Summary
An essential part of an automated managed-pressure-drilling (MPD) control
system is the hydraulics model, which, in many cases, is the limiting factor
for achievable accuracy of the system. Much effort, therefore, has been put
into developing advanced hydraulics models that capture all aspects of the
drilling-fluid hydraulics. However, a main drawback is the resulting complexity
of these models, which require expert knowledge to set up and calibrate, making
it a high-end solution.
In practice, much of the complexity does not contribute to improvement of
the overall accuracy of the pressure estimate simply because conditions in the
well change during MPD operations and there are not enough measurements to keep
all of the parameters of an advanced model calibrated.
We will demonstrate that a simplified hydraulics model based on basic fluid
dynamics is able to capture the dominating hydraulics of an MPD system.
Furthermore, we will demonstrate that, by applying algorithms for online
parameter estimation similar to those used in advanced control systems in the
automotive and aerospace industry, the model can be calibrated automatically by
use of existing measurements to achieve a level of accuracy comparable with
that of a calibrated advanced hydraulics model. The results are demonstrated
using field data from MPD operations in the North Sea and dedicated experiments
obtained at a full-scale drilling rig in Stavanger.
© 2012. Society of Petroleum Engineers
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History
- Original manuscript received:
26 April 2011
- Meeting paper published:
5 April 2011
- Revised manuscript received:
11 October 2011
- Manuscript approved:
4 November 2011
- Published online:
21 February 2012
- Version of record:
15 March 2012
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