Extending ESP Run Life By Reducing Shutdowns and Improving Restarts Using Novel Pump Protection Technology

Meeting the production demand in today's market without sacrificing performance of the artificial lift method is critical. Aggressive flowback procedures lead to solids production and unplanned electric submersible pump (ESP) shutdowns because of solids overload. A novel pump protection system has been designed, tested, and installed in the field. The system enhances the ESP life, improves restarts, and reduces downhole vibrations and unplanned shutdown by controlling the solids flowback and sending solids-buildup pressure signals. A comparative study on three ESP wells in the Delaware basin (US) demonstrated the efficacy of the system. The system comprises of an intake sand control screen and valve assembly. The novel stainless steel wool screen acts as a three dimensional (3D) filter capable of filtering out particles of 15 to 600 μm, and the valve assembly activated by differential pressure across the screen creates a secondary flow path to allow cyclic cleanup of the screen. Stainless steel wool screen with variable pore sizes is used as the sand control media for its high efficiency in preventing the flow of most of the solid particles. When the solids build up on the screen surface, the valve assembly opens upon reaching a preset differential pressure to enable flow past the screens and into the ESP and allows sands deposited on the screen surface to fall off. The pump protection assembly was tested at surface and installed in three wells along with downhole ESP gauges measuring pressure, temperature and vibrations after pulling out existing ESP completions. Qualification testing confirmed the opening of the valve assembly after solids buildup on the stainless steel wool screen. It also validated that the deposited sand fell-off from the screen surface after flow diverted through the valve assembly and pressure differential across screen dropped. In the field installations, the run life of the ESPs improved by an average of 35%, with comparable production volumes and slow drawdowns. In addition, the number of ESP shutdowns related to sand and solids was reduced by as much as 75%, improving longevity of electrical components. The success rate of ESP startups after planned and unplanned shutdowns also improved by 22%. The increase in inlet pressure captured via the downhole gauges when the valve assembly opened indicated the sand control prevention and mitigation system was bridged, and ESP replacement should be scheduled to minimize deferred production from a solids-induced ESP failure and to minimize surface solids management costs. The vibration signal data obtained from downhole sensors confirmed the reliability of the system. Overall, results demonstrate that the system designed is successful at increasing ESP run life without detriment to well production performance. The new, field-proven pump protection system along with its components and the completion design substantially increase life of ESP by reducing the number of shutdowns related to sand overload, reducing shutdowns, reducing overall vibrations, increasing the probability of successful start after shut-in, and increasing the performance reliability during fracturing of a neighboring well. Consequently, more wells that are looking to increase the ESP life can now benefit from this technology and increase output.

Study of thin plate bending using the method of holographic moiré

The development of the technique of applying high-frequency metallized working images to products made of any materials led to the emergence of the holographic moiré method. This method is based on recording holograms in counter beams and is traditionally used to study the displacements in the working raster plane. This paper shows that if, when holograms are recorded, the registering medium is placed at a considerable distance from the working screen surface, then the recorded optical information makes it possible to determine the inclination angles of the surface under study. We present the results of a study of bending of a thin, round, rigidly clamped plate. The plate was subjected to hydrostatic bending. A good agreement between the experimental data and the theoretical solution is obtained.

Coupling mechanism of materials and screen surface motion in multi-stage variable inclination equal thickness screening process

Multi-stage variable inclination equal-thickness screen (MSVIETS) is widely used in separating coal and mineral particles because of its large production capacity and good screening performance. In this study, the kinematic characteristics of infeed and outfeed ends surface under the conditions of load and no load was investigated by using a high-speed camera analysis system. The motion speed of the screen surface at the infeed end was approximately 5 times higher under load than under no-load conditions, and motion speed of the screen surface at the outfeed end was approximately 4 times higher than under no-load conditions. The mechanism of coupled motion of material and screen surface in the process of multi-stage variable inclination equal thickness screening was elucidated, and the energy coupling transfer law was “strong in and weak out”.

Novel Biological and Molecular Characterization in Radiopharmaceutical Preclinical Design

In this study, the potential of a digital autoradiography system equipped with a super resolution screen has been evaluated to investigate the biodistribution of a 18F-PSMA inhibitor in a prostate cancer mouse model. Twelve double xenograft NOD/SCID mice (LNCAP and PC3 tumours) were divided into three groups according to post-injection time points of an 18F-PSMA inhibitor. Groups of 4 mice were used to evaluate the biodistribution of the radiopharmaceutical after 30-, 60- and 120-min post-injection. Data here reported demonstrated that the digital autoradiography system is suitable to analyse the biodistribution of an 18F-PSMA inhibitor in both whole small-animal bodies and in single organs. The exposure of both whole mouse bodies and organs on the super resolution screen surface allowed the radioactivity of the PSMA inhibitor distributed in the tissues to be detected and quantified. Data obtained by using a digital autoradiography system were in line with the values detected by the activity calibrator. In addition, the image obtained from the super resolution screen allowed a perfect overlap with the tumour images achieved under the optical microscope. In conclusion, biodistribution studies performed by the autoradiography system allow the microscopical modifications induced by therapeutic radiopharmaceuticals to be studied by comparing the molecular imaging and histopathological data at the sub-cellular level.

Vibration Characteristics of an Industrial-Scale Flip-Flow Screen with Crank-Link Structure and Parameters Optimization

Flip-flow screens are increasingly used in the processing of fine wet coal. In this work, the vibration characteristics of an industrial-scale flip-flow screen with crank-link structure (FFSCLS) were investigated theoretically and experimentally. An improved kinematic model of FFSCLS was proposed and experiments are carried out to verify the reasonability. The effects of the key parameters of the eccentricity of the crankshaft, the rotational speed of the crankshaft, and the tension length of the screen surface on the vibration characteristics of the screen were investigated parametrically. The results show that the kinematic model can describe the vibration characteristics of screen perfectly with the maximum error between the theoretical and experimental results being within 6.96%. Moreover, the key parameters of the eccentricity of the crankshaft, the rotational speed of the crankshaft, and the tension length of the screen surface have significant effects on the vibrations of the screen body and screen surface. These parameters should be optimized to achieve maximum screening performance of the FFSCLS. This work should be useful for optimal design and efficient operation of the flip-flow screen.

A Numerical Study of Separation Performance of Vibrating Flip-Flow Screens for Cohesive Particles

Vibrating flip-flow screens (VFFS) are widely used to separate high-viscosity and fine materials. The most remarkable characteristic is that the vibration intensity of the screen frame is only 2–3 g (g represents the gravitational acceleration), while the vibration intensity of the screen surface can reach 30–50 g. This effectively solves the problem of the blocking screen aperture in the screening process of moist particles. In this paper, the approximate state of motion of the sieve mat is realized by setting the discrete rigid motion at multiple points on the elastic sieve mat of the VFFS. The effects of surface energy levels between particles separated via screening performance were compared and analyzed. The results show that the flow characteristics of particles have a great influence on the separation performance. For 8 mm particle screening, the particle’s velocity dominates its movement and screening behavior in the range of 0–8 J/m2 surface energy. In the feeding end region (Section 1 and Section 2), with the increase in the surface energy, the particle’s velocity decreases, and the contact time between the particles and the screen surface increases, and so the passage increases. When the surface energy level continues to increase, the particles agglomerate together due to the effect of the cohesive force, and the effect of the particle’s agglomeration is greater than the particle velocity. Due to the agglomeration of particles, the difficulty of particles passing through the screen increases, and the yields of various size fractions in the feeding end decrease to some extent. In the transporting process, the agglomerated particles need to travel a certain distance before depolymerization, and the stronger the adhesive force between particles, the larger the depolymerization distance. Therefore, for the case of higher surface energy, the screening percentage near the discharging end (Section 3 and Section 4) is greater. The above research is helpful to better understand and optimize the screening process of VFFS.

Synthesis of fluorinated polyimide towards a transparent triboelectric nanogenerator applied on screen surface

A fluorinated polyimide film is synthesized toward the transparent triboelectric nanogenerator applied on touch screen surface to convert the mechanical energy into electrical energy.

Surface Tension, Screen Space

My work questions how material relations can appear on the surface of different media—on film and video screens, in gallery installations, or on the skins of buildings and people. In response to these issues, I propose to approach materiality as a surface condition. Focusing on screen surface, I show that technologies of light can produce new forms of materiality. In this text, the screen emerges as a site of encounter and admixture. Various experiments of screening are considered, ranging from those envisaged by László Moholy-Nagy to the contemporary installations of Krzysztof Wodiczko. In these configurations of the act of screening, different forms of mediation, memory, and transformation can take place. This is what I call ‘the surface tension of media’.