SPE

SPE 22820

Coiled-Tubing-Life Modeling
K.R. Newman* and DA Newburn, Dowell Schlumberger
'SPE Member IT
Copyright 1991, Society of Petroleum Engineers Inc.

This paper was prepared for presentation at the 66th Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition of the Society of Petroleum Engineers held In Dallas, TX, October 6-9, 1991.

This paper was selected for presentation by an SPE Program Committee following review of information contained in an abstract submitted by the author(s). Conlents of the paper,
as presented, have not been reviewed by the Society of Petroleum Engineers and are subject to correction by the author(s). The material, as presented, does not necessarily reflect
any position of the Society of Petroleum Engineers, its officers, or members. Papers presented at SPE meetings are subject to publication review by Editorial Committees of the Society
of Petroleum Engineers. Permission to copy is restricted to an abstract of not more than 300 words. Illustrations may not be copied. The abstrect should contain conspicuous acknowledgment
of where and by whom the paper is presented. Write Publications Manager, SPE, P.O. Box 833838, Richardson, TX 75083-3836 U.S.A. Telex, 730989 SPEDAL.

Introduction
The use of coiled tubing (CT) is increasing rapidly in the
oilfield service industry. Large CT sizes are being
developed to meet new service requirements. The CT is
being pushed closer to its performance limits for many
of these services. To avoid CT failures in the field, it is
important that these limits are well understood.
This paper addresses the CT life limits. It describes
how a CT life prediction model was developed, presents
conclusions from the model, and discusses the practical
application of the model.
CT Life Considerations

There are three major types of CT limits: There are three CT damage mechanisms which must be
considered to accurately predict the life of the CT.
• Life limits due to low cycle fatigue and corrosion of These damage mechanisms are as follow:
the CT.
1) Fatigue due to bending and pressure
• Pressure and tension limits of the CT [1].
The bending of the CT is the most important of these
• Diameter and ovality limits. damage mechanisms. A tube can be bent to the yield
radius of curvature, Ry, before the tube material begins
These limits are interrelated in some ways but can be to yield. Once the tube is bent beyond the yield radius
analyzed separately. The corrosion effect on the CT of curvature, the material yields and is plastically
must be considered for the first two limits; but, the deformed. R,. is given by the following equation:
fatigue life of the CT does not significantly affect the
pressure and tension limits.
(1)
The diameter and ovality limits are determined based on
present surface hardware such as the stripper bushings
and BOP inserts. Real-time monitoring of the CT
diameter is necessary to locate mechanical damage, such where:
as dents and ballooning, which can not be predicted by
computer modelling. ro = outside radius of tube
E = Youngs Modulus
References and figures at end of paper. (ly = Yield Stress

13
 SPE 22820
Table I gives the yield radius of curvature, Ry, for the well, there are residual internal stresses in the CT
various sizes of CT assuming a nominal yield stress of material. On one side, this residual stress will be a
75,000 psi: tensile stress equal to the yield stress of the material.
On the other side, the residual stress will be
compressive, again equal to the yield stress.

!:! :! I:! :l: :!: !:! :i!I : I I:jl l! I!il!i!I!I:I!I:1!: :!:i!I!I!I! ! !I!:! ! I!:!i!I!:!r~! i! ! !I :l il!:!I!I!:! I!I! l! !I!I! l! !il:! I! !: When pressure is added to the CT, the combined loads
1.00 16.6 increase, and the CT material plastically deforms.
Thus, pressure cycling of the CT, even without
1.25 20.8 bending, causes some plastic deformation and fatigue.
This fatigue is small relative to the fatigue caused by
1.50 25.0 bending.
1.75 29.2
2.00 33.3 Model Development
2.38 39.6
Full scale fatigue tests using actual well service
equipment were conducted while monitoring multiaxial
strains. A variety of experimental mechanics
Table I techniques were used to measure repeated post-yield
cyclic strains, requiring the development of unique
Figure 1 shows a sketch of a CT reel and an injector strain sensors [2]. Resistance strain gauges,
head. This sketch shows the typical radii of curvature photoelastic strip and surface coatings, and mechanical
the CT is bent through when going on the reel and over grid techniques are all required to ensure a full range of
the gooseneck. When these radii are compared to the valid data. The strain data collected during full scale
table above, it is obvious that the CT is undergoing gross testing are utilized as input with several local strain
axial plastic deformations when making these bends. based fatigue life prediction theories [3].

Internal pressure in the CT at the point where the Some tube specimens displayed diametral growth on the
bending is occurring causes hoop plastic deformation to order of 15%. The curvature of the reel and gooseneck
occur at the same point, even when the internal pressure subject the tubing to cyclic flexural strain ranges greater
by itself is not sufficient to cause plastic deformation. than 1 %. Due to commercial strain gauge longevity
Note that the pressure which causes this deformation is problems at such cyclic strain magnitudes, a laminated
at the point of bending, and not at the inlet to the reel. photoelastic strip coat was developed. Photoelastic
This plastic deformation in the hoop direction causes the sensors have the advantage of superior durability
diameter of the CT to increase. relative to the extremely limited life of foil strain
gauges (the resilience of the plastic coating being much
This plastic deformation, due to bending and pressure, greater than that of a metal foil gauge).
fatigues the CT material and is a primary damage
mechanism which limits the CT life. All of the strain measurement devices were mounted
sequentially along a 20 inch length of each tube
2) Corrosion specimen. Appropriate "no load" reference data was
recorded before wrapping the tubing onto a reel. Each
CT is often used to place acid during well stimulation. section of tubing was monitored for multiaxial strains as
The acid is inhibited to reduce its effect on the CT and it rolled off of the reel and over the gooseneck, then as
wellbore tubular materials; but there is still some acid it straightened when it approached the well bore. At
corrosion. In fact, CT is sometimes used to reduce the that point, the process was reversed; and the strain
exposure of the wellbore tubulars to acid. monitored section of tubing was returned to the original
position on the reel. Each section of pressurized tubing
Corrosion also occurs due to internal and external was cycled to failure, defined as loss of internal
surface oxidation and HzS exposure. pressure. Typical strain waveforms are shown in
Figure 2. These waveforms show that internal pressure
3) Fatigue due to pressure cycles only had a substantial effect on cyclic diametral tube growth
while longitudinal strain behaviour in the tubing was
When CT is on the reel, or when it is pulled straight in primarily deflection controlled and independent of

14

internal pressure.
Low cycle local strain based techniques also require
detailed laboratory data to regress critical coiled tubing
material parameters. Many specimens were extracted
from new tubing and subjected to fully reversed strain
controlled cycling at various amplitudes. Special
alignment and fixturing techniques were developed for
these tests.
The use of several strain based damage parameters were
investigated. A block of longitudinal and circumferential
strain measurements were used as input to a strain
controlled incremental plasticity algorithm. The
algorithm was a multi-surface kinematic model utilizing
the associated flow rule and a modified Mroz hardening
rule [4] developed by Garud [5]. The algorithm
computes the radial strain component as well as
longitudinal and circumferential stress components. This
approach was then extended to compute damage over a
block of loading. The fluctuations during a block were
cycle counted using a rainflow approach and damage was
summed using a nonlinear damage method.
The full-scale fatigue testing demonstrated that crack
initiation began on the inside surface of the CT. The
model defines failure as crack initiation. The
propagation life of a crack to failure was also predicted
by the model for comparison with actual failures during
testing. Depth and pressure histories were used to
correctly account for sequence effects in estimating
service loading and deflections at discrete positions along
the entire length of tubing. Input variables included
tubing outer diameter, current wall thickness
(considering corrosion), reel diameter, and radius of
curvature of the gooseneck.
Close examination of Figure 3 shows data scatter typical
of fatigue problems. In particular, note that low pressure
tests display a wide range of results compared to the
better behaved data at pressures greater than 2500 psi.
This motivates a fatigue model which approaches low
pressure cases with traditional algorithms, while higher
pressure cases are best addressed with creep-fatigue
methodology. The model is currently structured to
anticipate tubing failures just below the lower bound of
available data.
The importance of sequence effects cannot be
underestimated. Each job must be accounted for
throughout the life of the reel, in sequence. High
pressure cases are especially important in that
accumulated damage is not a linear function of internal
pressure.
15
SPE 2282,0
Model Predictions -vs- Actual Results
Figure 3 shows results from the model compared with
actual results measured in the full scale tests discussed
above. The model predicts when cracks will first be
initiated and when failure will occur. In each three bar
set in Figure 3, the left bar is the model prediction for
crack initiation and the right bar is the model prediction
for failure. The middle bar shows the actual results
from the full scale testing. This Figure shows that the
crack initiation predicted by the model was always less
than or equal to the actual end of the CT life.
It is important to note that Figure 3 does not include the
diameter and ovality limits discussed in the
introduction. For the high pressure cases, the CT
would reach the diameter limit before reaching the life
limit predicted by the model.
The following are observations made by comparing the
crack initiation data predicted by the model:
• Larger gooseneck - increasing the gooseneck radius
from 50 to 72 increased the CT life for the 1.25 x
.087, 3000 psi case by 54%. In the 1.5 x .109 5000
psi case, the CT life increased by 64 % due to the
larger gooseneck.
• Thicker CT wall - increasing the wall thickness of
the CT significantly increased the CT life for high
pressure cases as is summarized in the Table n
below:
1.25 .087 to .109 5000 127%
1.25 .087 to .109 2500 6%
1.50 .109 to .125 5000 81%
1.50 .109 to .125 2500 2%
1.75 .109 to .125 5000 100%
1.75.109 to .125 2500 6%
Table II

• CT size - the smaller CT has a significantly longer
life. Table III shows the life increase due to
decreasing the CT size with constant .109 wall
thickness:
Pttsslll'e . ,•.•.,,. •., •.
et Sizes>. ,. ·····>.(psi)
C ,,·I.·'
..•.•
1.50 to 1.25 5000
1.50 to 1.25 2500
1.50 to 1.25 250
1.75 to 1.50 5000
1.75 to 1.50 2500
1.75 to 1.50 250
Table m
Most of the fatigue tests discussed above were performed
with a constant internal pressure. This was done for
ease of testing. In real life, CT is subjected to different
internal pressures with almost every use. As was
discussed above, the order of these pressure sequences is
very important in determining the CT life. To validate
the model for these sequential effects, some full scale
sequence tests were performed. The crack initiation
prediction by the model was again conservative when
compared to the actual CT life.
Practical Application
For this model to be used effectively in the field, a CT
history recording system must be implemented to record
the critical CT parameters along the length of the CT.
These parameters include the major and minor diameters,
pressure cycles, bending cycles and chemical
environment. When this history is used in the model, it
is possible to produce a plot of the CT life versus the
length of the CT on the reel. When a job is being
planned, the proposed pumping schedule can be used in
the model to predict the CT life after the job. Figure 4
shows an example plot with the CT life before and after
a predicted job. This plot is used to verify that there
will be no problems with the CT during the job.
Figure 5 shows the results of an attempt to quantify the
relative CT pipe costs for jobs at various pressures with
various CT sizes. The predicted CT life from the
model, adjusted to include the life limits due to diameter
SPE 22820
growth, was used to calculate a relative CT pipe cost
per job. Some of the 5000 psi bars are missing because
the relative cost became to large to fit on the graph.
Some observations from figure 5:
• For a 4000 psi job using 1.5 CT, the pipe cost will
be 41 % more for 0.95 wall than for 0.109 wall,
n.'•.•Tc• • • .r•L.•ease~rJ
i .• •.:•.,•. even though the 0.95 wall pipe is less expensive.
171% • For a 2000 psi job with 2.0 x .125 CT, the pipe will
cost 426% more than 1.25 x .095, 164% more than
42% 1.5 x .109 and 60% more than 1.75 x .125. Thus,
the pipe cost associated with running larger CT sizes
38% increases significantly with CT size, even at modest
168% pressures.
39% • For a 4000 psi job with 2.0 x .156 CT, the pipe will
cost 700% more than 1.25 x .109, 260% more than
33%
1.5 x .125 and 92 % more than 1.75 x .134. Thus,
higher pressures drastically increase the pipe cost
associated with running larger CT sizes.
• For a job with 1.5 x .109 CT at 5000 psi, the pipe
will cost 387% more than doing the job at 2000 psi.
Thus, increasing pressure can significantly increases
the pipe cost for one CT size.
These relative pipe costs assume that the entire reel of
pipe performs all jobs at a constant pressure throughout
the life of the reel.
Conclusions
• Fatigue damage due to combined pressure and
bending cycles is a primary consideration in CT life
modelling.
• The life of the CT increases with increased wall
thickness.
• The life of the CT increases with increased
gooseneck and reel radii.
• As the diameter of the CT increases, its life
decreases.
• The initial cracking begins on the inside surface of
the CT.
• The sequence of pressure and bending cycles must
be considered to determine CT life.
• Fatigue modelling alone is not sufficient to ensure
no CT failures will occur. Real time diameter
16
 SPE 22820
monitoring of the CT is necessary to locate
mechanical damage and/or ballooning of the CT
material.

• Corrosion of the CT due to acid, H2S and rust must

be considered to accurately model the CT life.

• There is some fatigue damage done to the CT by

pressure cycles alone, but this damage is small
relative to the damage caused by combined pressure
and bending cycles.

References

I Newman, K.R., "Coiled Tubing Pressure and

Tension Limits" , SPE paper 23131, Proceedings from
Offshore Europe 91, September 1991.

2 Newburn, D.A., and Tipton, S.M., "Strain

Measurement and Damage Analysis in Low-Cycle
Multiaxial Fatigue" , Proceedings of the 4th
International Conference on Fatigue and Fatigue
Threshold, Honolulu, Hawaii, July 1990, pp 417-421

3 Tipton, S.M., and Newburn, D.A., "Plasticity and

Fatigue Damage Modelling of Severely Loaded
Tubing", Proceedings of the First Symposium on
Advances in Fatigue Lifetime Prediction Techniques,
ASTM, San Francisco, California, April 1990 (to be
published in pending STP).

4 Mroz, Z., "An Attempt to Describe the Behaviour of

Metals under Cyclic Loads using a More General
Workhardening Model", Acta Mechanica, Vol. 7,
No. 2-3, 1969, pp. 192-212.

5 Garud, Y.S., "A New Approach to the Evaluation of

Fatigue under Multiaxial Loadings", Methods of
Predicting Material Life and Fatigue, Ostergren, W.J.
and Whitehead, J.R., Editors, ASME, 1979, pp. 247-
264.

Acknowled2ement

Dr. Steve Tipton, Associate Professor, Department of

Mechanical Engineering, The University of Tulsa, is
recognized for his important contributions in life
prediction methodologies for coiled tubing.

17
 ~
rn
I')
N
GOOSENECK
~ 20
~.
CR
RADIUS = 50· or 72" z r.:».
~ 1.51 ;;.,
~
(J)
I-
1.0
,II •
1\ iI
• A n1\
J!, k I

o 0.5o
z II \_...I: "¥ 'lill\ , t7l } .\,4-
-.. -~..-, \'--if
y"" I
I
w
m
TIME

12.0 -'-'---5000 psi

REEL RADIUS = 60 " 'i 80 ----1:500 psi ...........,
(full spool) :Z-. ii,,-,; \
~ 4.0 - --.... -
I- 0 1-.-:---H-.~~+:Ac'H~5PkI H--.P""'r".,,----,,:--.:y ----::....----l
(J)
& -4.0 ~¥--__v;IL~_JL_-~C--4.L-~~-~----l
~ -8.0 r-----------------------l
Figure 1. CT Reel and Gooseneck Schematic
-12.0 L . - - - - - - - - f f - - - - - - - - - - - - - l
TIME

Figure 2. Characteristic Strain Waveforms

~

co

W
11.
::;
C!l
z
1ii
:::>
I-

5000 3000 3000 1500 250

50 50 72 50 50
15000
50
2500
50
250
50
15000 5000
50 72
2500 250
50 50
15000
50
2500 250
50 50
15000
72
2500
72
250
72
15000 2500
72 72
250
72
lnIemai pressure (psi)
gooseneck radius r..)
1.25" X .087 1.25" X .109 1.5" X .109 1.5" X .125 1.75" X .109 1.75" X .125 IubIngdia..-a
waI thickness (in)

o Predicted Crack In~ialion 0 Actual Failure (tested) .. Predicted Failure

Figure 3. CT Life - Predicted vs Actual

 SPE 2282-0

50

- - Current Life
40 --------- Previous Life
oJ!.
C)
z
+ Weld Location
~
iii
::::l 30 A h-
rill
lrVj1
I-
0
W N
....I
.~~
5
-"--I • ,._4

·u
0 20 r
W·~____.t...
~.:
A
------.-1------- -_.
LL
0 1/\ ,
W
LL
:.
,---,------_ .. '- ..-------_.,----
"
::::;
1C

o
o 2000 4000 6000 8000 10000
DISTANCE FROM DOWNHOLE END OF COILED TUBING - 11

Figure 4. Example Model Output

.0
-..o
lii
C-
iii
o
(,)

.109 .125
1.25
.134 .156 \.095 1.5 .156 \.109
.134
2.0
.156 I
CT Diameter x Wall Thickness (in)
o 2000 psi • 3000 psi • 4000 psi • 5000 psi

Figure 5. CT Pipe Cost per Job

19