Performance Prediction of a Turbodrill Based on the Properties of the Drilling Fluid

Abstract

High-temperature geothermal well resource exploration faces high-temperature and high-pressure environments at the bottom of the hole. The all-metal turbodrill has the advantages of high-temperature resistance and corrosion resistance and has good application prospects. Multistage hydraulic components, consisting of stators and rotors, are the key to the turbodrill. The purpose of this paper is to provide a basis for designing turbodrill blades with high-density drilling fluid under high-temperature conditions. Based on the basic equation of pseudo-fluid two-phase flow and the modified Bernoulli equation, a mathematical model for the coupling of two-phase viscous fluid flow with the turbodrill blade is established. A single-stage blade performance prediction model is proposed and extended to multi-stage blades. A Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) model of a 100-stage turbodrill blade channel is established, and the multi-stage blade simulation results for different fluid properties are given. The analysis confirms the influence of fluid viscosity and fluid density on the output performance of the turbodrill. The research results show that compared with the condition of clear water, the high-viscosity and high-density conditions (viscosity 16 mPa∙s, density 1.4 g/cm3) will increase the braking torque of the turbodrill by 24.2%, the peak power by 19.8%, and the pressure drop by 52.1%. The results will be beneficial to the modification of the geometry model of the blade and guide the on-site application of the turbodrill to improve drilling efficiency.

Keywords

• high-temperature drilling fluid
• two-phase flow
• turbodrill blade
• multi-stage simulation
• performance prediction