Understanding Torque & Drag: Concepts

and Analysis
 Published on March 13, 2018

🌐 Sixto Romero 🌐
Petroleum Engineer / Founder at Drillsoft
15 articles Follow
Introduction
Why do we need to perform torque and drag analysis? Torque and drag
removes superstition and reduces dependence on assumptions from well
planning by taking into account all aspects of the plan from equipment
specifications and formation properties. Changes made to specific
components during planning is readily computed for the entire system. This
allows for rapid trial and error testing during planning to find working
solutions to reach desired well TDs.

Drillsoft Torque and Drag module calculates axial tension, stretch, twist,
hook load, and torque. It supports conventional and unconventional drilling
operations which allows the modeling of all field operations including (RIH,
POOH, Drilling and Rotating Off Bottom) for drill string, casing string,
completion, and coiled tubing manufactured from steel and non-steel
materials.

Basic Torque and Drag Definitions

What is torque and what is drag? In our case, drag is an axial force, generated
between the contact force between the drill string when it's moving and the
formation or the casing. Torque, is the rotational force between the drill
string and the formation.

There are two main causes of torque and drag, side forces and friction. Side
forces include the forces that exist between the wellbore wall and any
element of the drill string. Side forces can also include the normal forces
created by the drill string with the wellbore walls. Friction is caused due to
the movement of the drill string. Other causes for torque and drag include
hole cleaning, under-gauge holes, and wellbore stability.

Side forces and Components

There are a few main factors that can cause side forces. These factors include
the weight of the drill string, tension due to dogleg severity, buckling, and
stiffness of the drill string. The majority of side force is generated by the first
two factors. However, while buckling and stiffness contribute less to
generating side forces, they should not be ignored as they indicate problems
with the equipment chosen.

The weight of the drill string acting on the wellbore is a major contributor to
side forces. The weight of the drill string contributes to the magnitude of the
normal force against the wellbore and as such, heavier drill strings induce
greater side forces against wellbores. Therefore, it is important to minimize
the weight of the drill string within safe limits.

Side forces created by tension typically only occur with doglegs. In build
sections, the direction of pipe movement affects the direction of side forces.
When moving down, the drill string will be lying on the low side, therefore
the effect of tensile load is reduced and the resultant side force is in the
direction of the weight component. When moving up, tripping out, the drill
string will be in contact with the high side, therefore the effect of tensile load
is increased and the resultant side force will be in the direction of the tensile
component. In drop sections, regardless of whether the drill string is tripping
out or running in hole, the drill string will be lying on the low side of the
wellbore. Therefore, the resultant force will always act on the low side.

Buckling occurs when the drill string is in compression. Sinusoidal buckling

occurs first, however, if the weight on bit is increased, helical buckling will
begin. Buckling increases the contact surface area between the drill string and
the wellbore, which increases side forces.  Side forces from stiffness occurs
when stiff drill strings pass through high dogleg zones. However, it is more
likely for key-seating or stuck drill string to occur prior to experiencing side
forces due to stiffness.

Friction and Components

Friction causes
When drilling, the rotation friction factor is primary source of concern as it
affects the final torque output. It is the friction between the wellbore and the
drill string when you rotate the string. The translation friction factor is an
issue when tripping in and out of hole because rotation is not a factor during
tripping. During back-reaming, both the rotation and translation friction
factors are of concern because both rotation and axial movement occurs. The
use of incorrect friction factors could lead to inaccurate designs.

Using Drillsoft Torque and Drag Analysis

Required Information

 Values that must be defined prior to performing torque and drag analysis
include

• Tubulars

• Trajectory

• Mud Specs / Fluids

• Technical Limits

• Scenario

Performing Analysis
When all of the above data is specified, analysis can begin. In the Torque &
Drag menu, click on the T&D Analysis button to acquire results.

Outputs
 Graphs

 The results of the torque and drag analysis will be shown in an analysis
window. Here you will find graphs for various tension and torque scenarios
during drilling. These different graphs can be viewed by selecting the
corresponding option in the Graphic Options field. If no RPM was specified
prior to performing torque and drag analysis, torque graphs will be empty.
Torque and drag analysis must be performed for each desired RPM as results
will only be valid for a single specified RPM at a time.

Weights
 The lines representing weights for different scenarios can be toggled into and
out of view with the checkbox found at the top right of the torque and drag
analysis summary window. These weights include the pickup weight (PUW),
slack off weight (SOW), and the rotating weight (ROT).

 Friction Factors
 The Hookload While Tripping graph contains additional lines for possible
open-hole friction factors. These are ±0.05 of what is specified in the Torque
& Drag sidebar menu prior to performing analysis. It is possible to toggle the
view of these
  Figure 1: Hookload wile Tripping Graph
 Figure 2: Drillstring Tension graph
 Figure 3: Torque While Tripping graph
 Figure 4: Drillstring Torque graph

Load Case
  Expected values for torque, weight, stretch, and windup, will be listed for
different load cases. These cases include back-reaming, reaming, rotating,
and sliding. This information can be found in the Load Case table in the
torque and drag analysis summary window.

Figure 5: Load Case table

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Published by

🌐 Sixto Romero 🌐
Petroleum Engineer / Founder at Drillsoft
Published • 2y
15 articlesFollow
Drillsoft is introducing Torque & Drag module analysis. Here in this article learn
some basics concepts and see how is easy to perform an analysis with Drillsoft.
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3 CommentsComments on 🌐 Sixto Romero 🌐’s article
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Ember Duranout of network 3rd+Independent Consultant

1y
Sixto, Have a question: you are sliding (MM) with 30,000 lbs on a 6 deg angle well
in a 12-1/4" hole. There is an STB 12-1/8" above the MM. What is the side force
on the STB? Thanks. 
Like Ember Duran’s comment

VISWANTH RAMBAout of network 3rd+Research Scholar at Indian Institute of

Technology Guwahati

2y
Sir, can you please kindly suggest me a way to compute the Torque on the Bit,
without having the downhole sensors. For measuring the torque at the surface,
we need the Torque on the Bit right. So, kindly suggest me a way to solve this
problem
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