Modeling on cuttings transport in inclined and horizontal well drilling

Abstract

In inclined and horizontal well drilling, cuttings transport is playing a very important role in obtaining a safe and efficient drilling plan. The paper presents two empirical models, namely Larsen’s model and Rubiandini’s model, which were considered to evaluate the cuttings transport in both inclined and horizontal well drilling in offshore Vietnam. A parametric study considering different drilling parameters such as mud weight, rate of penetration (ROP), mud rheology, etc. indicated that the two empirical models provided the same trends of the flow velocity and flow rate required for transportation of mud cuttings. It is concluded from all simulations that the flow rates predicted by both Larsen’s model and Rubiandini’s model are reasonably close to the actual flow rates in the drilling operation. Moreover, it is also observed from the analyses of the horizontal drilling case that the use of Rubiandini’s model could generally result in larger flow rate required for cuttings transport compared to Larsen’s model.