Total Dynamic Head - TDH

Total Dynamic Head

By the end of this section, you should be able to:
• Define the 3 components of TDH
• Demonstrate how to calculate the TDH required for a
given application

2 D.N.
Dec-00
 Components of the TDH
Wellhead
Wellhead Pressure 3
Ground Level Flow

1
2 Net Vertical Lift
Total Friction Loss

Producing Fluid Level

Pump Set Depth

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Dec-00
Flow Flow
 Total Dynamic Head
• First we will look at the "net vertical lift".

• This is the vertical distance through which the fluid must be

lifted to get to the surface.
• The energy required to lift the fluid can be determined by
the equation:
Work (energy) = mgh
• Where m is the mass of the fluid, g is the acceleration due to
gravity and h is the height the fluid is lifted.
5 D.N.
Dec-00
 Net Vertical Lift
Wellhead
Flow
Ground Level
Note that the vertical lift only
depends on where the fluid
level is. 1
From the Net Lift stand Net Vertical Lift
point, it makes no difference
where the pump is set.
Producing Fluid Level

Pump Set Depth

6 D.N.
Dec-00
Flow Flow
 Net Vertical Lift
Wellhead

Ground Level

Note that even

though the pump is much Net Vertical Lift
lower, the net lift does
not change.

Producing Fluid Level

Pump Set Depth

Pump Set Depth

7 D.N.
Dec-00 Flow Flow
Total Dynamic Head - Net Vertical Lift
• Why is the vertical lift independent of where the pump
is set?
Because if you were to turn the pump off, the fluid level in
the tubing would be the same as the level in the annulus.
Remember the old rule that water seeks its own level?
A better way to look at it is to note that the fluid level
above the pump is providing pressure at the pump
intake. This is energy which the pump will not have to
supply since it is already there.

8 D.N.
Dec-00
Total Dynamic Head - Net Vertical Lift
• What if, instead of lifting the fluid vertically, we move
it sideways? How much work did we do?

None!

If Work (energy) = mgh,

The h is zero if we move sideways so the work must be
zero.

9 D.N.
Dec-00
Total Dynamic Head - Net Vertical Lift
• What about deviated wells?

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Dec-00
 Net Lift Net Lift

PFL

Regardless of
where the pump is
set or the angle,
11 D.N.
the vertical lift will
not change.
Dec-00
Friction is an energy loss (we actually measure it as a
pressure loss) due to viscous shear of the flowing
fluid.

In a fluid, molecules are free to move past each other

but there may be a little resistance. This resistance is
due to shear forces which must be overcome.

The higher the shear forces, the higher the viscosity.

12 D.N.
Dec-00
Since we have 6500' of tubing:

For 2 3/8", Friction = 540*6.5 = 3510 feet of loss

For 2 7/8", Friction = 200*6.5 = 1300 feet of loss2

You can see a small increase in tubing size makes a

big difference in friction loss. What about trying 3
1/2" tubing?

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Dec-00
 2-3/8” 2-7/8” 3-1/2”

7
3

5000

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Dec-00
Is bigger tubing always better?

No

If a well is producing a lot of sand, the higher fluid

velocity in small tubing helps carry the sand to the
surface. If the tubing gets too large, the lower velocity
can allow sand to accumulate on top of the pump
discharge and eventually plug it up.
Unfortunately the best teacher here is experience.
15 D.N.
Dec-00
 Wellhead Pressure
Wellhead pressure is sometimes called "Surface
Pressure", "Back Pressure" or even "Flowline
Pressure". Actually the most accurate term is
"Tubing Discharge Pressure" since this is the pressure
at the discharge of the tubing from the well.

16 D.N.
Dec-00
"Back Pressure" is also a good term since it implies the
correct location in the discharge of the tubing string.

"Flowline Pressure" can actually be a much lower

pressure if a surface choke is being used to cut back the
flow rate from the well.

"Surface Pressure" is just ambiguous.

All these terms are used interchangeably in the

industry.
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Dec-00
 Wellhead Pressure
Technically there are two "Wellhead Pressures". What
are they?

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Dec-00
 Casing Annulus Tubing Discharge
or
or Tubing Head Pressure
Casing Head Pressure
Wellhead Pressure

19 D.N.
Dec-00
 Wellhead Pressure
This is the equation to convert from psi to feet but we still need to know
the specific gravity.

Wellhead Pressure*2.31
Wellhead "Feet" = ----------------------------------
sp.gr.
elsius and Fahrenheit. 37°C is the exact same as 98.6°F. They are just
two different ways of saying the same thing.

20 D.N.
Dec-00
 Wellhead Pressure
Petroleum Engineers prefer to use the API gravity
because it is a larger number and easier to "get a feel
for". The equations for converting from one unit to the
other are:

141.5
Sp.Gr. =
131.5 + API

141.5
API =  131.5
Sp.Gr.
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What is the API of fresh water (sp.gr.=1.0)?

141.5
API =  131.5 = 10.0
1.0

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Dec-00
 Wellhead Pressure
This means that we are assuming the oil specific gravity is
0.876.

141.5
Sp.Gr. = = 0.876
131.5 + 30

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Dec-00
 Wellhead Pressure
This sounds worse than it is. To get the arithmetic
average, we use the following formula:

Sp. Gr. = ( fw   w ) ( fo   o )
Where :
f w is the water fraction
 w is the water specific gravity
f o is the oil fraction
 o is the oil specific gravity
24 D.N.
Dec-00
For our case, the specific gravity is 0.992

Sp. Gr. = (fw x w) + (fo x o)

Sp. Gr. = (0.60 x 1.07) + (0.40 x 0.876) = 0.992

25 D.N.
Dec-00
 Total Dynamic Head
Wellhead Pressure = 465 feet
Wellhead 3

Ground Level Flow

1
2 Net Vertical Lift
Total Friction Loss =
1300'

Producing Fluid Level

4000
Pump Set Depth +1300
+ 465
5,765 ft of TDH

26 D.N.
Dec-00 Flow Flow
 Total Dynamic Head

One word of caution should be heeded

when using fluid levels from "Sonic Logs"
to determine net lift.

Sonic Logs estimate the fluid level by

making a loud noise in the annulus (usually
a shotgun shell) and measuring the amount
of time it takes for the sound wave to
reflect back to the wellhead after it hits the
fluid level.
27 D.N.
Dec-00
 Total Dynamic Head

The Sonic level determination only looks at where the

fluid level is and not what the fluid is.

If the well is gassy, there may be a long column of very

lightweight foam on top of the actual fluid but the
sound wave would be reflected by the top of the foam
giving a higher than real fluid level determination.

28 D.N.
Dec-00
 Total Dynamic Head

Another problem with using echometer results is that

the fluid in the annulus may not be truly reflective of
the fluid coming out of the reservoir.

In a high water cut well (relatively little oil being

produced), it is possible for all the fluid above the
pump to be oil. If the pump is set very far below the
fluid level, the error can be significant.

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Dec-00
 Oil

Produced Fluid
30 D.N.
Dec-00
 Total Dynamic Head

If we assume the total annular fluid is high water cut

fluid, we will predict a greater intake pressure than we
will actually have. In order to be safe, it is a good
practice to assume that the fluid above the pump is all
oil and correct this portion with the oil gravity only.

Correct the fluid below the pump to the perforations

with the composite fluid specific gravity.

31 D.N.
Dec-00
 Total Dynamic Head
As an example, say we have a well producing on SPS. The
perforation depth is 8350 feet and the pump setting is
6900 feet. We have a sonic level at 5600 feet below the
surface. The water cut is 70% and has a gravity of 1.04.
The oil gravity is 32° API. What is the well flowing
pressure and what is the pump intake pressure?

32 D.N.
Dec-00
 Total Dynamic Head

The crude oil specific gravity is 0.865 and the fluid

composite gravity is 0.988.

141.5
Sp.Gr. = = 0.865
131.5 + 32

Sp.Gr. = 0.70  1.04  0.30  0.865 = 0.988

33 D.N.
Dec-00
 Total Dynamic Head
For the portion above the pump, we assume that the fluid is
all oil with a specific gravity of 0.865.

Psuc. = (6900 - 5600)ft x 0.433 psi/ft x 0.865 = 487

psi

34 D.N.
Dec-00
 Total Dynamic Head
For the portion below the pump, we assume that the fluid is
the same as produced from the well. That is to say that it is
70% water and the average specific gravity is 0.988.

P = (8350 - 6900) ft x 0.433 psi/ft x 0.988 = 620 psi

35 D.N.
Dec-00
 Total Dynamic Head
The perforation pressure will be the sum of the pressure at
the pump suction and the pressure differential between the
pump setting depth and the perforation depth.

Pperf. = 487 + 620 = 1107 psi

36 D.N.
Dec-00
 Total Dynamic Head
If we had assumed that the total fluid column in the well
were a crude/water mixture, we would have calculated a
perforation pressure of 1176 psi instead of 1107 psi.
Although this seems like a small difference, this could cause
large errors in the determination of the PI for the well
which, in turn, could easily cause us to undersize a pump.

Pper = (8350 - 5600) ft x 0.433 psi/ft x 0.988 = 1176

psi
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