U.S. patent application number 12/633880 was filed with the patent office on 2011-06-09 for multiple port crossover tool with port selection feature.
This patent application is currently assigned to Baker Hughes Incorporated. Invention is credited to Richard Y. Xu.
Application Number | 20110132613 12/633880 |
Document ID | / |
Family ID | 44080886 |
Filed Date | 2011-06-09 |
United States Patent
Application |
20110132613 |
Kind Code |
A1 |
Xu; Richard Y. |
June 9, 2011 |
Multiple Port Crossover Tool with Port Selection Feature
Abstract
A crossover for gravel packing has multiple outlets that are
selectively covered as they wear from erosion with the covering of
an outlet exposing another for slurry flow to continue. Outlets are
selected by a series of balls that get larger and land on
progressively higher and larger seats on sleeves. As a sleeve
shifts to cover a spent outlet it moves away from a new outlet for
continuation of slurry flow to the outlet opened by virtue of the
shifting sleeve.
Inventors: |
Xu; Richard Y.; (Tomball,
TX) |
Assignee: |
Baker Hughes Incorporated
Houston
TX
|
Family ID: |
44080886 |
Appl. No.: |
12/633880 |
Filed: |
December 9, 2009 |
Current U.S.
Class: |
166/318 ;
166/316; 166/332.1 |
Current CPC
Class: |
E21B 43/045
20130101 |
Class at
Publication: |
166/318 ;
166/316; 166/332.1 |
International
Class: |
E21B 34/06 20060101
E21B034/06; E21B 34/14 20060101 E21B034/14 |
Claims
1. A flow diversion assembly for a ported subterranean tool
inserted from a surface, comprising: a housing having a passage
therein and at least a first and a second port for exit of flow
from said passage; at least one valve member in said passage
selectively covering one of said first and second ports.
2. The assembly of claim 1, wherein: said valve member movable from
a first position where said first port is uncovered and said second
port is covered to a second position where said first port is
covered and said second port is uncovered.
3. The assembly of claim 2, wherein: said valve member moves in a
single axial direction.
4. The assembly of claim 2, wherein: said valve member comprises a
seat that accepts an object to close off a path through said valve
member to allow pressure applied to said object on said seat to
move said valve member.
5. The assembly of claim 2, wherein: said valve member comprises a
sleeve having a sleeve passage therethrough defined by a wall that
has no wall openings.
6. The assembly of claim 2, wherein: said valve member locks to
said housing in said second position.
7. The assembly of claim 2, wherein: said first and second ports
comprise a plurality of ports at least two said ports being axially
spaced.
8. The assembly of claim 7, wherein: at least two said ports are
axially spaced and aligned.
9. The assembly of claim 7, wherein: at least two said ports are
located side by side and circumferentially spaced.
10. The assembly of claim 7, wherein: said at least one valve
member comprises a plurality of valve members.
11. The assembly of claim 10, wherein: there are one fewer valve
members than the number of said ports.
12. The assembly of claim 10, wherein: said valve members each
comprise a seat that accepts an object to close off a path through
said valve member to allow pressure applied to said object on said
seat to move said valve member; said valve members are disposed
adjacent said ports with said seat associated with said valve
member closest to the surface having the largest seat with said
seat size declining in other valve members in a direction away from
the surface.
13. The assembly of claim 12, wherein: said lowermost port furthest
from the surface is initially open; said ports are serially opened
by sequential movement of said valve members by sequential landing
of objects of increasing size on seats of valve members in a
direction toward the surface.
14. The assembly of claim 13, wherein: said ports are sequentially
closed starting with said lowermost port by sequential movement of
said valve members by sequential landing of objects of increasing
size on seats of valve members in a direction toward the
surface.
15. The assembly of claim 14, wherein: shifting of one valve member
opens or closes more than one port.
16. The assembly of claim 14, wherein: said valve members each
comprise a sleeve having a sleeve passage therethrough defined by a
wall that has no wall openings.
17. The assembly of claim 14, wherein: said valve members each
comprise a sleeve having a sleeve passage therethrough defined by a
wall that has at least one wall opening that is aligned with a port
in one of said first and said second positions of said valve
member.
18. The assembly of claim 14, wherein: said seats comprise a
tapered annular surface; said objects comprise spheres.
19. The assembly of claim 18, wherein: said spheres are retained on
respective seats for subsequent removal to the surface with said
housing.
20. The assembly of claim 14, wherein: said ports are aligned and
axially spaced.
Description
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
[0001] The field of the invention is subterranean tools that
experience severe erosion from slurry flow through ports and more
particularly a selection feature that allows selection of other
ports when other ports become unserviceable.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
[0002] Completion operations in subterranean wells frequently
involve deposition of gravel slurries outside a series of screens
through a tool known as a crossover. This tool allows the slurry to
be pumped down the tubing and past an isolation packer and out into
a lower annulus that is outside the screens. The gravel fills the
lower annulus and the fluid goes through the screens and into a
wash pipe and back into a different flow path of the crossover tool
for the trip to the surface in the upper annulus. The lower annulus
is formed by a casing string or could simply be in open hole. The
gravel slurry generally goes through a first port and into an
intermediate annulus and then travels a little further downhole
before making an exit out of the tool and into the lower annulus.
The port where the slurry makes the first turn generally sees the
most erosion effects. The typical flow pattern is illustrated in
U.S. Pat. No. 7,559,357 which also shows the use of deflector
plates to reduce the erosion effects of the gravel slurry upon exit
from the crossover in to the lower cased annulus.
[0003] One attempt to minimize erosion, primarily in an injection
well that involves high velocity flow of fluids such as steam is
U.S. Pat. No. 7,419,003. Here the focus was on the shape of the
ports as a way to reduce edge erosion. Another attempt in a
crossover was to simply provide a plurality of spaced ports that
were also circumferentially offset to get better gravel deposition
in the lower annulus with the hope that multiple ports to take the
flow would reduce the velocity at each port to the point where
erosion would be minimized. This scheme is illustrated in U.S. Pat.
No. 7,503,384. Yet another injection application that involved
ported sliding sleeves with some focus on the port shape was
reported in a paper from the American Association of Drilling
Engineers 03-NTCE-18 (2003) pages 1-15. This report was also
discussed in more detail in the background discussion in U.S. Pat.
No. 7,419,003.
[0004] What is needed and not addressed in the art is a scheme
where multiple outlets can be provided where erosion is an issue
and selected as needed when an outlet has experienced erosion or
after a predetermined volume of flow. As an added feature an outlet
that is no longer in use can be covered over and preferably as
another outlet is made accessible. These and other advantages of
the present invention will be more apparent to those skilled in the
art from a review of the detailed description of the preferred
embodiment and the associated drawings while recognizing that the
full scope of the invention is determined by the appended
claims.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
[0005] A crossover for gravel packing has multiple outlets that are
selectively covered as they wear from erosion with the covering of
an outlet exposing another for slurry flow to continue. Outlets are
selected by a series of balls that get larger and land on
progressively higher and larger seats on sleeves. As a sleeve
shifts to cover a spent outlet it moves away from a new outlet for
continuation of slurry flow to the outlet opened by virtue of the
shifting sleeve.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0006] FIG. 1 is a half section view through a crossover with an
initial port open;
[0007] FIG. 2 is the view of FIG. 1 with the initial port covered
and a second port exposed;
[0008] FIG. 3 is the view of FIG. 2 with the second port covered
and a third port exposed.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT
[0009] The crossover tool itself is well known to those skilled in
the art and only a portion of it that is modified is shown to
illustrate the invention. The gravel slurry generally enters the
tubing string connected to the crossover tool body 10 that has a
passage 12 running through it. Unlike many prior designs that have
a single outlet from a passage such as 12 the present invention
features a plurality of outlets with four being illustrated as an
example although more or fewer outlets can be used. The outlets are
14, 16, 18 and 20. Arrow 22 indicates that initial slurry flow is
through the open port 14. Sliding sleeves 24, 26 and 28 are shown
in FIG. 1 to respectively cover ports 16, 18 and 20. Sliding
sleeves 24, 26 and 28 have ball seats 30, 32 and 34 that are sized
to take progressively larger balls in view of their progressively
decreasing radial extension.
[0010] After a predetermined volume of slurry flow has been pumped
through open port 14 as shown in FIG. 1 a ball 36 is dropped and/or
pumped to seat 30 having bypassed the upper seats 32 and 34 that
are far larger than ball 36. Pressure applied onto ball 36 while
seated on seat 30 of sleeve 24 results in shifting the sleeve 24 to
expose port 16 and close port 14. Flow continues to port 16 as
indicated by arrow 38. The process can be repeated with ball 40
landing on seat 32 to move sleeve 26 down to cover port 16 while
exposing port 18. Arrow 42 indicates the flow going to port 18. The
process can be repeated with an even larger ball landing on seat 34
to close port 18 and open port 20.
[0011] There are variations that are contemplated. The ports 14
through 20 can be axially aligned or they can be offset. The
sleeves 24 through 28 can be solid as shown or they can be ported.
In that case, for example, instead of sleeve 24 coming off of port
16 when closing port 14, sleeve 24 can be longer with a port in it
so that the port in sleeve 24 overlaps port 16 while covering port
14 at the same time as a result of being shifted with ball 36 on
it. The other sleeves can work in the same way although the solid
sleeve option is preferred. The balls that get dropped just stay in
the tool and when the gravel packing is complete and the crossover
tool comes out the balls can be removed at that time at the
surface. The openings can be the same size and shape or they can be
varied in size and shape. The length of time that each port is in
service can be determined by run time of slurry pumping or by
measured slurry volume pumped or by monitoring the pressure
required to maintain a flow or even by instruments that monitor
pressure drop through each opening or some other variable that
indirectly indicates wear on a given port. Another less desirable
option is to associate two sleeves with each port where one is
shifted to open the port and another is then shifted to close the
same port. This requires almost twice the sleeves as the layout
shown in FIGS. 1-3 and could be logistically complicated to execute
in the smaller sizes if using the technique of progressively larger
balls. Although balls are preferred, other object shapes that can
land on a seat on a sleeve so as to allow applied pressure to shift
the sleeve are also contemplated.
[0012] While flow through sleeves 24 to 28 occurs during slurry
flow to port 14 which can cause some erosion on the seats 30 to 34
it is anticipated that even if there is some erosion that a
respective ball that lands on any of those seats should still be
capable of holding back pressure so that the sleeve in question can
be shifted. Alternatively the sleeves can be shifted by a motor
associated with each sleeve to move it between two end positions
and such movement can be controlled at the surface. As another
option a given sleeve can cover more than a single port while
uncovering more than a single port. The ports covered or uncovered
can be axially aligned while circumferentially spaced or they may
be axially spaced while circumferentially aligned or misaligned. As
another option the sleeves can have a locking feature that holds
them in the shifted position such as by a snap ring that snaps into
a groove when the travel limit of a given sleeve is reached. The
seats can be made of a hardened material or have a coating of a
material that resists erosion so that they will maintain sealing
integrity with an object dropped on them after slurry flow has
passed through them for a time.
[0013] The above description is illustrative of the preferred
embodiment and many modifications may be made by those skilled in
the art without departing from the invention whose scope is to be
determined from the literal and equivalent scope of the claims
below.
* * * * *