Well Design – Spring 2011

Well Design
PE 413

Casing Design

Prepared by: Tan Nguyen

Well Design – Spring 2011

Casing Design
Introduction

The casing design process involves

three distinct operations:

1. The selection of the casing

sizes and setting depths;

2. The definition of the operational

scenarios which will result in
burst, collapse and axial loads

3. The calculation of the magnitude

of these loads and selection of
an appropriate weight and grade
of casing.

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Well Design – Spring 2011

Casing Design
Calculate Loads on the Casing – Axial Load

The axial load on the casing can be either tensile or compressive, depending on
the operating conditions.

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Well Design – Spring 2011

Casing Design
Calculate Loads on the Casing – Axial Load

The force Ften tending to pull apart the pipe is resisted by

the stregth of the pipe walls, which exert a counterforce F2.

F2  s yield As 1

Where syield is the minimum yield strength and As is the

cross-sectional area of steel. Thus, the pipe-body strength:


s yield d n2  d 2 
2
Ften 
4

Equation 2 is used to calculate the minimum force that

would be expected to cause permanent deformation of the
pipe.

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Well Design – Spring 2011

Example 1

Compute the body-yield strength for 20’’, K-55 casing with a nominal wall thickness

of 0.635’’ and a nominal weight per foot of 133 lbf/ft.

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Well Design – Spring 2011

Example 1

Solution:

d = 20.00 – 2(0.635) = 18.73’’


Ften  s yield d n2  d 2 
4


Ften 
4
 
55,000 20 2  18.73 2  2,125,000 lbf

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Well Design – Spring 2011

Casing Design
Calculate Loads on the Casing – Burst Pressure

The casing will experience a net burst loading if the internal radial load exceeds

the external radial load.

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Well Design – Spring 2011

Casing Design
Calculate Loads on the Casing – Burst Pressure

Let  be small enough

d
ds  r sin   r  
2
d
F1  Pbr L d
2
 
F 2  s s tL
d
F2  s s tL
2

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Well Design – Spring 2011

Casing Design
Calculate Loads on the Casing – Burst Pressure

F1  2F2

2s s t
Pbr  3
d

where ss is the nominal steel strength. Equation 3 is used only for thin-wall
casing. In drilling application, it is suggested that one should use Barlow’s
equation to calculate Pbr for thick-wall casing.

2s yield t
Pbr  0.875 4
dn

API recommends use of this equation with wall thickness rounded to the nearest
0.001’’ and the results rounded to the nearest 10 psi.

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Well Design – Spring 2011

Casing Design
Calculate Loads on the Casing – Burst Pressure

If casing is subjected to internal pressure higher than external, it is said that casing
is exposed to burst pressure. Burst pressure conditions occur during well control
operation or squeeze cementing.

Equation (4) is used to calculate the internal pressure at which the tangential stress
at the inner wall of the pipe reaches the yield strength of the material. The factor
0.875 represents the allowable manufactruing tolerance of -12.5% on wall thickness.

Because a burst pressure failure will not occur until after the stress exceeds the
ultimate tensile strength, using a yield strength criterion as a measure of burst
strength is an inherently conservative assumption.

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Well Design – Spring 2011

Example 2

Compute the burst-pressure rating for 20’’, K-55 casing with a nominal wall thickness
of 0.635’’ and a nominal weight per foot of 133 lbf/ft

Solution:

2s yield t
Pbr  0.875
dn
2(55,000)(0.635)
Pbr  0.875  3,056 psi
(20)
Rounded to the nearest 10 psi:

Pbr  3,060 psi

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Well Design – Spring 2011

Casing Design
Calculate Loads on the Casing – Collapse Pressure

The casing will experience a net collapse loading if the external radial load exceeds
the internal radial load. The greatest collapse load on the casing will occur if the
casing is evacuated (empty) for any reason.

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Well Design – Spring 2011

Casing Design
Calculate Loads on the Casing – Collapse Pressure

If external pressure exceeds internal pressure, the casing is subjected to collapse.

Such conditions may exist during cementing operations or well evacuation. Collapse
strength is primarily function of the material’s yield strength and its slenderness
ratio, dn/t.

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Well Design – Spring 2011

Casing Design
Calculate Loads on the Casing – Collapse Pressure

pe, pi – external and internal pressure

sr, st – radial and tangential stresses

Note: equations (5) and (6) are used under no axial tension or axial
compression. Data in Table 7.6 apply only for zero axial tension and no pipe
bending.

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Example 3

Consider a drillpipe of E-75 4 ½’’ outer diameter with a unit weight of 20 lb/ft inside
a wellbore filled with 9.5 ppg mud. At a location of 3800 ft from the surface,
pressure inside the pipe is 2000 psi, and pressure outside the pipe is 1700 psi.
Determine the tangential and radial stresses at r = ro.

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Example 3

E-75 4 ½’’ and 20 lb/ft drillpipe has an inner diameter of 3.64 in. Considering “r” is
equal to ro = 2.25’’

= - 1700 psi

= - 564.4 psi

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Well Design – Spring 2011

Casing Design
Collapse Pressure Regimes

The collapse strength criteria consist of four collapse regimes determined by yield strength
and dn/t. Each criterion is discussed next in order of increasing dn/t.

Yield strength collapse:

Yield strength collapse is based on yield at the inner wall. This criterion does not represent
a “collapse” pressure at all. For thick wall pipes (dn/t < 15), the tangential stress exceeds the
yield strength of the material before a collapse instability failure occurs.

Assumed that the pipe is subjected only to an external pressure pe. From eq. (6), the
absolute value of tangential stress st is always greatest at the inner wall of the pipe and that
for burst and collapse loads. Hence, the yield strength collapse occurs at the inner wall: r =
ri then equation (6) becomes:

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Well Design – Spring 2011

Casing Design
Collapse Pressure Regimes

 2 p e ro2
st  2

ro  ri 2  7

 2 pe ro2
st 
t ro  ri  8

Rearrange equation (8) gives equation (9) to calculate the critical pressure for
yield strength collapse, Pcr

 d n / t  1
PYP  2s Y  2 
 d n / t  
9

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Well Design – Spring 2011

Casing Design
Collapse Pressure Regimes

Plastic collapse:

Plastic collapse is based on empirical data from 2,488 tests of K-55, N-80 and P-110
seamless casing. No analytic expression has been derived that accurately models
collapse behavior in this regime. The minimum collapse pressure for the plastic
range of collapse is calculated by equation (10).

 F 
PP  s Y  1  F2   F3 10
dn / t 

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Well Design – Spring 2011

Casing Design
Collapse Pressure Regimes

Transition Collapse:

Transition collapse is obtained by a numerical curve fitting between the plastic and
elastic regimes. The minimum collapse pressure for the plastic-to-elastic transition
zone is calculated by equation (11)

 F 
PT  s Y  4  F5 
dn / t  11

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Well Design – Spring 2011

Casing Design
Collapse Pressure Regimes

Elastic Collapse:

Elastic collapse is based on theoretical elastic instability failure; this criterion is

independent of yield strength and applicable to thin-wall pipe (dn/t > 25). The
minimum collapse pressure for the elastic range of collapse is calculated by using
equation (12)

46.95  10 6
PE 
d n / t d n / t   12 12

Most oilfield tubulars experience collapse in the plastic and transition regimes.

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Well Design – Spring 2011

Casing Design
Collapse Pressure Regimes

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Well Design – Spring 2011

Casing Design
Collapse Pressure Regimes

F1  2.8762  0.10679  10 5 Y  0.21301  10 10 Y   0.53132  10 16 Y 

2 3

F2  0.026233  0.50609 106 Y

F3  465.93  0.030867Y  0.10483107 Y   0.36989 1013 Y 

2 3

 3F2 / F1  
3

46.95  10 6  
F4   2  F2 / F1 
 3F2 / F1  3F2 / F1  
2

Y  F2 / F1  1  
 2  F2 / F1    2  F2 / F1 

F5  F4 F2 / F1 

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Well Design – Spring 2011

Casing Design
Collapse Pressure Regimes

Apply only when

axial stress is
zero and no
internal pressure

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Well Design – Spring 2011

Example

Compute the collapse pressure rating for 20’’, K-55 casing with a nominal wall
thickness of 0.635’’ and a nominal weight per foot of 133 lbf/ft.

Solution:

dn/t = 20/0.635 = 31.49

This is the transition collapse

 F 
pT  s Y  4  F5 
 dn / t 

 1.989 
pT  55,000  0.036   1,493 psi
 31.49 

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Casing Design
Combined Stress Effects

All the pipe strength equations previously given are based on a zero axial stress
state. This idealized situation never occurs in oilfield applications because pipe in
a wellbore is always subjected to combined loading conditions.

The fundamental basis of casing design is that if stresses in the pipe wall exceed
the yield strength of the material, a failure condition exists. Hence the yield
strength is a measure of the maximum allowable stress. To evaluate the pipe
strength under combined loading conditions, the uniaxial yield strength is
compared to the yielding condition.

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Well Design – Spring 2011

Casing Design
Combined Stress Effects

The most widely accepted yielding criterion is based on the maximum

distortion energy theory, which is known as the Huber-Von-Mises Theory. This
theory states that if the triaxial stress exceeds the yield strength, a yield failure
is indicated. Note that the triaxial stress is not a true stress. It is a theoretical
value that allows a generalized three-dimensional stress state to be compared
with a uniaxial failure criterion (the yield strength).

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Casing Design
Combined Stress Effects

s VME 
1
s z  s t 2  s t  s r 2  s r  s z 2  s Y 13
2

Where

sY – minimum yield stress, psi

sVME – triaxial stress, psi

VME: Von Mises Equivalent

sz, st, sr – axial tress, tangential

stress, and radial stress, psi

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Well Design – Spring 2011

Casing Design
Combined Stress Effects

Setting the triaxial stress equal to the yield strength and solving equation (13)
give the results:

2
s t  pi 3  s  pi  1  s  pi 
  1   z    z  14
sY 4  sY  2  sY 

Equation (14) is for the ellipse of plasticity. Combining Eq. (14) and eq. (6)
together and let r = ri, will give the combinations of internal pressure, external
pressure and axial stress that will result in a yield strength mode of failure.

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Well Design – Spring 2011

Casing Design
Combined Stress Effects

As axial tension increases,

the critical burst-pressure
increases and the critical
collapse-pressure decreases.

In contrast, as the axial

compression increases, the
critical burst-pressure
decreases and the critical
collapse-pressure increases.

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Well Design – Spring 2011

Example

Compute the nominal collapse pressure rating for 5.5’’, N-80 casing with a nominal
wall thickness of 0.476’’ and a nominal weight per foot of 26 lbf/ft. In addition,
determine the collapse pressure for in-service conditions in which the pipe is
subjected to a 40,000 psi axial tension stress and a 10,000 psi internal pressure.
Assume a yield strength mode of failure.

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Well Design – Spring 2011

Example

For collapse pressure rating, r = ri then eq. (6) becomes

st 
 
pi ro2  ri 2  2 pe ro2
ro2  ri 2
 
pi ro2  ri 2  2 p e ro2
 pi
s t  pi ro  ri
2 2

sY sY

s t  pi  2ro2  pi  pe 
  2 
2 

sY  ro  ri  s Y 
s t  pi  25.52  pi  p e 
  2 
2 

sY  5.5  4. 548  80 ,000 

s t  pi pi  p e  pe
 
sY 12,649 12,649
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Example

s z  pi
From eq. (14) with  0 we have
sY
s t  pi
 1
sY
 pe
 1
12,649

pe  12,649 psi

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Well Design – Spring 2011

Example

For in-service conditions of sz = 40,000 psi and pi = 10,000 psi

s t  pi 10,000  pe

sY 12,649

s z  pi 40,000  10,000
  0.625
sY 80,000

Solving eq. (14) gives

s t  pi 10,000  pe
  0.5284
sY 12,649

pe  16,684 psi

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