a processor in operable communication with the memory. The processor includes a model generator that generates a current model for a current run of the tool. The current model includes parameters of a functional approximation of the observation data. The processor also includes a classifier that classifies the current model and a current run estimator that determine the amount of life consumed based on the classification of the current model and a time of use associated with the current run.

Claims

1. A system for determining the amount of life consumed for a tool, the system comprising:

at least one sensor associated with the tool for generating observation data;

a memory in operable communication with the at least one sensor, the memory including a database for storing the observation data generated by the sensor; and

a processor in operable communication with the memory, the processor including;

a model generator that generates a current model for a current run of the tool, the current model including parameters of a functional approximation of the observation data;

a classifier that classifies the current model;

a current run estimator that determines the amount of life consumed based on the classification of the current model and a time of use associated with the current run.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the observation data includes an amount of time the tool was exposed to a particular condition.

3. The system of claim 2, herein the particular condition is experienced in a borehole penetrating the earth.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the functional approximation of the observation data is a function that defines a degradation curve of the current run and is based on the parameters.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein the current model includes an amount time the tool was operated.

6. The system of claim 1, further comprising:

a total lifetime calculator that adds the amount of life consumed by the current run to a running total of life consumed by prior runs of the tool.

7. The system of claim 6, further comprising:

a usage store that stores the running total of life consumed.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the tool is a drilling tool.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the sensor is part of a bottom hole assembly.

10. A method of estimating the remaining life of a tool used in forming a borehole penetrating the earth, the method comprising:

forming functional approximations of runs of multiple example tools that include a failure time;

storing the parameters of the functional approximations for each example tool and the failure times as a vector of models;

forming current parameters of a functional approximation of a current run of the tool;

storing the current parameters and a time of use for the current run;

comparing the current parameters to the parameters to select the parameters that most closely match the current parameters; and

comparing the failure time associated with the selected parameters to the time of use of the current run to determine the amount of life used by the current run.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein current run includes multiple sections and each section includes a separate function approximation and wherein the current parameters are stored as a vector of current parameters that correspond to each section and each have an associated time of use.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the amount of life used is a sum of the amount of life used in each section.