9.

Drillstring & BHA Design

1
 Drill String Design
• Drill Pipe
• Pressure Control Equipment
• Drill String Loads
• Monitoring Equipment

2
 Bottom-Hole Assembly (BHA)
Design
• Purpose
• Components
• Assemblies:
- Slick, Packed, Pendulum, Directional
• Properties:
- Weight, Stiffness

3
 Introduction
• The drillstring design is the mechanical linkage
connecting the drillbit at the bottom of the hole
to the rotary drive system on the surface.

• The drillstring has several functions:

- transmit rotation to the drillbit.
- exerts weight on bits (WOB)
- guides & controls trajectory of the bit
- allows fluid circulation

4
 Drillstring Components

• The components of drillsting:

1. Drill Pipe
2. Drill Collar
3. Accessories including:
- HWDP
- Stabilizers
- Reamer
- Directional control equipment

5
Figure 1: Drillstring Components
 Drill Pipe Selection
Table 1: DP grade and yield strength
Grade Minimum Yield
Strength, psi
Letter Designation Alternate
Designation
D D-55 55,000
E E-75 75,000
X X-95 95,000
G G-105 105,000
S S-135 135,000

• Only grade E, G and S are actually used in oilwell drilling.

• API RP7G established guidelines for Drill Pipe as follows:
- New = no wear, never been used
- Premium = uniform wear, 80% wall thickness of new
pipe
- Class 2 = 65% wall thickness of new pipe 6
 Tool Joints
• Tool joints are screw-type connectors that
join the individual joints of drillpipe.
• All API tool joints have minimum a yield
strength of 120,000 psi.

7
 Washout in Drillstrings
• Tool joint failure is one of the main causes of
fishing jobs in drilling industry. This failure is
due entirely to the joint threads not holding
or not being made properly.

8
Figure 2: Make Up Torque
 Washout in Drillstrings
• Washout can also develop due to cracks develop
within drill pipe due to severe drilling vibrations.
• Washout are usually detected by a decrease in the
standpipe pressure, between 100 – 300 psi over 5 – 15
minutes.
• The life of tool joints can be tripled if the joints if
hardfaced with composites of steel and tungsteen
carbide.

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 Approximate Weight of DP
and Tool Joint
• Nominal weight of DP is always less than the actual
weight of DP and tool joint because of the extra weight
added by tool joint and due to extra metal added at the
pipe ends to increase the pipe thickness.

10
Figure 3: Tool joint dimension
 Approximate Weight of DP
and Tool Joint
• Calculations of approximate weight of tool joint and DP:
a) Approximate adjusted weight of DP  Plain end weight 
upset weight
29.4

Approximate adjusted weight of tool jo int  0.222 x L D 2  d 

b) 2


 0.167 x D 3  D 3 E   0.501 x d
T
2
x  D  DTE 
Where :
L = combined length of pin and box (in) D
= outside diameter of pin (in)
d = inside diameter of pin (in)
DTE = diameter of box at elevator upset (in) 11
 Approximate Weight of DP
and Tool Joint

Approximate adjusted weight of DP assembly

c) approx. adjusted wt. DP x 29.4  approx. wt. tool jo
 29.4  tool jo int adjusted
int length

where,

L  2.253 x  D  DTE 
tool jo int adjusted length  12 ft

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Tool Joint Dimension
Table 2: Tool joint dimension table

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 Approximate Weight of DP
and Tool Joint
• Example
calculate the approximate weight of tool joint and DP assembly for 5 in OD,
19.5 lb/ft Grade E DP having a 6.375 in OD, 3.5 in ID. With NC50 tool joint.
Assume the pipe to be internally-externally upset (IEU) and the weight
increased due to upsetting to be 8.6 lb.

• Solution
Referring to Table 2, NC50, 6.375 in OD, 3.5 in ID tool joint for 19.5 lb/ft
nominal weight DP is available in grade X95

Thus L = 17 in ; DTE = 5.125 in

D = 6.375 in ; and d = 3.5 in

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 Approximate Weight of DP
and Tool Joint
a) Approximate adjusted weight of Tool Joint

 0.222 x L D 2  d 2   0.167 x D 3
 D3
T
E   0.501 x d 2
x  D  DTE 


 0.222 x 17 6.3752  3.52   0.167 x 6.375 3
 5.1253   0.501 x 3.5 2
x 6.375
 5.125
 120.27 lb
b). Approximate adjusted weight of Drill Pipe

upset weight
 plain  end weight  29.4




8.6
52  4.276 2 x 1
x 489.5 
4 144 29.4
 17.93  0.293 18.22 lb / ft

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 Approximate Weight of DP
and Tool Joint
Adjusted length of tool joint:
L  2.253 x  D  DTE  17  2.253 x 6.375  5.125
 

12 12
1.651

c) Hence, approximate weight of tool joint and DP

assembly :

18.22 x120.27
  21.2 lb / ft
1.651 29.4

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 Drill Collar (DC) Selection
• There are two types of DC :
- Slick DC
- Spiral DC
• In areas where differential
sticking is a possibility
spiral DC should be used in
order to minimize contact
area with formation.
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Figure 4:Type of Drill Collars
Drill Collar (DC) Selection
Table 2: Drill Collar & Hole Size

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 Procedure for Selecting DC
1) Determine the Buoyancy Factor (BF) of the mud weight:
MW = mud weight, ppg
MW
BF  1 65.5 65.5 = weight of a gallon of steel, ppg

2) Calculate the required collar length to achieve desired WOB:

WOB WOB = weight on bit, lbf (x1000)
DC Length 
0.85 x BF dc Wdc = DC weight in air, lb/ft
xW 0.85 = safety factor
BF = buoyancy factor, dimensionless
3) For directional well:
I = well inclination
DC Length  DC Length vertical
cos
I 19
 Bending Strength Ratio (BSR)
• Bending strength ratio defined as the ratio of
relative stiffness of the box to the pin for a
given connection.
• Large OD drill collars provide greater stiffness
and reduce hole deviation problem.

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 Stiffness Ratio (SR)
• Stiffness ratio define as follows:
SR = Section modulus of lower section tube/section
modulus of upper section tube
 2
1  ID1
OD2 OD
2

OD OD  ID
SR 

2 2
1 2 2

• 
From field experience, a balance BHA should have:
- SR = 5.5 for routine drilling
- SR = 3.5 for severe drilling or significant failure
rate experience
21
Heavy Weight Drill Pipe (HWDP)

• HWDP has the same OD of

a standard DP but with
much reduce inside
diameter (usually 3”)

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Figure 5:Type of HWDP
 Stabilizer
• Stabilizer tools are
places above the drill
bit and along the BHA
to control hole
deviation, dogleg
severity and prevent
differential sticking.
• There are two types of
stabilizer:
– rotating stabilizer
Figure 6:Type of Stabilizer – non
rotating
stabilizer 23
 Standard BHA Configuration
• There are five types of BHA configuration:
1. Pendulum assembly
2. Packed bottom hole assembly
3. Rotary build assembly
4. Steerable assembly
5. Mud motor and bent sub assembly

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 Drillstring Design Criteria
• The criteria used in drillstring design are :
- Collapse
- Tension
- Dogleg Severity Analysis

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 Collapse Design
• The criteria to be used as worst case for the collapse
design of DP is typically a DST. The maximum
collapse pressure should be determined for an
evacuated string, with mud hydrostatic pressure acting
on the outside of the DP.

• A design factor is used in constructing the collapse

design line. The design factor to be used for this full
evacuation scenario is 1.0.
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 Collapse Calculation
1. DST (Drill Stem Test)

Pc  L x 1   L  Y  x
19.251
2 19.251
• Where:
- Pc = collapse pressure (psia)
- Y = depth to fluid inside DP (f)
- L = total depth of well (ft)
- 1 = fluid density outside DP (ppg)
- 1 = fluid density inside DP (ppg)
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 Collapse Calculation

2. Design Factor in Collapse

collapse resis tan ce of

DF 
Drillpipe collapse
pressure (Pc )

a DF of 1.125 is normally used

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 Tension Design
• The tension load is evaluated using the maximum
load concept. Buoyancy is included in the design
to represent realistic drilling condition.
• The tension design is established by
consideration of the following :
- tensile force
- design factor

- slip crushing design 29

 Tension Design
(Tensile Force)
Weight Carried
• The greatest tension (P) on drillstring
occurs at top joint at the maximum
drilled depth.

P L dp xWdp  Ldc xWdc  x BF

Where :
Ldp = length of DP per foot
Wdp = weight of DP per unit length
Ldc = length of DC per foot
Wdc = weight of DC per unit length
30
BF = Buoyancy Factor
 Tension Design
(Tensile Force)
• The drillstring should not be designed to its
maximum yield strength to prevent the DP from
yielding and deforming. At yield, the DP will
have:
– Deformation made up of elastic and plastic (permanent)
deformation.
– Permanent elongation.
– Permanent bend & it may be difficult to keep it straight.

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 Tension Design
(Tensile Force)

• To prevent this, API recommends that the use of maximum

allowable design load (Pa), given by :

Pa  0.9 x Pt
Where :
- Pa = max. allowable design load in tension, lb
- Pt = theoretical yield strength from API tables, lb
- 0.9 = a constant relating proportional limit to yield strength

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 Tension Design
(Tensile Force)
• From above (tensile force) equation, we
obtain:
MOP = Pa – P
DF = Pa / P
where :
MOP = margin of overpull, lbs
DF = design factor, dimensionless
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 Dogleg Severity Analysis
• The most common DP failure is
fatigue wear. Fatigue is tendency
of material to fracture under
repeated cyclic stress and
chemical attack.
• A DP fatigue wear generally
occurs because the outer wall of
the pipe in a dogleg is stretched
resulting in additional tension
loads.
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 Dogleg Severity Analysis
• The maximum possible dogleg severity for
fatigue damage considerations can be
calculated using the following formula:

Max Ds  432,000 x b x tanh KL

 ED KL

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END

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