Discussion for Affected Factors of the Carrying Capacity of HDD Drilling Fluid Hong Gao1, Guohui Li2, Xiaocheng

Ma3, Liang Feng4 and Gang Liu5 1 Senior Engineer, Crossing Department, China Petroleum Pipeline Engineering Cooperation, No.146, Heping Road, Lanfang, Hebei 065000, Tel:03162074414;Fax:03162073756;Email:cppegaohong@cnpc.com.cn 2 Senior EngineerDirector of Crossing Department, China Petroleum Pipeline Engineering Cooperation, No.146, Heping Road, Lanfang, Hebei 065000, Tel:03162074314 Fax:03162073756 Email:cppe_ligh@cnpc.com.cn 3 Engineer Crossing Department, China Petroleum Pipeline Engineering Cooperation, No.146, Heping Road, Lanfang, Hebei 065000, Tel:03162075754 Fax:03162073756 Email:maxiaocheng@cnpc.com.cn 4 Master Crossing Department, China Petroleum Pipeline Engineering Cooperation, No.146, Heping Road, Lanfang, Hebei 065000, Tel:03162072354 Fax:03162073756 Email: feng-liang@cnpc.com.cn 5 Senior EngineerCrossing Department, China Petroleum Pipeline Engineering Cooperation, No.146, Heping Road, Lanfang, Hebei 065000, Tel:03162075489 Fax:03162073756Email:cppeliugang@cnpc.com.cn ABSTRACT Although the carrying capacity of the drilling fluid is an important factor for HDD crossing, it is not only a matter of drilling fluid, some other factors are also related to it, such as the drillability of the stratum, types of the bit and the reamer, passes of the hole, mud pressure, velocity of the flow in annular space of the hole, the viscosity and gravity of the mud, the size and gravity of the cuttings, etc. Till now, it has not been mentioned yet, and this paper is trying to explore the relationship among these factors, and expect to make more successful HDD crossings. KEYWORDS Horizontal Directional Drilling; Drilling Fluid; Slurry; Drilling Speed; Carrying Cuttings Rate; Match. INTRODUCTIONS Although our country had introduced HDD crossing technology for nearly 30 years, but the understanding of this technology is far from enough, the specification of HDD is also not perfect. For example, almost everyone understands that the drilling fluid(clean mud without cuttings) is a critical matter for the HDD crossing, it

should have a good capability of carrying cuttings to clean the hole, which is critical for the success of HDD crossing. But how to clean the hole is not very clear, and it is difficulty to find an answer in the relative materials from home and abroad. Therefore both design and construction are lack of complete and rational guidance. It seems to be a simple question for the matching between drilling speed and drilling fluid carrying capacity, but it is a significant issue for cleaning the hole. It also involves reasonable selection of reaming passes, cuttings carrying rate, velocity of the flow in annular space of the hole and capacity of mud pump, etc. Diameters of drill bit and reamers and drilling speed, property of drilling fluid, velocity of the flow in annular space of the hole (or mud discharge value), cuttings carrying rate determine the deslagging ability. This article is mainly focus to discuss these questions, in order to determine a reasonable reaming passes and cuttings carrying rate, improve the reliability of HDD crossing, so that to complete the crossing with a reasonable price. The drill cutting amount per unit time is equal to the cuttings carrying amount of drilling fluid per unit time during the HDD crossing construction is the basic point of this study. DECITION THE AMOUNT OF CUTTINGS The amount of cuttings is related with pipeline diameter, reaming passes and drilling speed. Factors for reaming passes. The amount of drill cuttings is related to the sizes of bit and the each reaming , and the reaming size is associated with the life of reamer. According to the manual of roller bit from Lilin Drill Bit, the reaming size = basic height of body size + basic height of drill tooth 2, the basic height of tooth is generally 4 ', 5', 6 ', 7', 8 'and 9 'separately. Recommended cutting height for each level of reaming is not less than 50% of tooth height, so that, the bearing of the reamer is sustaining even force, hence it extends the bearing life and prevents early failure of the drill body, improves the safety of use(Lilin Machinery Group Co. Ltd). For soft stratum, the diameter of each reaming can be larger to save the budget, and can be achieved by selecting the reaming tool with higher tooth. Contrary for hard stratum. The reaming size and passes number can be determined according to this principle. For example, reaming a hole from 30' diameter(782mm) to 38' 914mm ,it is suitable to reaming 3' on each side of the hole, thus a reference height of the drill teeth equal to or less than 6'(Lilin Machinery Group Co. Ltd).

Drilling speed. Drill cutting value is related with drilling speed. The drilling speed can be estimated from rock drillability or empirical parameters. Drillability of rock. The drillability of rock is the key indicator for evaluating the difficulty of drilling, it is generally use the number of footage in unit time to represent the level of drillability. The drillability is related with drilling method, drill bit structure and parameters of drilling process. According to the drillability of core drilling, the drillability can be divided into 12 classifications which are shown in the Table 1 as below(Download from Internet). Table 1. Drillability of Core Drilling Method Geotechnical 1~3 4~6 classification Geotechnical Soft rock Mid and hard title rock Drillability 7~2.45 1.6~0.82 m/h Representative Loose sand, Shale, gravel, geotechnical containing crushed stone 10% to 20% and gravel, gravel, clay calcareous and sand conglomerate gravel, weathered shale

7~9 hard rock 0.57~0.25 Phyllite, gneiss, coarse-grained granite, limestone breeze

10~12 Stiff rock 0.15~0.045 Fine-grained granite, quartzite, chert

Installation of Pipeline by Horizontal Directional Drilling an Engineering Design Guide . According to PRCI Installation of Pipeline by Horizontal
Directional Drilling an Engineering Design Guide, the speeds of pilot hole and reaming passes are shown in Table 2.2-2 and Table 2.2-3(J.D.Hair &Association, PRCI, 2008). Table 2. Product rate of Pilot Hole Crossing Silt, Sand, Project Length Clay Productio ft/h m/h ft/h m/h 609.6 60 18.28 n Rate of 8 2000 Less Than 30 2000 609.6 55 16.76 4 "(762mm 3000 914.4 ) 914.4 50 15.24 Diameter 3000 Pipe Pilot

Cobble and Gravel ft/h m/h

45 40 13.71 6 12.19 2 10.66 8

Soft rock ft/h

30 25

Hard rock ft/h

15 10

m/h
9.14 4 7.62

m/h
4.57 2 3.04 8

35

20

6.09 6

Proble m

Hole Productio n Rate of Greater of 30 "(762mm ) Diameter Pipe Pilot Hole

2000 2000 3000 3000

609.6 609.6 914.4 914.4

50 45

15.24 13.71 6 12.19 2

40 35

12.19 2 10.66 8 9.144

25 20

7.62 6.09 6 4.57 2

10 Proble m Proble m

3.04 8

40

30

15

Note: Drilling pipe changing time included.

Table 3. Product rate of Reaming Diameter Silt, Sand,Clay in

24 24 32 32

mm
609.6 609.6 914.4 914.4

ft/h
180 150

m/h
54.864 45.72

Cobble and Gravel ft/h m/h

129 90 39.319 27.432

Soft rock ft/h

60 30

Hard rock ft/h

30 Proble m Proble m m/h 9.14 4

m/h
18.28 8 9.144

120

36.576

Proble m

18

5.486

Note: Drilling pipe changing time included

Horizontal Directional Drilling Trainning Mannual . According to the

Horizontal Directional Drilling Training Manual, assuming the drilling fluid is appropriate quality and the best cuttings carrying rate by drilling fluid is 20%, use this value to decide reaming speed. After determining the carrying amount and pump capacity, the drilling speed will be calculated by formula (1)(Houston,Taxas, USA & Paris France for Sumitomo Metal Industries, Ltd.,1999). R=W (V Qn) (1) where, RMaximum drilling speed, m/min WOptimal weight carrying amount of ,cuttings, % VHole volume per meter, m3/m QnEffective flow of mud pumpm3/min Practical experience. There is another method to estimate the drilling rate, use the drilling speed from other project nearby the crossing site, practical experience from previous project which crossing different stratum, and test drilling or finished drilling segment drilling speed to estimate. Based on the experience of Longjiang River HDD

crossing, in the completely weathered and strongly weathered granite stratum, when use 54 "rock reamer repair and clean the hole, the average time for a single drill pipe progress is 10 minutes for most segments, which means 57.6m/h, and in some individual segments, it is estimated that some hard rock dyke is encountered as the longest time is 218 minutes for a single drill pipe, the equivalent of 2.64m/h. In Liyu River crossing of another natural gas transmission line, in the medium-slight weathered limestone (natural compression strength range is 54.4 to 106.0MPa), the drilling time for some of the single drill pipe is at a maximum 5~6 hours, the equivalent of 1.92~1.6m/h. In summary, from the Table 1 of drillability of rock, it can be seen that the drilling speed is lower than Table 2 and Table 3. As the drillability in Table 1 is related with the technology used in the drilling, and is used for geological survey, it should be taken as reference only. Table 2 and Table 3 are suitable for HDD crossing processes, but it should be noted that Table 2 and Table 3 are representing the production rate, which include the times of changing the drill pipe and each pass reaming , and it is a composite value related with pipeline diameter, suitable for estimate the construction period for a project, only be used as a reference for drilling speed. As the drilling speed in "Horizontal Directional Drilling Training Manual" is derived based on the condition that suitable drilling fluid property and cuttings carrying rate and given capability of mud pump, the speed is not suit for design. In the experiences of Longjiang river and Liyu river crossing, the drilling speed are higher than the speed in Table 1, but lower than that in Table 2 and Table 3, therefore, the actual experience is the most accurate and best, and should be collected and accumulated to form a statistical curve for each crossing company, so as to used as a reference for design and construction. DETERMINATION OF CUTTINGS CARRYING AMOUNT Cuttings carrying amount is related with drilling fluid property, velocity of the flow in annular space of the hole, optimized cuttings carrying rate, capacity of mud pump,etc.. Property of drilling fluid. The density, viscosity, colloid rate and static shear strength of the drilling fluid are closed related with cuttings carrying capacity. The cuttings carrying amount will be high if these four properties indicators are high which means the suspension ability of the cutting is high. But higher properties indicators have some drawbacks, therefore these indicators should be appropriate. Drilling fluid density. According to HORIZONTAL DIRECTIONAL DRILLING GOOD PRACTICE GUIDELINES, typical clean bentonite polymer drilling fluid

density is 8.5lb/gal (1.02t/m3), or 3% of the weight of the solid content. The density of acceptance criteria of slurry (mud containing cuttings) for small and medium-sized rig is equal or less than 9lb/gal (1.1t/m3) , and for big rig, equal or less than 10lb/gal (1.2t/m3). U.S. expert suggest that the density of slurry is less than 9lb/gal for good(HDD consortium, 2001). In accordance with department specification of Gazprom HDD Underwater Crossing Construction, the viscosity, colloid rate and static shear strength can be calculate as follows(,,1998): Plastic viscosity. = 0.29
2 )l 2

d t2

..

where- Plastic viscosity, mPa.s - The cuttings size, m; Density of cuttings and drilling fluid respectively, kg/m3; Diameter of the drilling hole, m; dt Drilling pipe diameter, m; l The length of horizontal directional drilling, m; Q Amount of Drilling fluid for mud pump, m3/s; 0.29- Size factor. Colloidal volume content. C = ln.b/p 3 whereC Volume content of the clay colloid component, %; ln -- Natural logarithm of plastic viscosity; bp Density of water and drilling fluid respectively, kg/m3

Range of shear stress. Dynamic shear:T0=23dPs.s Static shear: T=T0/3dPs.s

4 5

Velocity of the Flow in Annular Space of the Hole. Velocity of the flow in annular space of the hole is related with cuttings size. If the cuttings is with large size and heavy density, its starting flow speed will be high. The flow speed in annular space of the hole has the following statements. No-erosion flow velocity on the riverbed bottom is used as the minimum flow rate of the slurry.

Table 4. Allowable Non-erosion Flow Velocity of the Riverbed for Non-cohesive Soils Non-erosion velocity of riverbed V( ) m/s Soil type Category d mm Water depth Water depth 0.4m 1m silt and mud, planting soil Clay 0.15~0.20 0.20~0.30 0.065~0.05 containing fine sand Fine sand 0.05~0.25 0.20~0.35 0.30~0.45 Sand Medium sand Coarse sand Small gravel Gravel Medium gravel Large gravel Small Cobble Cobble Medium Cobble Large Cobble Small boulders Boulder Medium boulders Large boulders 0.25~1.00 1.00~2.50 2.50~5.00 5.00~10.00 10.00~15.00 15~25 25~40 40~75 75~100 100~150 150~200 0.35~0.50 0.50~0.65 0.65~0.80 0.80~0.90 0.90~1.10 1.10~1.25 1.25~1.50 1.50~2.00 2.00~2.45 2.45~3.00 3.00~3.50 0.45~0.60 0.60~0.75 0.75~0.85 0.85~1.05 1.05~1.20 1.20~1.45 1.45~1.85 1.85~2.40 2.40~2.80 2.80~3.35 3.35~3.80

Note: The low flow rate is suitable to small size of soil(Download from Internet).

The flow velocity in the above table is the starting velocity in the case of clear water, in the condition of drilling fluid, the starting velocity shall be smaller than that in the clear water, because of the larger buoyancies and thrust applied by drilling fluid. So the starting flow of the slurry should be more easier.

Installation of Pipeline by Horizontal Directional Drilling an Engineering Design Guide . According to INSTALLATION OF PIPELINE BY
HORIZONTAL DIRECTIONAL DRILLING AN ENGINEERING DESIGN

GUIDE, the slurry flow rates during pilot hole drilling, reaming hole and pulling back are shown in Table 3.2-2, Table 5(J.D.Hair &Association, PRCI, 2008). Table 5. Mud Flow rate of Pilot Hole Silt, Sand, Clay Unit barrels/min/ m3/min 5/0.7945Jet drilling

Cobble and Gravel

Soft Rock

Hard Rock

10/1.589Mud motor drilling

Table 6. Reaming and Pullback Mud Flows Diameter Silt, Sand, Clay Cobble and Gravel barrels/ barrels/ m3/ m3/h min min h 609.6 7 1.11 1.58 10 24 2 9 24 609.6 10 1.58 13 2.06 9 6 32 914.4 914.4 15 2.38 Problem 32 4

Soft Rock barrels/ min 7 10 m3 / h 1.11 2 1.58 9

Hard Rock barrels/ min 7 Problem m3 / h 1.11 2

15

2.38 Problem 4

Table 5 and Table 6 are the slurry flow rate during pilot hole drilling, reaming and pulling back. Using the combination of the slurry flow amount and the hole diameter for each pass, the slurry flow velocity for each pass can be calculated.

Simple Calculation of the Pipes and Pumps. According to Simple calculation

of the pipes and pumps, the velocity of the flow in annular space have economic velocity. Under the condition of the same flow rate, larger diameter pipe have slower flow velocity which will save the cost on the power, but the cost of pipeline is high. On the contrary, if the cost for smaller diameter of pipeline is saving, but the electrical power cost will be high. The pipeline resistance = pipe length pipeline resistance coefficient (velocity) 2, from which, it can be seen, the greater the flow rate, the greater the friction of the hole, the greater the required pump delivery pressure(China Building Industry Press,1973). With certain power, the greater pump pressure will decrease the flow rate, and the smaller flow rate may not meet the requirement of carrying cuttings, and will also cause some problems such as frac-out, etc. HDD hole does not have the problem of cost of pipeline, but larger holes may benefit for reducing the slurry transmission cost. For this reason, with same diameter

of the final hole, larger diameter passes is preferred based on different geological condition. General flow rate limitation of water pipelines is shown in Table 7. Table 7. Generally Limits of Water Pipeline Flow Rate Flow Ratem/s Applicable Conditions Outdoor Long-Distance DN500 1~1.5 Pipelines DN500 0.5~1 Pump Outlet Pipe DN200 2~2.5 DN200 1.5~2 Pump Suction Pipe DN200 1.2~1.5 DN200 1~1.2 Workshop General 1.5~2 Pipeline Empirical practice. Flow rate is related with pump capacity, and the larger pumping capacity is, the larger the flow rate and the larger cuttings carrying capacity are, but greater pumping capacity cost more, and larger flow rate will have serious erosion on the filter cake due to the slurry, and affecting the stability of the bore hole wall. Theoretically, the upper limit of velocity of the flow in annular space of the hole should be the boundary flow rate of laminar and turbulent of non-Newtonian (Bingham fluid), i.e. in the upper limit of laminar conditions, shall be distinguished by Bingham fluid critical Reynolds number. The lower limit of the annular velocity should be starting velocity. As lack of research on the subject of Bingham starting velocity of the fluid and Bingham fluid critical Reynolds number at present in HDD industry, a reasonable flow velocity is difficulty to find. From the general practical experience of HDD crossing, the annulus slurry flow rate shall be higher than 1m/s. Considering the empirical flow velocity of 1m/s~2m/s is able to comply with the above methods, and easy for application, it is recommended to use as annular velocity. Determination of the cuttings carrying rate. At present, many people are not very clear of the cuttings carrying rate and two statement for it exist, one of which is solid particle volume or its weight percentage (including bentonite and additives and cutting) in the mud (slurry),,and the other is the percentage content of cuttings volume or weight. Through research, that should be the percentage by weight of cuttings. The optimal cuttings carrying rate is as follows.

Horizontal directional drilling trainning mannual. According to Horizontal

Directional Drilling Training Manual, the optimal slurry carrying rate shall be 20% if the drilling fluid quality is suitable(Houston, Taxas , USA & Paris France for Sumitomo Metal Industries, Ltd., 1999)..

Horizontal directional drilling good practice guideline. From Horizontal

Directional Drilling Good Practice Guidelines, unit weight of water is 8.34lb/gal (1.02t/m3), unit weight of clean mud (drilling fluid) is 8.5lb/gal (1.02t/m3), unit weight which is larger than these all comes from solid residue of stratum, and the carrying weight can be calculate by the Equation 3.3-1(HDD consortium, 2001). W=m-8.34 8 6 where:Wweight percent cuttings carrying rate% munit weight of drilling fluidlb/gal In addition, for a medium or small rig, the unacceptable weight percentage of slurry is about 5.3%, and 13.3% is for big rig. For the acceptable criteria of the density of slurry, the medium and small rigs are equal or less than 9lb/gal1.1t/m3, which is equivalent to the solid content of 10%, with 7.8% of cutting containing;in it. The big rig is less or equal to 10lb/gal1.2t/m3, which is equivalent to the solid content of 20% with 17.6% of cutiing containing in it. An U.S. mud expert suggests that the circulating mud density is best to less than 9lb/gal, which is equivalent to cutting containing of 7.8%.

Domestic and international oil and gas pipeline HDD crossing engineering data compilation. According to Domestic and international oil and gas pipeline HDD
crossing engineering data compilation, the recommended maximum solid particle content percentage in the mud is calculated as Equation 3.3-1(Gao K.J. & Dai J.Q., 1999). fS=2.917m-14.17 7 where:fSRecommended maximum solid particle content percentage mUnit weight of drilling fluid, lb/gal Therefore if m=8.5lb/gal, then fS=10.6%; if m=9lb/gal, then fS=12.1%; if m=10lb/gal, then fS=15%. Empirical cuttings carrying rate. The stratum of Shan-Yin Line Yellow River crossing inclusions round gravel lens dense sand layer, the cuttings carrying rate of slurry is considered as 10%; The stratum of Guang- Nan trunk branch Longjiang River HDD crossing is completely weathered and strongly weathered granite, adopting 5% of cuttings carrying rate. In summary, the solid content in the slurry is within 5%~20%, HORIZONTAL DIRECTIONAL DRILLING GOOD PRACTICE GUIDELINES has a clear formula for calculate the cuttings content, which has complete parameters and clear meaning, and is easy to use, so it is recommended.

Determination of mud pump. If annular velocity and bore hole size are given, the mud pump flow can be calculate by the equation (8). Qn=S V 60 where:QnEffective flow of mud pump, m3/min SBore hole section aream2 VSlurry flow velocitym/s CONCLUSION From above results we can see that, to match the speed of drilling and the amount of the carried cuttings, the following steps should be considered in the designing. Determine the maximum diameter of bore hole according to pipeline diameter, and determine reaming passes based on the geological condition and reamer size. Based on the experience or reference rock drillability and productivity of HDD, or based on the optimal cuttings carrying rate and pump capacity, to determine the drilling speed. Determine drilling fluid performance. Unit weights of 1.02 for clean mud and 1.1 for containing cuttings mud can be used. And the equations (1)~(5) in this article can be used to calculate plastic viscosity of the drilling fluid, colloidal rate and dynamic shear strength and static shear strength.. Determine upper limit flow velocity of laminar flow based on Reynolds number of Bingham fluid, as a maximum velocity of the flow in annular space of the hole, or based on the experience to take 1m/s2m/s flow velocity, and the smaller value and the greater ones is adapted for easily collapse soft stratum and, hard stratum respectively. cuttings carrying rates range from 5% to 10% is appropriate, and adopt greater value for soft stratum, and smaller value for hard stratum. Calculate mud pump capacity based on velocity of the flow in annular space of the hole and bore hole diameter and pump efficiency. When an optimal cuttings carrying rate and pump capacity are given, the maximum drilling speed can be calculate based on equation (1). 8

REFERENCES Lilin Machinery Group Co.Ltd , Products Introduction Download from Internet, The Drillability of Core Drilling

J.D.Hair &Association, PRCI, (2008) Installation of Pipeline by Horizontal Directional Drilling An Engineering Design Guide Horizontal Drilling International Houston,Taxas, USA & Paris France for Sumitomo Metal Industries, Ltd.,(1999) Horizontal Directional Drilling Training Manual , , Department Specification of Gazprom,(1998) HDD Underwater Crossing Construction Download from Internet, Allowable Non-erosion Flow Velocity of the Riverbed for Non-cohesive Soils China Building Industry Press , (1973) Simple calculation of the pipes and pumps HDD consortium (2001), Horizontal Directional Drilling Good Practice Guidelines Gao K.J. & Dai J.Q.,(1999) Petroleum Industry Press, Domestic and International Oil and Gas Pipeline HDD Crossing Engineering Data Compilation