Casing Collapse Strength Analysis under Nonuniform Loading Using Experimental and Numerical Approach

Multistage fracturing is the main means of shale gas development, and casing deformation frequently occurs during fracturing of shale gas horizontal wells. Fracturing fluid entering the formation will change in situ stress nearby the wellbore. The changes of in situ stress are mainly reflected in the following two aspects: one is the increase of in situ stress and the other is the nonuniformity of in situ stress along the wellbore. And it is for this reason that the production casing is more likely to collapse under the nonuniform in situ stress load. According to the service conditions of production casing in shale gas reservoir, this paper studied the casing deformation and the collapsing strength subjected to the nonuniform loading by the experimental and numerical simulation method. The results show that under the condition of nonuniform loading, (1) the diameter variation rate of the casing reduces with the increase in the ratio of sample to tooling length. When the ratio is less than 3, the casing collapse strength will be significantly reduced. And when the ratio is greater than 6, the impact of sample length on casing collapse strength can be ignored. (2) The increase in the applied loading angle will decrease the diameter variation rate. When the loading angle increases from 0° to 90°, the critical load value increases from 1600 kN to 4000 kN. (3) The increase in load unevenness coefficient will rapidly decrease the casing collapse strength. When the load unevenness coefficient n is 0.8, the casing collapse strength reduces to 60%, and when the load unevenness coefficient n is 0, the casing collapse strength reduces to 28%. The findings of this study can help for better understanding of casing damage mechanism in volume fracturing of shale gas horizontal well and guide the selection of multistage fracturing casing type and fracturing interval design.

Influence of Volume Fracturing on Casing Stress in Horizontal Wells

In horizontal wells, the casing string is affected by the gravity effect, temperature effect, swelling effect, bending effect, friction effect and other mechanical effects. In view of this situation, the mathematical models of casing swelling effect and temperature effect caused by volume fracturing are established. The case analysis shows that the length of the unsealed section in the vertical section has a great influence on the axial shortening of the casing during fracturing. With the increase of the unsealed section length, the axial shortening of the casing increases gradually under the same wellhead pressure. In the process of fracturing, repeated squeezing and pressurization lead to periodic changes of the wellhead pressure, casing deformation and load, which leads to fatigue damage and even fracture of casing. At the same time, a large amount of fracturing fluid is continuously injected through the casing during the fracturing process, which makes the wellbore temperature change greatly. The additional stress caused by the temperature change reduces the casing strength, which has an important impact on the wellbore integrity. The mathematical model of temperature stress and its effect on the casing strength during volume fracturing is established. With the increase of the temperature stress acting on the casing, the casing collapse strength decreases gradually. When the temperature stress reaches 200 MPa, the casing collapse strength decreases to 84% of the original. The research results can provide a reference for the casing integrity design and control in the horizontal well fracturing process.

Influence of expansion rate on circumferential residual stress distribution of expandable casing

To study the distribution law of circumferential residual stress after casing expansion, using the finite element explicit dynamic analysis method analyzed the expansion process of expandable casings under different expansion rates. The analysis obtained key technical parameters of circumferential residual stress, average circumferential residual stress and elastic recovery along the wall thickness direction after casing expansion. It is recognized that the maximum residual tensile stress after casing expansion locates in the middle part of the casing thickness direction. The maximum residual compressive stress locates in the outer wall of the casing. When the expansion rate exceeds 18%, the increase in expansion rate will not lead to an increase in circumferential residual stress after casing expansion. The elastic recovery after casing expansion will reduce the circumferential stress during the expansion process. Considering collapse strength and the influence of elastic recovery on casing patch sealing performance after casing expansion, 23% is the most suitable expansion rate, which can effectively reduce the circumferential residual stress and improve the casing collapse strength. The analysis in this paper can provide bases for the calculation of casing collapse strength after expansion.

Benefit From Structural Reliability Analysis in Risk Evaluation of Collapse of Externally Supported Casing

Casing collapse capacity was identified by Equinor as a critical operational parameter on one of its fields in production. This led to re-evaluation and detailed studies of the overall well design, specifically the production casing’s collapse capacity, together with consequence and risk evaluations in case of a potential casing failure. As an important and useful input to the risk evaluations, the present paper presents a structural reliability analysis for casing collapse. Initially, the casing collapse capacity was evaluated using API TR 5C3 / ISO 10400 [1], with insufficient capacity being documented. In order to investigate further, physical material testing and collapse testing were performed. Two kinds of collapse tests have been performed: i) tests of unsupported pipe and ii) test of pipes with external support from the cement and formation surrounding the pipe. While a paper from 2018 (OMAE2018-78767) considered casings without external support, the present paper pays attention towards supported pipes. Five collapse tests have been performed where test lengths of the 9 5/8” casing were installed inside a thick-walled pipe that simulates the support. A small gap leaves an annulus between the casing and the supporting pipe, allowing a controlled pressure to increase until collapse. The tests have been simulated by finite element analyses. Good correspondence was obtained, providing confidence that FE simulations can be used to predict the collapse capacity of supported pipes. While the tests were only performed for an idealized case with support around the whole circumference, a large number of FE simulations have been carried out for different combinations of support conditions together with variations in pipe ovality and internal wear from drilling. Ideally, the space between the casing and the rock formation is filled by cement. However, in practice there may be channels where there is no cement, likely to occur if the casing is eccentric in the well bore during cementing. These results from these FE simulations have been used to generate a response surface. Subsequent structural reliability analyses have been performed, in which well specific uncertainty associated with the above parameters is considered. Measurements and logging are used to minimize the uncertainty in these inputs and thereby leading to a reduction in the calculated failure probability. The probability of casing collapse is calculated conditional on different magnitude of the differential pressure of the pipe. By using SRA the potential over-conservatism in the conventional deterministic analysis is avoided. The SRA results were used to assist in the risk evaluation resulting in an allowance for continued production on existing wells.