TY - GEN
T1 - Smart lost circulation materials to seal large fractures
AU - Tabatabaei, Maryam
AU - Taleghani, Arash Dahi
N1 - Funding Information:
Support of the work efforts includes the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) under the Geothermal Program Office, Award Number DE EE0008602.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021, Society of Petroleum Engineers
PY - 2021
Y1 - 2021
N2 - Lost circulation problems may result in a significant downtime, a considerable reduction of the rate of penetration, or even well control problems. Despite advances in manufacturing lost circulation materials (LCMs), some formations, like heavily fractured carbonates, have complete losses during drilling. We develop smart LCMs using shape memory polymers (SMPs), and program them thermo-mechanically to satisfy size limitations imposed by bottomhole assemblies (BHA). Elevated downhole temperatures act as an external trigger to recover the permanent shape of LCMs, which could expand ten times larger than the temporary (programmed) dimensions for deployment. Smart LCMs are a combination of various material categories such as granular, fibrous (one-dimensional or 1-D) and planar (two-dimensional or 2-D) configurations that resume to the original shape after exposure to high temperatures. The LCMs form different structures such as flatted pellet, disc-shaped, spider-shaped, and spindled, which, respectively, presents grains, 1-D fibers, 2-D stars, and 2-D lattices after recovery. A combination of the above categories attempt to build three-dimensional (3-D) plugging capabilities across various sized fractures.
AB - Lost circulation problems may result in a significant downtime, a considerable reduction of the rate of penetration, or even well control problems. Despite advances in manufacturing lost circulation materials (LCMs), some formations, like heavily fractured carbonates, have complete losses during drilling. We develop smart LCMs using shape memory polymers (SMPs), and program them thermo-mechanically to satisfy size limitations imposed by bottomhole assemblies (BHA). Elevated downhole temperatures act as an external trigger to recover the permanent shape of LCMs, which could expand ten times larger than the temporary (programmed) dimensions for deployment. Smart LCMs are a combination of various material categories such as granular, fibrous (one-dimensional or 1-D) and planar (two-dimensional or 2-D) configurations that resume to the original shape after exposure to high temperatures. The LCMs form different structures such as flatted pellet, disc-shaped, spider-shaped, and spindled, which, respectively, presents grains, 1-D fibers, 2-D stars, and 2-D lattices after recovery. A combination of the above categories attempt to build three-dimensional (3-D) plugging capabilities across various sized fractures.
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U2 - 10.2118/205873-MS
DO - 10.2118/205873-MS
M3 - Conference contribution
AN - SCOPUS:85116655442
T3 - Proceedings - SPE Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition
BT - Society of Petroleum Engineers - SPE Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition 2021, ATCE 2021
PB - Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE)
T2 - SPE Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition 2021, ATCE 2021
Y2 - 21 September 2021 through 23 September 2021
ER -