Running Force in Medium to High-Curvature Wellbores: An Experimental Study and Numerical Simulation of Laboratory and Field Cases

Abstract

This paper presents a novel approach to measure and estimate running force for various laboratory and field conditions. The experimental and simulation procedures of different rod/pipe sizes running through various laboratory/field conditions are described in detail. Tests were conducted on rods to measure the running force for various laboratory cases obtained from dimensional analysis. The generated experimental results were used to calibrate a typical laboratory finite element model from which calibrated parameters are used to estimate the running force for prescribed field cases. Both the experimental and simulated field results revealed that the running force depends on the radius of curvature, hole clearance, horizontal section, and contact scenario significantly. Stress analysis of pipes running through curved and horizontal sections showed that pipes undergo elastic and plastic deformation, and the nature of deformation depends on the pipe size and radius of curvature.