What is tortuosity?

What is the difference between the different tortuosity modes?

What does the Random Seed mean?
When planning a well, the well path is a set of
smooth curves. When using a well plan in
torque-and-drag analyses, the predicted
torques and hookloads are always lower than
those obtained from the actual survey. These
torque and hookload variances are due to
hole irregularities that are created in the
drilling process.
To better simulate the torque and hookload
in an actual well, micro-doglegs known as
tortuosity can be added to the smooth well
plan. This will more closely match the
irregularities occurring in actual drilled
wellbores.

Tortuosity can be applied on a zone-by-zone

basis, each zone with different values of the
amplitude A and periodicity T of the
tortuosity. The shape of the tortuosity can be
defined by one of the following models:
Sine Wave: The inclination and azimuth vary
by an amount equal to
. The
maximum dogleg variation is 4A/T.
Random Independent Inc and Azimuth: The
inclination and azimuth vary independently in
the range A every depth interval T. The
maximum dogleg variation is 2A/T.
Random Dependent Inc and Azimuth: The
inclination varies in the range A. The
azimuth varies in the range A/sin(inclination).
The maximum dogleg variation is 2A/T.

Random Seeds
By default, the random numbers that are
used to generate the tortuosity are
different every time that a torque-and-drag
analysis is run. However, this means that
no two results are identical, which can
cause difficulty when comparing the results
of two scenarios.

Drilled wells contain micro-doglegs that

are not present in the smooth well plan.
These micro-doglegs can significantly
affect the torque-and-drag results.

You can force the random number

generator to output the same numbers by
entering a random seed. Two scenarios
with the same random seed will have
exactly the same tortuosity applied to the
trajectory.