System and method for monitoring and controlling underground drilling
First Claim
1. A method of monitoring the operation of a drill string drilling into an earthen formation so as to form a bore hole using a drill bit located in a bottom hole assembly, comprising the steps of:
- determining the values of a plurality of operating parameters associated with said underground drilling operation, the values of the plurality of operating parameters obtained from a plurality of sensors during the drilling operation, at least a portion of said sensors located in said bottom hole assembly, the plurality of operating parameters including at least a vibration of the drill string;
determining from the determined values of the plurality of operating parameters whether at least one of a plurality of predetermined symptoms of lost drilling performance is present in said drilling operation;
identifying the probability that each of the predetermined symptoms of lost drilling performance determined to be present in said drilling operation are caused by each of a plurality of predetermined causes of lost drilling performance; and
combining said identified probabilities for each of the respective plurality of predetermined causes of lost drilling performance for each respective predetermined symptom of lost drilling performance determined to be present in the drilling operation, wherein the greatest combined probabilities among the respective plurality of predetermined causes of lost drilling performance is the most likely cause of lost drilling performance present in said drilling operation.
7 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A system and method for monitoring underground drilling in which vibration is monitored by creating a model of the drill string using finite element techniques or finite difference techniques and (i) predicting vibration by inputting real time values of operating parameters into the model, and then adjusting the model to agree with measured vibration data, (ii) predicting the weight on bit and drill string and mud motor speeds at which resonance will occur, as well as when stick-slip will occur, so that the operator can avoid operating regimes that will result in high vibration, (iii) determining vibration and torque levels along the length of the drill string based on the measured vibration and torque at one or more locations, (iv) determining the remaining life of critical components of the drill string based on the history of the vibration to which the components have been subjected, and (v) determining the optimum drilling parameters that will avoid excessive vibration of the drill string.
104 Citations
21 Claims
-
1. A method of monitoring the operation of a drill string drilling into an earthen formation so as to form a bore hole using a drill bit located in a bottom hole assembly, comprising the steps of:
-
determining the values of a plurality of operating parameters associated with said underground drilling operation, the values of the plurality of operating parameters obtained from a plurality of sensors during the drilling operation, at least a portion of said sensors located in said bottom hole assembly, the plurality of operating parameters including at least a vibration of the drill string; determining from the determined values of the plurality of operating parameters whether at least one of a plurality of predetermined symptoms of lost drilling performance is present in said drilling operation; identifying the probability that each of the predetermined symptoms of lost drilling performance determined to be present in said drilling operation are caused by each of a plurality of predetermined causes of lost drilling performance; and combining said identified probabilities for each of the respective plurality of predetermined causes of lost drilling performance for each respective predetermined symptom of lost drilling performance determined to be present in the drilling operation, wherein the greatest combined probabilities among the respective plurality of predetermined causes of lost drilling performance is the most likely cause of lost drilling performance present in said drilling operation. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10)
-
-
11. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having stored thereon computer-executable instructions for performing a method of monitoring the operation of a drill string drilling into an earthen formation so as to form a bore hole using a drill bit, the method comprising the steps of:
-
determining the values of a plurality of operating parameters associated with said underground drilling operation, the values of the plurality of operating parameters obtained from a plurality of sensors, at least a portion of said sensors located in said bottom hole assembly, the plurality of operating parameters including at least a vibration of the drill string; determining from said determined values of said plurality of operating parameters whether at least one of a plurality of predetermined symptoms of lost drilling performance are present in said drilling operation; identifying the probability that each of the predetermined symptoms of lost drilling performance determined to be present in said drilling operation are caused by each of a plurality of predetermined causes of lost drilling performance; combining said identified probabilities for each of said the respective plurality of predetermined causes of lost drilling performance for each respective predetermined symptom of lost drilling performance determined to be present in the drilling operation, wherein the greatest combined probabilities among the respective plurality of predetermined causes of lost drilling performance is the most likely cause of lost drilling performance present in said drilling operation. - View Dependent Claims (12)
-
-
13. A method of monitoring the operation of a drill string drilling into an earthen formation so as to form a bore hole using a drill bit located in a bottom hole assembly, comprising the steps of:
-
determining the values of a plurality of operating parameters associated with said underground drilling operation, the values of the plurality of operating parameters obtained from a plurality of sensors, at least a portion of said sensors located in said bottom hole assembly; comparing the determined values of the plurality of operating parameters to a predetermined criteria for each one of a plurality of predetermined symptoms of lost drilling performance; determining if the determined values of the plurality of operating parameters are within the predetermined criteria for each one of the plurality of predetermined symptoms of lost drilling performance so as to identify each of the respective plurality of predetermined symptoms of lost drilling performance that is present in the drilling operation identifying the probability that each of the predetermined symptoms of lost drilling performance determined to be present in the drilling operation are caused by at least a first predetermined cause of lost drilling performance, a second predetermined cause of lost drilling performance, and a third predetermined cause of lost drilling performance; combining said identified probabilities for the respective first, second and third predetermined causes of lost drilling performance for each of the plurality of predetermined symptoms of lost drilling performance determined to be present in the drilling operation; and determining which among the first, second and third predetermined causes of lost drilling performance that has the greatest combined probabilities for each predetermined symptom of lost drilling performance that is determined to present in the drilling operation, wherein the most likely cause of lost drilling performance is the cause of lost drilling performance that has the greatest combined probabilities for each predetermined symptom. - View Dependent Claims (14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21)
-
Specification