Modelagem e simulação numérica da deposição de partículas em meio poroso: um estudo da formação de reboco durante a perfuração de poços de petróleo

Abstract

The lost circulation is a consequence of the well drilling in a permeable substrate, being characterized by the drilling fluid influx to the porous formation. Despite the additional costs associated with the need of continuous fluid replacement, another misfortune is the irreversible formation damage due to the fluid invasion, which may reflect negatively throughout the productive life of the well. Therefore, it is of utter importance to make use of preventive and corrective techniques, like the addition of lost circulation materials (LCM) to the drilling fluid. The LCM particles deposit over the porous formation under dynamic filtration and create a mud cake (filter cake) that helps diminishing the fluid invasion flow rate. In this work, the liquid-solid two-phase flow is numerically simulated via an Euler-Lagrange approach to represent the mud cake growth. The well annular region is considered as a vertical channel bounded by an anisotropic porous formation. The porous medium is conceived in the pore-scale as a periodic array of staggered cylinders. The fluid flows upward through the channel carrying the solid particles that mimic the LCM’s. The particles might eventually get into the porous formation and deposit, creating the mud cake. The equations for the fluid flow and for the particles movement are solved separately via the Dense Discrete Phase Model (DDPM). The particle-particle and particle-wall interactions like collision and friction are calculated via the Discrete Element Methods that is coupled to the DDPM. The effectiveness of the lost circulation mitigation is evaluated mainly by the decrease in the fluid invasion flow rate over time. The results demonstrate the influence of the variation of the Reynolds number on the channel (125, 250, 500), the initial fluid invasion flow rate (5, 10, 20%), the particles diameter (0.50, 0.75, 1.00 mm), the particle-fluid specific mass ratio (1.5, 2.5) and the configuration of the porous medium (porosity, number of cylinders and pore throat).