Tool and process for stimulating a subterranean formation

• US 4,798,244 A
• Filed: 07/16/1987
• Issued: 01/17/1989
• Est. Priority Date: 07/16/1987
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Stephen A. Trost
• Original Assignee: Stephen A. Trost
• Inventors: Trost, Stephen A.
• Primary Examiner(s): Suchfield, George A.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Melius, Terry L.
• Application Number:
  US07/074,223
• Time in Patent Office: 551 Days
• Field of Search: 166/63, 166/250, 166/259, 166/262, 166/299, 166/302, 166/305.1, 166/303, 166/308, 299/13, 102/313, 102/317
• US Class Current: 166/250.01
• CPC Class Codes: E21B 43/263 using explosives
• CPC Class Codes: E21B 49/006 Measuring wall stresses in the borehole
• CPC Class Codes: E21B 49/008 by injection test; by analysing pressure variations in an injection or production test, e.g. for estimating the skin factor measuring pressure E21B47/06
• CPC Class Codes: F42B 3/02 adapted to be united into assemblies
• CPC Class Codes: F42B 3/04 for producing gas under pressure generators of inflation fluid especially adapted for vehicle air bags B60R21/26

Abstract

A high energy gas fracturing tool for radially fracturing a rock formation in a well bore consisting of a cylindrical canister that is holed to pass gas and is for housing a stack of propellant modules that are selected to provide a desired burn rate when ignited. Each propellant module mating face is angled from the horizontal between forty-five (45) to seventy-five (75) degrees, and the modules are bonded together with an epoxy resin wherein propellant or explosive particles are mixed, the resin to exhibit burn characteristics similar to those of the propellant stack. The tool, additional to the propellant containing canister, an ignitor rod and explosive device for igniting the propellant stack, mounts a bull head end over a lower end and a reverse thruster assembly that is connected to the canister upper end. The reverse thruster assembly includes a housing with nozzles formed therein that are angled from the vertical to pass gas on propellant deflagration, creating thereby a force against the tool lifting during propellant burning. Above the reverse thruster assembly is arranged a pressure pulse monitor that is battery powered to operate a pressure transducer for sensing pressure pulses at the tool. The monitor to turn on when a sufficient strength of pressure pulse is received, to store pressure pulses sensed over time, with the stored pressure data retrieved when the tool is removed from the well bore. The recorded pressure pulse data is used for determining the dynamic window of the formation, whereat, at a certain pressure over time the formation will be optimally radially fractured. The tool is suspended from the surface on a wire line and includes a collar locator for locating it at a certain level within the well bore.

Claims

1. A tool for stimulating a subterranean formation comprising, an elongate propellant stack constructed from propellant material modules that are formed from a combination of propellant materials such that the propellant module combination will have a desired burn rate, propellant modules of a center portion to have identical convex and concave surfaces as the respective top and bottom faces thereof with end propellant modules to form the propellant stack ends each having an end face to fit within or over one of said center portion propellant modules convex or concave faces;

adhesive means containing grains of a propellant or explosive mixed therein to provide a burn rate that is approximately that of the propellant stack for bonding said selected propellant modules together, said adhesive means to burn with the propellant stack;

means for supporting and lowering said propellant stack into a well bore to a subterranean formation to be stimulated; and

means for igniting said propellant stack.

2. A tool as recited in claim 1, wherein the propellant module stack is cylindrical and said propellant modules opposite top and bottom convex and concave shapes are identical right circular cones, the hypotenuse side of which cone is at an angle of between forty-five degrees (45°

) to seventy-five degrees (75°

) to the horizontal.

3. A tool as recited in claim 1, wherein the adhesive means is an epoxy resin.

4. A tool as recited in claim 1, wherein the top end propellant module is an ignitor propellant module having the convex undersurface and a flat top surface.

5. A tool as recited in claim 4, wherein the means for supporting and lowering the propellant module stack is a hanger means consisting of a "Y" hanger the single leg end thereof for securing to the ignitor propellant module, and the two legs thereof are parallel and are each holed to receive a hanger pin fitted therethrough, and wherein the means for supporting and lowering said propellant module stack into a well bore is a wire line that includes an end coupling means for receiving said hanger pin fitted therethrough.

6. A tool as recited in claim 1, wherein the means for igniting said propellant stack is, a center longitudinal cavity formed in the propellant stack wherein is fitted an ignitor rod that contains a propellant ignitor material;

blasting cap means located adjacent to said ignitor rod; and

means for remotely exploding said blasting cap means to ignite said ignitor rod.

7. A tool as recited in claim 6, wherein the means for lowering said propellant stack in a well bore and for remotely igniting said blasting cap means is a wire line that supports said tool and is connected to pass an electrical current from the surface to said blasting cap means.

8. A tool as recited in claim 1, further including a cylindrical canister for containing the propellant stack, which canister is holed therearound over it'"'"'s length for passing gas under pressure as is generated in propellant deflagration.

9. A tool as recited in claim 8, wherein the holes formed in the canister from the inside canister surface are sloped outwardly.

10. A tool as recited in claim 8, further including a bull nose means for fitting over the end of the canister opposite to the wire line connection, and is formed of a strong material to withstand damage as the tool is lowered into the well bore.

11. A propellant stack constructed from individual propellant modules each formed to have a specific burn rate, the combining of which propellant modules in a single stack to provide a propellent having a certain burn rate comprising, propellant modules each formed from a combination of propellant materials to have a certain burn rate, which propellant modules for a center portion of said stack are identically cylindrically shaped and each has, respectively, a regular convex top surface to fit exactly within an opposite identical regular concave undersurface, the angle of which regular convex and concave surfaces is between forty-five degrees (45) and seventy-five degrees (75) to the horizontal;

top and bottom end propellant modules formed from the same combinaton of propellant material as said center portion propellant modules each having an end surface to exactly fit within an opposite regular concave or convex surface of a propellant module of said center portion; and

binding means for joining together the modules contacting regular convex and concave surfaces, which binding means is a resin containing propellant or explosive particles to have a burn rate that is like that of the propellant stack.

12. A propellant stack as recited in claim 11, wherein the convex and concave opposite faces of each propellant module are right identical circular cones.

13. A propellant stack as recited in claim 12, wherein the hypotenuse side of the right circular cones is at a sixty degree (60°

) angle to the horizontal.

14. A propellant stack as recited in claim 11, wherein the propellant modules each include a center longitudinal opening, which openings, when the propellant modules are stacked together, align into a center longitudinal opening;

and ignitor means for installation in said center longitudinal opening to ignite said propellant stack to burn radially outwardly from said center longitudinal opening.

15. A propellant stack as recited in claim 11, wherein the bonding means is an epoxy resin wherein propellant or explosive particles have been mixed.

16. A tool for stimulating a subterranean formation comprising, a cylindrical canister that is radially holed therearound over its length and is to contain a propellant stack fitted therein that is formed from propellant modules selected to provide a certain burning rate when ignited, which propellant modules are bonded together with an adhesive material to have a burn rate that is approximately that of the propellant stack;

means for igniting said propellant stack at its longitudinal center to burn radially therefrom;

a pulse monitor assembly for arrangement with said cylindrical canister that includes a pressure pulse sensor means for sensing pressure pulses as occur during propellant deflagration that includes means for recording in memory those pulses over time;

wire line means for suspending said tool from the ground surface that includes means for passing an electrical current from the surface to ignite said propellant stack; and

means for interrogating said pulse monitor assembly memory to retrieve and store the pressure date generated and recorded during propellant deflagration.

17. A tool as recited in claim 16, further including a reverse thruster assembly for coupling to said cylindrical casing end above said propellant stack and below said pressure pulse monitor assembly, said reverse thruster assembly having equidistantly spaced ports formed therethrough that are identically angled from the vertical and are arranged to receive and pass gas under pressure therethrough during deflagration of the propellant stack.

18. A tool as recited in claim 17, wherein the reverse thruster assembly ports are formed at approximately fifteen degrees (15°

) from the vertical.

19. A tool as recited in claim 16, further including a collar locator means for sensing well bore casing collars for and passing that information to the surface over said wire line means for determining tool positioning within the well bore.

20. A tool as recited in claim 16, further including bull nose means to close over the lower cylindrical end, which bull nose means is formed from a material to withstand wear, said bull nose means for leading the tool as it is lowered into the well bore, with said bull nose means sloped at approximately a thirty degree (30 ) angle from the horizontal to have a flat conical shaped end surface.

21. A tool as recited in claim 16, wherein the propellant stack is formed by stacking a number of propellant modules, one on another, into a center portion with end propellant modules fitted to said center portion ends completing the propellant stack which center portion propellant modules are each flat cylinders having identical convex and concave opposite upper and lower faces, respectively, to nest one on the other forming the propellant stack with the end propellant modules to fit over the opposite propellant stack ends, with said propellant modules selected to have a desired burn rate.

22. A tool as recited in claim 21, wherein the module convex and concave faces respectively, are right circular cones having a hypotenuse side that is between forty-five degrees (45°

) to seventy-five degrees (75°

) to the horizontal.

23. A tool as recited in claim 22, wherein the hypotenuse side is at sixty degrees (60°

) to the horizontal.

24. A tool as recited in claim 16, wherein the bonding material is an epoxy resin wherein has been mixed propellant or explosive particles to produce a desired burn rate.

25. A tool as recited in claim 16, wherein the individual propellant modules forming the center portion are center holed such that when formed into a stack, the center holes align to form a longitudinal center opening;

the means for igniting said propellant stack along its longitudinal center opening is an ignitor rod that contains a propellant ignitor material and is fitted into the propellant stack longitudinal center opening, which ignitor rod is located adjcent to a blasting cap means; and

blasting cap means that, upon receipt of an electrical signal from the surface, will explode, igniting the propellant ignitor material in said ignitor rod.

26. A tool as recited in claim 16, wherein the pressure pulse sensor means of the pulse monitor assembly is a pressure transducer having a sensor portion that is arranged to sense pressure pulses as are developed in propellant deflagration, said pressure pulses being amplified and converted to digital by components of said pulse monitor assembly for storage in the memory of said pulse monitor assembly.

27. A tool as recited in claim 26, further including a battery that is included with the pulse monitor assembly as an internal power supply;

sensitivity triggers means for initiating pressure data recording upon sensing of a certain intensity of pressure pulse; and

data full sense means for sensing when the memory is full and turning off said pulse monitor assembly.

28. A tool as recited in claim 16, wherein the means for interrogating said pulse monitor assembly memory is a personal computer that connects to an I/O connector of said pulse monitor assembly of the retrieved tool.

29. A process for stimulating a subterranean formation utilizing a high energy gas fracturing tool to optimally radially fracture the formation where the tool propellant charge is formed from individual propellant modules each having a known burn rate comprising the steps of, from an analysis of the known characteristics of the subterranean formation, selecting and combining individual propellant modules, each having a known burn rate, into a propellant stack, the propellant stack to have a certain burn rate such that propellant deflagration will produce gas and water at a pressure and velocity to be within a dynamic window of the formation to optimally radially fracture that formation;

positioning the propellant stack to a pre-determined location within the subterranean formation; and

igniting the propellant stack, the deflagrating propellant to appropriately fracture the subterranean formation alongside the propellant stack.

30. A process as recited in claim 29, further including bonding the propellant module mating surfaces together with an adhesive that has a burn rate that is approximately that of the propellant stack;

providing an igniting means arranged in a center longituddinal cavity of the propellant stack; and

igniting the igniting means to uniformly burn radially from that center longitudinal cavity outwardly.

31. A process as recited in claim 29, further including stabilizing the tool within a well bore during propellant deflagration utilizing a ported assembly that is connected to a tool body that contains the propellant stack, the ports of which ported assembly are equidistantly spaced and are angled uniformly from a vertical center axis to receive and pass gas under pressure therethrough during propellant deflagration, providing an opposite force to a lifting force as may be generating on said tool by the propellant deflagration.

32. A process as recited in claim 29 further including sensing and recording at the tool with a pulse monitor assembly pressure pulses as occur during propellant deflagration;

and interrogating that pulse monitor assembly upon tool retrieval to obtain the pressure pulse data as occurred over time during propellant deflagration.

33. A process as recited in claim 32, further including utilizing the recorded pressure pulse data for calculating the formation dynamic window and determining whether the formation was optimally radially fractured.

34. A process as recited in claim 33, further including, where it is determined the formation was not optimally fractured from an analysis of the pressure pulse data, refracturing the particular formation location by selecting and combining certain propellant modules that are fitted together in a propellant stack, the propellant stack to have a burn rate that will be within the formation dynamic window;

loading that propellant stack in a tool canister for positioning at a depth in the well bore so as to optimally radially fracture that formation; and

igniting that propellant stack.

35. A process as recited in claim 33, further including utilizing the recorded pressure pulse data for predicting the dynamic window of other well bores in a formation to construct a propellant stack from select propellant modules for use in a tool to optimally radially fracture such other well bore.