There are a number

of opportunities to check the friction factor. One of the most important

occasions is
during a wellbore clean-out. These operations are discussed in Section
11.2
(Chapter 11), but involve displacing the drilling mud with the completion
fluid.
The clean-out string is kept moving (to prevent getting stuck) and
therefore

For tubing installation and recovery operations, there are several

considerations:
1. Being able to get the completion to its intended depth without lock-up.
This is
particularly important for open-hole completions such as the running of
screens
into a horizontal well.
2. The effect of drag on the initial conditions of the completion.
3. Being able to get the completion out of the well – especially if this
involves
shearing out of anchors, retrievable packers or other pull-to-release
devices.

For the first case, the drag calculations in Figure 9.21 are sufficient, taking
note
that friction factors will be higher in open holes than for cased holes.

When running a pipe, an effect known as lock-up can occur. As tubing is

being
lowered into the well, buckling will start to increase, especially in the
higher-angle
sections. As buckling increases, contact force will increase (especially with
helical
buckling) and therefore drag will increase. The drag load can increase
faster than the
increase in axial compression. At this point, any additional set down
weight on the
tubing does not transfer down the tubing, and ‘lock-up’ occurs. This lock-
up is a
common problem with coiled tubing, but can occur with reservoir
completion
installations – especially where circulation down through the reservoir
completion is
not possible and a force is required to push the toe of the completion
through any
solid build-ups (ploughing).
Until recently, the effect of drag on the initial conditions was rarely
incorporated
into tubing stress analysis. It is critical for extended-reach wells.