Experimental and thermal‐structure coupling analysis for oil and water‐swellable packer

Abstract

Abstract It has been widely acknowledged that traditional packers will lose their elastic performance in the context of long periods of operation due to plastic deformation. This paper will introduce a swellable packer that can reduce the failure cases of production effectively. The deformation of the packer rubber in different media and temperatures has been analyzed. The pressure test of several packer rubber under different media is carried out in this paper. The reasonable expansion clearance between the rubber tube and the well wall is obtained by strength calculation to ensure the sealing reliability of the packer. Finally, the thermomechanical coupling calculation of the packer with different structural sizes is carried out. Experiments at different temperatures show that the higher saline concentration is associated with a lower expansion rate and a larger expansion rate in clear water. At the same time, the expansion of volume in clear water increases. In addition, the higher the external temperature is, the larger the temperature gradient is. When the temperature of the outer ring is between 100°C and 140°C, the internal temperature rises to 37°C under the thermomechanical coupling effect.

Keywords

• expansion rate
• experiment
• sealing
• thermal‐structure coupling