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Drilling Engineering - PE 311: Rock Failure Mechanisms
Drilling Engineering - PE 311: Rock Failure Mechanisms
Bits are designed to induce rock failure. Because rock failure can occur in different
ways, depending on the formation and on downhole conditions, there are a large
number of design variations among rolling cutter and fixed cutter bits. To evaluate
these design variations and select a bit, we first need a basic understanding of
how rocks fail and how formation conditions affect drilling performance.
The purpose of the design is to take advantage of the formation most efficient
failure mechanisms.
Stress is the internal force applied to a unit area of material. An analysis of the
stresses acting on a particular object can become quite involved. For the purpose
of this discussion, however, we can define three basic components of stress:
•Elastic: If the applied stress is below the elastic limit of the material, the material
returns to its original shape and size once the stress is removed.
•Plastic: if the applied stress exceeds the material's elastic limit, the material
experiences permanent deformation
L L L0 L
1
L0 L0 L0
If rupture takes place before significant plastic deformation occurs, the material is
described as brittle. If the material ruptures only after experiencing significant
plastic deformation, it is considered ductile.
If formation is under brittle failure, bits which have crushing and chipping actions
are preferred. On the other hand, if formation is under ductile failure, bits which
have gouging and scrapping actions are chosen.
All rocks exhibit brittle stage under atmosphere pressure. This is applicable for
under balanced drilling conditions
Under high pressure, the failure mechanism transfers from brittle to ductile. This
condition is for overbalanced drilling.
If the pressure exerted by the fluid column is less than the pore pressure of the
formation, the differential pressure is less than zero, and the well is being drilled in
an underbalanced condition. This condition most often occurs when drilling with
air, fresh water or muds weighing less than 8.6 lb/gal.
In underbalanced drilling, the rock exhibits brittle behavior — it has a relatively low
failure strength and fractures very easily. Because the rock surface is in tension, it
virtually explodes under the compressive loads of the bit. There is no downward
pressure to promote chip hold-down, and so there is very little regrinding of
already-drilled cuttings. This helps attain very high rates of penetration.
When the pressure of the fluid column is equal to the pore pressure, the hole is in
a balanced condition. This condition generally occurs when drilling with brine water
or mud weighing 8.6 lb/gal.
Under balanced conditions, the rock is still in the brittle state and fractures
relatively easily. The bottom of the hole is in pressure equilibrium, so there is
minimal stress concentration present to either enhance or slow penetration rates.
Penetration rates are generally slower than those experienced in an
underbalanced drilling, because there is some chip hold-down resulting from
cohesive forces between the rock cuttings, along with interference due to fluid
viscosity.
In overbalanced drilling, the pressure of the mud column exceeds the formation
pore pressure. In areas with normal pressure gradients, this condition occurs when
the mud weight exceeds 8.6 Ib/gal. For safety reasons, overbalanced drilling is
normal practice in most areas.
As the differential pressure increases in an overbalanced hole, the rock below the
bit becomes increasingly strong and ductile. The hole bottom is in a state of
compression, thus retarding fracture propagation caused by the bit. These factors,
along with a high degree of chip hold-down, tend to slow penetration rates. If the
differential pressure is too high, the mud can fracture the formation, resulting in
lost circulation and possibly a blowout.
A vertical force is applied to the tooth as a result of applying drill collar weight to
the bit, and a horizontal force is applied to the tooth as a result of applying the
torque necessary to turn the bit. The result of these two forces defines the plane of
thrust of the tooth or wedge. The cuttings are sheared off in a shear plane at an
initial angle to the plane of thrust that is dependent on the properties of the rock.
: Angle to the
direction of the
compressive load
Where
These two equations represent graphically by the Mohr’s circle. Any combination
between and n gives a new circle representing a new failure condition.
The rock will fail when the combination between WOB and shear force gives a
point out side the Mohr’s circle
Compression is positive
Tensile is negative
c = - ntan
Example: A rock sample under a 2,000 psi confining pressure fails when subjected
to a compressional loading of 10,000 psi along a plane that makes an angle of 27 0
with the direction of the compressive load. Using the Mohr failure criterion,
determine the angle of internal friction, the shear strength and the cohesive
resistance of the material.
Solution: the angle and 2 must sum to 900. Thus the angle of internal friction is
given by
= 90 – 2(27) = 36 0
The apparatus allowed the borehole pressure, rock pore pressure, and rock
confining pressure to be varied independently. The apparatus was equipped with a
static loading device which used an air-actuated piston to simulate constant force
impacts similar to those produced in rotary drilling. Strain gauges and a linear
potentiometer were used to obtain force displacement curves.
As load is applied to a bit tooth (A), the constant pressure beneath the tooth
increases until it exceeds the crushing strength of the rock and a wedge of finely
powdered rock then is formed beneath the tooth (B). As the force on the tooth
increases, the material in the wedge compresses and exerts high lateral forces on
the solid rock surrounding the wedge until the shear stress exceeds the shear
strength of the solid rock and the rock factures (C).
The force at which fracturing begins beneath the tooth is called the threshold force.
As the force on the tooth increases above the threshold value, subsequent
fracturing occurs in the region above the initial fracture, forming a zone of broken
rock (D).
At low differential pressure, the cuttings formed in the zone of broken rock are
ejected easily from the crater (E). The bit tooth then moves forward until it reaches
the bottom of the crater, and the process may be repeated (F, G).
At high differential pressures, the downward pressure and frictional forces between
the rock fragments prevent ejection of the fragments (E ’). As the force on the tooth
is increased, displacement takes place along fracture planes parallel to the initial
fracture (F’, G’). This gives the appearance of plastic deformation, and craters
formed in the manner are called pseudo plastic craters.
The most important variables affecting penetration rate that have been identified
and studied included: bit type, formation characteristics, drilling fluid properties, bit
operating conditions (WOB, and ROP), bit tooth wear, and bit hydraulics.
For rolling cutter bits, the initial ROP is often highest in a given formation when
using bits with long teeth and a large cone offset angle. However, these bits are
practical only in soft formations because of a rapid tooth destruction and decline in
penetration rate in hard formations.
Drag bits are designed to obtain a given penetration rate. Drag bits give a wedging
type rock failure in which the bit penetration per revolution depends on the number
of blades and the bottom cutting angle. The diamond and PCD bits are designed
for a given penetration per revolution by the selection of the size and number of
diamonds or PCD blanks.
The elastic limit and ultimate strength of the formation are the most important
formation properties affecting ROP. The shear strength predicted by Mohr failure
criteria sometimes is used to characterize the strength of the formation. To
determine the shear strength from a single compression test, an average angle of
internal friction of 350 was assumed. The angle of internal friction varies from about
30 – 400 form most rocks
The mineral composition of the rock also has some effect on ROP. Rocks
containing hard, abrasive minerals can cause rapid dulling of the bit teeth. Rocks
containing gummy clay minerals can cause the bit to ball up and drill in a very
inefficient manner.
The permeability of the formation also has a significant effect on the ROP. In
permeable rocks, the drilling fluid filtrate can move into the rock ahead of the bit
and equalize the pressure differential acting on the chips formed beneath each
tooth. This would tend to promote the more explosive elastic mode of crater
formation. it also can be argued that the nature of the fluids contained in the pore
spaces of the rock also affects this mechanism since more filtrate volume would
be required to equalize the pressure in rock containing gas than in a rock
containing liquid.
The properties of drilling fluid reported to affect the ROP include: density,
rheological flow properties, filtration characteristics, solids content and size
distribution, and chemical composition.
Penetration rate tends to decrease with increasing fluid density, viscosity and
solids content, and tends to increase with increasing filtration rate. The density,
solid, and filtration characteristics of the mud control the pressure differential
across the zone of crushed rock beneath the bit. The fluid viscosity controls the
system frictional losses in the drillstring and thus the hydraulic energy available at
the bit jets for cleaning. The most important factor out of the drilling fluid properties
is the density. Changing density will change the overbalance. The ROP decreases
as the overbalance increases.
When plotting ROP vs. WOB obtained experimentally with all other drilling
variables held constant has the characteristic shape as shown:
No significant ROP is obtained until the threshold bit weight is applied (point a).
ROP then increases rapidly with increasing values of WOB. For moderate value of
bit weight, a linear curve is often observed (segment bc). However, at higher
values of bit weight, subsequent increase in bit weight causes only slight
improvements in ROP (cd). In some cases, a decrease in ROP is observed at
extremely high value of WOB (de). This type of behavior often is called bit
floundering. This poor response of ROP at high values of bit weight usually is
attributed to less efficient bottomhole cleaning at higher rates of cuttings.
A typical plot of ROP vs. rotary speed obtained with all other drilling variables held
constant is shown. ROP usually increases linearly with low RPM. At higher values
of RPM the response of ROP to increase RPM diminishes. The reason is due to
the poor hole cleaning.