PDC drill bit with cutter design optimized with dynamic centerline analysis having an angular separation in imbalance forces of 180 degrees for maximum time

• US 7,831,419 B2
• Filed: 01/24/2005
• Issued: 11/09/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 01/24/2005
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Smith International Incorporated (SLB)
• Original Assignee: Smith International Incorporated (SLB)
• Inventors: Durairajan, Bala, Cariveau, Peter Thomas, Huang, Sujian
• Primary Examiner(s): Sparks; Donald
• Assistant Examiner(s): Rifkin; Ben M
• Application Number:
  US11/041,911
• Publication Number:
  US 20060167669A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,115 Days
• Field of Search: 703/7, 175/57, 175/336
• US Class Current: 703/7
• CPC Class Codes: E21B 10/00 Drill bits specially adapted for deflecting the direction of boring E21B7/064; with means for collecting substances E21B27/00

Abstract

A method for designing a fixed cutter drill bit, includes simulating the fixed cutter drill bit drilling in an earth formation, determining radial and circumferential components of imbalance forces on the drill bit and a Beta angle between the radial and circumferential components of the imbalance forces during a period of simulated drilling, and adjusting a value of at least one design parameter for the fixed cutter drill bit at least based upon the Beta angle. To facilitate drill bit design, the Beta angel can be displayed to a drill bit designer. To improve performance, the method can include repeating the simulating, determining, and adjusting to change a simulated performance of the fixed cutter drill bit. A drill bit may be made according to the design resulting from the method.

Claims

1. A computer implemented method for designing a fixed cutter drill bit, comprising:

dynamically modeling the fixed cutter drill bit during simulated drilling in an earth formation for a period of time;

determining radial and circumferential components of imbalance forces on the drill bit and a Beta angle between the radial and circumferential components of the imbalance force during the period of dynamically simulated drilling;

adjusting a value of at least one design parameter for the fixed cutter drill bit based upon at least the Beta angle, wherein the adjusting the value of at least one design parameter comprises adjusting the at least one parameter to increase the proportion of time the Beta angle is at or near 180 degrees by about 3% or more of the simulated drilling time; and

repeating the simulating, determining, and adjusting to change a simulated performance of the fixed cutter drill bit.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the repeating comprises:

repeating the steps of simulating, determining, and adjusting until pre-selected criteria for a proportion of time the Beta angle is at or near 180 degrees is obtained.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the drill bit design parameters comprise at least one of number of cutters, bit cutting profile, position of cutters on drill bit blades, bit axis offset of the cutter, bit diameter, cutter radius on bit, cutter vertical height on bit, cutter inclination angle on bit, cutter body shape, cutter size, cutter height, cutter diameter, cutter orientation, cutter back rake angle, cutter side rake angle, working surface shape, working surface orientation, bevel size, bevel shape, bevel orientation, cutter hardness, PDC table thickness, and cutter wear model.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein simulating further comprises:

modeling of the drill bit dynamically drilling in the formation without constraining a centerline of the drill bit to be coaxial with a centerline of a bore hole.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein simulating further comprises:

modeling of the drill bit dynamically drilling in the formation while constraining the dynamic movement of the centerline of the drill bit based upon drill string parameters.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the simulating comprises:

solving for a dynamic response of the drill bit to an incremental rotation using a mechanics analysis model, and

repeating said solving for a select number of successive incremental rotations.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the simulating comprises determining a wear pattern on a plurality of cutters on the fixed cutter drill bit over the simulated drilling time based upon a constrained centerline model and using the determined wear pattern in a dynamic centerline model for determining the total imbalance forces, circumferential and the radial components of total imbalance forces, and the Beta angle during the simulated drilling time.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

adjusting a value of at least one design parameter to decrease a total imbalance force over the simulated period of drilling time.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

displaying at least the Beta angle between the radial and circumferential components of the total imbalance force for the period of simulated drilling time; and

the adjusting a value of at least one design parameter for the fixed cutter drill bit comprises adjusting based upon the display of the Beta angle.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the displaying comprises graphically displaying at least the Beta angle.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the displaying comprises graphically displaying a historical plot of at least the Beta angle over the simulated period of drilling time for a plurality of increments of simulated rotation.

12. The method of claim 10, further comprising repeating the simulating, determining, displaying, and adjusting to increase the average Beta angle over the simulated period of drilling time.

13. The method of claim 10, further comprising repeating the simulating, determining, displaying, and adjusting to increase the period of simulated drilling time at which the Beta angle is at or near 180 degrees to about 20% or more of the simulated drilling time.

14. The method of claim 10, wherein the graphically displaying comprises:

displaying a total imbalance force vector on the drill bit spatially oriented relative to at least one cutter of the drill bit, a radial imbalance force component, a circumferential force imbalance component, and a Beta angle between the radial imbalance force component and the circumferential force imbalance component.

15. The method of claim 10, wherein the graphically displaying comprises:

displaying a graphical plot of the Beta angle between the radial component of the total imbalance force vector on the fixed cutter drill bit and the circumferential component of the total imbalance force vector on the fixed cutter drill bit.

16. The method of claim 1, wherein the simulating further comprises:

determining a dynamic centerline trajectory for the drill bit during simulated drilling, and

adjusting further comprises adjusting at least one drill bit design parameter based upon the dynamic centerline trajectory.

17. The method of claim 1, wherein a drill bit design is selected according to the adjusted at least one drill bit parameter.

18. A fixed cutter drill bit designed by the method of claim 1.

19. A computer implemented method for designing a fixed cutter drill bit, comprising:

dynamically modeling the fixed cutter drill bit during simulated drilling in an earth formation for a period of time;

determining a Beta angle between the total of imbalanced radial forces and the total of imbalanced circumferential forces of the fixed cutter drill bit while dynamically simulating drilling in an earth formation;

graphically displaying the Beta angle to a design engineer, for the design engineer to adjust at least one design parameter for the fixed cutter drill bit; and

repeating the steps of determining, and displaying for the design engineer to adjust at least one design parameter until a period of simulated drilling time at which the Beta angle is at or near 180 degrees is increased by about 3% or more of the simulated drilling time.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein the period of simulated drilling time at which the Beta angle is at or near 180 degrees is about 20% or more of the simulated drilling time.

21. The method of claim 19, wherein a drill bit design is selected according at least one drill bit parameter adjusted by the design engineer.

22. A fixed cutter drill bit designed by the method of claim 19.