FUNDAMENTALS MECHANICS OF WELLHEAD

A wellhead is the part of an oil or gas well that is located at the well's surface and serves as the
structural and pressure-containment interface for the drilling and producing machinery. A wellhead's major
function is to provide a suspension point and pressure seals for casing strings that go from the bottom of the
hole sections to surface pressure control equipment.

Figure 1: Wellhead.

The tubing and casing are connected to an oil or gas pipeline using wellhead equipment. The casing is
a permanently fixed pipe that lines the well hole to control pressure and avoid collapse. The wellhead is a
flanged piece of equipment that connects to the casing. It is used to suspend the casing threads and aid in the
sealing of the well. Casing heads, casing spools, and tubing head spools are examples of wellhead equipment.
The casing head is a component of the link between the casing and the wellhead. Multiple pieces of wellhead
equipment are typically incorporated into a wellhead assembly known as a "Christmas tree." This wellhead
assembly enables the placement of tubes into the well while valves and chokes regulate the flow of oil and/or
gas at the surface.

Wellheads and wellhead equipment can be found on offshore platforms, subsea platforms, or on land.
Wellheads are normally cemented in place and retained in place; however, in exploratory wells, wellhead
equipment may be salvaged for later re-use. The casing and tubing strings, which may also be strung from the
Christmas tree, are supported by wellhead apparatus. In this manner, wellhead equipment seals the various
strings and allows access to the annuli between them. The casing head, casing spools, casing hangers, pack-offs
and isolation seals, bowl protectors, test plugs, mud-line suspension systems, tubing heads, tubing hangers,
and tubing head adapters are the essential components of a wellhead system.
Bend loading of a subsea wellhead

Figure 2: Illustration of wellhead rotation from bending.

When a subsea well bends, it tends to spin with the bending force. Figure 2 depicts the rotation of a wellhead
caused by bending (reprinted with permission). The intrinsic bending resistance of each structural well
member will give global resistance to this rotation. The conductor and surface casing strings are the primary
load bearing components. The BOP is directly attached to the wellhead housing, which will be the recipient of
external bending stresses. The surface casing is welded to the wellhead housing and will be loaded by wellhead
housing rotation and global well rotation. According to Figure 2, the wellhead housing must rotate to some
extent in order to make lateral mechanical contact with the conductor housing. The conductor and surface
casing will therefore resist bending like a rigid body when this happens.

Figure 3: Wellhead body idealized as a cantilever beam.

 This behaviour of a typical subsea wellhead was addressed by Valka and Fowler [27]. As a reprint from
Valka and Fowler [27], Figure 3 depicts a straightforward beam model of the wellhead housing with interaction
to the conductor housing as the system bends. From this straightforward illustration, it is clear that the
wellhead's boundary conditions vary according to the degree of rotation, which is determined by the strength
of the bending force. Eventually, the mechanical interference to the conductor housing causes the wellhead
"beam" to become interlocked. From this stage the 2 items; wellhead and conductor housing, behaves as a
composite beam.

Figure 5 depicts the sequence of events shown in Figures 2 and 3 as a relationship between the
bending load applied and the stress in the surface casing (due to the bending curvature). The curve in Figure 8
comprises three portions, each of which is changing at a distinct rate. This type of load-to-stress curve may be
produced for various points in the well. It is possible to compare load to stress curves produced from several
models of the same well. A fatigue accumulation based on similar loads will differ if there are discrepancies.

Figure 4: Load to stress curve for a surface casing with wellhead body idealized as a cantilever beam.

It is possible to change uncertain modelling input parameters and compare the stress-to-load curves
that arise. We are aware that some input variables have a considerable impact on the load-to-stress curve. The
cement level in the surface casing annulus is one of these inputs. Valka and Fowler's simplified beam depiction
of the wellhead, which is seen in Figure 5, was used to demonstrate the impact of a lower cement level [27].
Figure 9 clearly shows that the radius of the curve in the surface casing will rise when the "point-of-fixity," or
the cement level, dips below the mud line.

Figure 5: Wellhead body idealized as cantilever beam showing the effect of the point of fixity.
 When bending is applied, the wellhead rotates with respect to the conductor housing until two points
of contact are made. Under the impact of greater bending, mechanical interference between the wellhead and
conductor housing will force them to behave as a composite stiff beam. The wellhead housing's surface casing,
which is welded to the bottom of the structure, will bend out of vertical alignment while being kept in place by
lateral cement support. Figure 9 depicts the surface casing bending parabolically. In order for the conductor
string to begin responding to the bending strain, the surface casing will really need to undergo tiny
deformations. When there is wellhead bending motion, the surface casing string and conductor string will
move relative to one another.