Analytical and Numerical Simulation of Asymmetric Converging Flow of Gas Under Drill Bits in Reverse Circulation Gas Drilling

Abstract Reverse circulation gas drilling has been considered to solve engineering problems such as formation water influx, wellbore instability, and excess gas requirement in gas drilling. The performance of reverse circulation gas drilling depends to a large extent on the structure design of the drill bit. An analytical model and a numerical model were developed in this study to simulate the asymmetric converging flow of gas under the drill bit for reverse circulation gas drilling. The two models were compared and applied to the evaluation of a drill bit structure design for bottom hole cleaning capacity of gas flow. It was found that the pressure, velocity, and specific kinetic energy given by the analytical model are slightly lower than that given by the numerical model. The relative difference between the gas flowrates given by the analytical model and the numerical model is less than 5%. For the drill bit structure design considered in this study, the gas flow energy between the short blades is much higher than that between the long blades. A gas injection rate of 10 m3/min (360 ft3/min) is expected to clean the drill cuttings between the short blades, while a gas flowrate of 28 m3/min (990 ft3/min) is required to clean the drill cuttings between the long blades. Although the numerical model gives more accurate result than the analytical model in predicting hydraulics parameters, the analytical model is recommended for evaluating drill bit structure design because of its simplicity and conservativeness.