Modelo numérico para determinação de zonas de perda de circulação de fluido de perfuração em poços de petróleo

Abstract

During oil drilling operations, the wellbore temperature profile is used when selecting well casing materials, making cementation related decisions, and, most importantly, to identify loss zones. In this work, a transient heat transfer mathematical model for a fractured wellbore is proposed. The well has its geometry simplified to a concentric annular cylinder which has one or more discrete fracture in its external wall (wellformation interface). In order to obtain the thermal model an energy balance is used, focusing the heat transfer between the pipe, the annular region and the formation. The key characteristic of the model is the fracture detection through thermal gradient graphical analysis. The thermal gradient is an output of the solution of the discretized energy equation in the domains, obtained through the finite volume method. The following parameters are investigated: fracture depth, fracture number, fracture interference, loss circulation, circulation time, Reynolds number and drilling fluid viscosity. The analysis is done through the analysis of the annular region temperature profile and its gradient, along with the thermal evolution of both the bottomhole and outlet temperatures. It is verified that increasing the fracture relative depth or number decreases the bottomhole temperature, while having no significant impact in the outlet temperature. The same bottomhole temperature effect is noted when increasing loss rate, however outlet temperature changes are observed. In a similar way, when decreasing the distance between fractures, the temperature profile in the annular region trends to a wellbore with a single fracture. Finally, increasing loss rate favors fracture detection, since the discontinuity in the annular region thermal gradient profile is intensified.