Additive Manufacturing of Dissolvable Downhole Tools and Materials

可溶解井下工具和材料的增材制造

• 批准号: 543505-2019
• 负责人: Qureshi, AhmedJawad
• 金额: $ 1.82万
• 依托单位: University of Alberta
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Engage Grants Program
• 财政年份: 2019
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2019-01-01 至 2020-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=680228
• 关键词: Additive; Manufacturing; Dissolvable; Downhole; Tools

The hydraulic fracturing of horizontal wellbores is an important process in Alberta's oil sands industry. The process requires a technique to seal previously fractured zones and to direct the flow to the next fracture stage, through a process known as "plug and perf", in which frac plugs are employed to isolate lower zones of the wellbore and perforation charges are employed to open the next zone for fracturing. Different down hole tools are used for this process and these tools are conventionally removed after their use by drilling or milling them out of wellbore. These drillout (or millout) and cleanup operations are time consuming and expensive. A number of innovations in this area have resulted into design and manufacturing of degradable metallic downhole tools using the principle of galvanic corrosion to eliminate the need for drillout (or millout) and cleanup operations. These tools dissolve in the well bore, thereby eliminating the need for expensive drillouts. Currently these tools are manufactured by powder metallurgy (chemical vapor deposition, and homogeneous mixing) to fabricate these tools. This results into challenges related to complex powder metallurgy process for material design and a complex manufacturing process and associated supply chain for manufacturing the dissolvable tools. The current process also limits the choice of materials and their mechanical properties. This research proposal aims to improve the design of dissolvable downhole tools by investigating appropriate material selection and additive manufacturing (AM) process. The research will look at Powder bed fusion (PBF) additive manufacturing technique as well as hybrid 3D printing and casting to develop parts with mechanical properties significantly higher than those achieved by conventional fabrication methods. This technique will also allows to make parts with complex geometry, leading to improved and controlled dissolving performance.

水平井筒水力压裂是阿尔伯塔油砂工业的重要工艺。该方法需要一种技术来密封先前压裂的区域并通过称为“堵塞和穿孔”的方法将流动引导到下一个压裂阶段，其中采用压裂堵塞物来隔离井筒的下部区域，并采用穿孔装药来打开下一个区域进行压裂。不同的井下工具用于该过程，并且这些工具在使用后通常通过将它们从井筒中钻出或铣出而被移除。这些钻取（或磨出）和清理操作是耗时且昂贵的。该领域的许多创新已经导致使用电偶腐蚀原理设计和制造可降解的金属井下工具，以消除对钻孔（或研磨）和清理操作的需要。这些工具溶解在井筒中，从而消除了对昂贵的钻孔的需要。目前，这些工具是通过粉末冶金（化学气相沉积和均匀混合）来制造这些工具。这导致了与用于材料设计的复杂粉末冶金工艺以及用于制造可溶解工具的复杂制造工艺和相关联的供应链相关的挑战。目前的工艺还限制了材料的选择及其机械性能。本研究旨在通过研究合适的材料选择和增材制造（AM）工艺来改进可溶解井下工具的设计。该研究将着眼于粉末床熔融（PBF）增材制造技术以及混合3D打印和铸造，以开发机械性能明显高于传统制造方法的零件。该技术还将允许制造具有复杂几何形状的部件，从而改善和控制溶解性能。