U.S. patent application number 14/151134 was filed with the patent office on 2015-07-09 for frangible and disintegrable tool and method of removing a tool.
This patent application is currently assigned to Baker Hughes Incorporated. The applicant listed for this patent is Guijun Deng, Guobin Ma, Zhiyue Xu, Zhihui Zhang. Invention is credited to Guijun Deng, Guobin Ma, Zhiyue Xu, Zhihui Zhang.
Application Number | 20150191986 14/151134 |
Document ID | / |
Family ID | 53494761 |
Filed Date | 2015-07-09 |
United States Patent
Application |
20150191986 |
Kind Code |
A1 |
Deng; Guijun ; et
al. |
July 9, 2015 |
FRANGIBLE AND DISINTEGRABLE TOOL AND METHOD OF REMOVING A TOOL
Abstract
A frangible and disintegrable tool includes, a body made of a
disintegrable material having a plurality of stress risers, the
disintegrable material and the plurality of stress risers are
configured such that when physically loaded to failure the body
will break into a plurality of pieces and a plurality of the
plurality of pieces will be substantially similar in size.
Inventors: |
Deng; Guijun; (The
Woodlands, TX) ; Ma; Guobin; (Houston, TX) ;
Zhang; Zhihui; (Katy, TX) ; Xu; Zhiyue;
(Cypress, TX) |
|
Applicant: |
Name |
City |
State |
Country |
Type |
Deng; Guijun
Ma; Guobin
Zhang; Zhihui
Xu; Zhiyue |
The Woodlands
Houston
Katy
Cypress |
TX
TX
TX
TX |
US
US
US
US |
|
|
Assignee: |
Baker Hughes Incorporated
Houston
TX
|
Family ID: |
53494761 |
Appl. No.: |
14/151134 |
Filed: |
January 9, 2014 |
Current U.S.
Class: |
166/376 ;
166/179; 166/243; 166/316 |
Current CPC
Class: |
E21B 33/1204 20130101;
E21B 29/00 20130101 |
International
Class: |
E21B 29/00 20060101
E21B029/00; E21B 34/06 20060101 E21B034/06; E21B 33/12 20060101
E21B033/12 |
Claims
1. A frangible and disintegrable tool comprising: a body being made
of a disintegrable material having a plurality of stress risers,
the disintegrable material and the plurality of stress risers being
configured such that when physically loaded to failure the body
will break into a plurality of pieces and a plurality of the
plurality of pieces will be substantially similar in size.
2. The frangible and disintegrable tool of claim 1, wherein the
plurality of stress risers are oriented in a repeating pattern on
the body.
3. The frangible and disintegrable tool of claim 2, wherein the
repeating pattern includes protrusions or recesses from a surface
of the body that have at least one repeating cross sectional shape
thereof.
4. The frangible and disintegrable tool of claim 3, wherein the at
least one repeating cross sectional shape is selected from the
group consisting of triangles, parallelograms, ellipses and
combinations of these shapes.
5. The frangible and disintegrable tool of claim 1, wherein the
plurality of stress risers include surfaces that intersect at sharp
corners.
6. The frangible and disintegrable tool of claim 5, wherein the
sharp corners include right angles.
7. The frangible and disintegrable tool of claim 1, wherein the
plurality of stress risers facilitate formation of multiple cracks
prior to breakage of the body.
8. The frangible and disintegrable tool of claim 1, wherein the
physical loading includes at least one of mechanical and hydraulic
loading.
9. The frangible and disintegrable tool of claim 1, wherein the
disintegrable material will break before plastically deforming.
10. The frangible and disintegrable tool of claim 1, wherein the
disintegrable material stores elastic energy therewithin before
breaking that promotes breakage into the plurality of pieces.
11. The frangible and disintegrable tool of claim 1, wherein the
disintegrable material includes grains that are surrounded by a
hard intermetallic layer.
12. The frangible and disintegrable tool of claim 1, wherein the
body is configured to disintegrate in a target downhole
environment.
13. The frangible and disintegrable tool of claim 1, wherein the
body is a portion of a downhole tool selected from the group
consisting of seals, high pressure beaded frac screen plugs, screen
basepipe plugs, coatings for balls and seats, compression packing
elements, expandable packing elements, O-rings, bonded seals,
bullet seals, sub-surface safety valve seals, sub-surface safety
valve flapper seal, dynamic seals, V-rings, back up rings, drill
bit seals, liner port plugs, atmospheric discs, atmospheric chamber
discs, debris barriers, drill in stim liner plugs, inflow control
device plugs, flappers, seats, ball seats, direct connect disks,
drill-in linear disks, gas lift valve plug, fluid loss control
flappers, electric submersible pump seals, shear out plugs, flapper
valves, gaslift valves, sleeves.
14. The downhole tool of claim 1, wherein the downhole tool
inhibits flow.
15. The downhole tool of claim 14, wherein the downhole tool is
pumpable within a downhole environment and is selected from the
group consisting of plugs, direct connect plugs, bridge plugs,
wiper plugs, frac plugs, components of frac plugs, drill in sand
control beaded screen plugs, inflow control device plugs, polymeric
plugs, disappearing wiper plugs, cementing plugs, balls, diverter
balls, shifting and setting balls, swabbing element protectors,
buoyant recorders, pumpable collets, float shoes, and darts.
16. The downhole tool of claim 14, wherein the downhole tool is
selected from the group consisting of seals, high pressure beaded
frac screen plugs, screen basepipe plugs, coatings for balls and
seats, compression packing elements, expandable packing elements,
O-rings, bonded seals, bullet seals, sub-surface safety valve
seals, sub-surface safety valve flapper seal, dynamic seals,
V-rings, back up rings, drill bit seals, liner port plugs,
atmospheric discs, atmospheric chamber discs, debris barriers,
drill in stim liner plugs, inflow control device plugs, flappers,
seats, ball seats, direct connect disks, drill-in linear disks, gas
lift valve plug, fluid loss control flappers, electric submersible
pump seals, shear out plugs, flapper valves, gaslift valves,
sleeves.
17. The downhole tool of claim 1, wherein the body is made of two
portions.
18. The downhole tool of claim 1, wherein the stress risers are
substantially hidden from view when the body is viewed
externally.
19. A method of removing a tool, comprising: loading the tool;
forming a plurality of cracks at stress risers in the tool storing
elastic energy in the material of the tool; and breaking the tool
into a plurality of pieces, a plurality of which are similarly
sized.
20. The method of removing a tool of claim 14, further comprising
disintegrating the plurality of pieces.
21. The method of removing a tool of claim 15, wherein the
disintegrating includes dissolving.
22. The method of removing a tool of claim 14, further comprising
simultaneously forming the plurality of cracks.
23. The method of removing a tool of claim 14, further comprising
forming the plurality of cracks at substantially equal distances
from one another.
24. The method of removing a tool of claim 14, further comprising
loading the tool hydraulically or mechanically.
Description
CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
[0001] This application contains subject matter related to the
subject matter of a co-pending application, which is assigned to
the same assignee as this application, Baker Hughes Incorporated of
Houston, Tex. and are both being filed on Jan. 9, 2014. The
co-pending application is U.S. patent application Attorney Docket
No. OMS4-56759 (BAO1178US) entitled DEGRADABLE METAL COMPOSITES,
METHODS OF MANUFACTURE, AND USES THEREOF the entire contents of
which are hereby incorporated by reference.
BACKGROUND
[0002] In the subterranean drilling and completion industry there
are times when a downhole tool located within a wellbore becomes an
unwanted obstruction. Accordingly, downhole tools have been
developed that can be deformed, by operator action, for example,
such that the tool's presence becomes less burdensome. Although
such tools work as intended, their presence, even in a deformed
state can still be undesirable. Devices and methods to further
remove the burden created by the presence of unnecessary downhole
tools are therefore desirable in the art.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION
[0003] Disclosed herein is a frangible and disintegrable tool. The
tool includes, a body made of a disintegrable material having a
plurality of stress risers, the disintegrable material and the
plurality of stress risers are configured such that when physically
loaded to failure the body will break into a plurality of pieces
and a plurality of the plurality of pieces will be substantially
similar in size.
[0004] Further disclosed herein is a method of removing a tool. The
method includes loading the tool, forming a plurality of cracks at
stress risers in the tool, storing elastic energy in the material
of the tool, and breaking the tool into a plurality of pieces, a
plurality of which are similarly sized.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0005] The following descriptions should not be considered limiting
in any way. With reference to the accompanying drawings, like
elements are numbered alike:
[0006] FIG. 1 depicts a perspective view of a frangible and
disintegrable tool disclosed herein;
[0007] FIG. 2 depicts a perspective view of an alternate embodiment
of a frangible and disintegrable tool disclosed herein;
[0008] FIG. 3 depicts a partial magnified cross sectional view of
the disintegrable tool of FIG. 1; and
[0009] FIG. 4 depicts a partial magnified cross sectional view of
an alternate embodiment of a disintegrable tool disclosed
herein.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION
[0010] A detailed description of one or more embodiments of the
disclosed apparatus and method are presented herein by way of
exemplification and not limitation with reference to the
Figures.
[0011] Referring to FIGS. 1 and 2 embodiments of frangible and
disintegrable tools disclosed herein are illustrated at 10 and 110
respectively. The frangible and disintegrable tools 10, 110
include, a bodies 14, 114 made of a disintegrable material 18
having pluralities of stress risers 22, 122. The material 18 and
the stress risers 22, 122 are configured such that when physically
loaded to failure the bodies 14, 114 will break into a plurality of
pieces of which a plurality will be of similar size.
[0012] In the embodiment of FIG. 1, the stress risers 22 of the
body 14 are defined by a repeating pattern 26 of recesses 30 that
have cross sectional shapes that are ellipses recessed into a
surface 34 of the body 14. The recesses 30 of the illustrated
embodiment have circular cross sectional shapes; however, recesses
30 with cross sectional shapes that are noncircular ellipses could
just as well be employed. In alternate embodiments, the stress
risers 22 could protrude from the surface 34 instead of being
recessed in the surface 34 as will be discussed below.
[0013] Referring to FIG. 2, the frangible and disintegrable tool
110 is illustrated in a perspective view. The tool 110 differs from
the tool 10 in that the stress risers 122 are protrusions 130
positioned in a repeating pattern 126 that protrude from a surface
134 instead of being recessed into the surface 134 as the stress
risers 22 are in the tool 10. Additionally, the stress risers 122
have cross sectional shapes that are rectangles 134 as opposed to
the stress risers 22 of the tool 10 that are ellipses. In other
embodiments, the recesses 30 or the protrusions 130 could have
cross sectional shapes other than ellipses and rectangles. For
example a cross sectional shape could be defined by nearly any two
dimensional enclosed shape, including triangles, parallelograms and
ovals, to name a few, as well as combinations of such shapes.
[0014] FIG. 3 depicts a magnified partial cross sectional view
through the body 14 that reveals the stress risers 22 in greater
detail. The stress risers 22 (being the recesses 30 in this
embodiment) include surfaces 40 that intersect at sharp corners 44
including angles of 90 degrees or less. The corners 44 promote
nucleation of multiple cracks 48 that substantially form
simultaneously at a plurality of locations in response to
structural loading of the tool 10 prior to breakage of the tool 10.
Such loading can be by direct mechanical loading or by hydraulic
loading of the body 14. The foregoing geometric construction of the
body 14 promotes breakage of the body 14 into multiple pieces with
many of the multiple pieces being of substantially similar
size.
[0015] Additionally, the disintegrable material 18 from which the
bodies 14, 114 are made also promotes breakage of the bodies 14,
114 into multiple pieces with many of the multiple pieces being of
substantially similar size. Material properties of the material 18
are such that the bodies 14, 114 made from the material 18 will
tend to break before the bodies 14, 114 plastically deform. One way
the material 18 contributes to this behavior is by storing elastic
energy therewithin prior to breaking. This stored elastic energy
promotes breakage into a plurality of relatively small pieces as
opposed to just two relatively large pieces. Materials that include
grains that are surrounded by hard intermetallic layers are good
candidates for usage as the disintegrable material 18. Such hard
intermetallic layers can increase a modulus to prevent formation of
one major crack and serve as sites of multiple crack nucleation and
propagation. Materials disclosed in copending U.S. patent
application attorney docket number OMS4-56759 (BAO1178) assigned to
the same assignee and filed on the same date as this application,
are good candidates for usage as the disintegrable material 18.
[0016] The material 18, in addition to promoting breakage into a
plurality of relative small and similarly sized pieces, also
promotes disintegration of the pieces. Such disintegration can by
facilitated by exposure to a target environment. One such target
environment is in an earth formation borehole such as those drilled
in the hydrocarbon recovery and carbon dioxide sequestration
industries. Such environments include high temperature, high
pressures and caustic fluids. The material 18 can disintegrate
itself through expedited galvanic corrosion with implemented
microscopic galvanic cells within the material microstructure when
contacting natural wellbore brine. In such an embodiment no
artificial fluid is necessary in order for the material 18 to
disintegrate. Tools employable in these industries that can benefit
from the embodiments disclosed herein include the flappers
illustrated herein as the tools 10, 110. Other possible tools
include but are not limited to downhole tools that are a single
component, such as, hold down dogs and springs, screen protectors,
seal bore protectors, electric submersible pump space out subs,
full bore guns, chemical encapsulations, slips, dogs, springs and
collet restraints, liner setting sleeves, timing actuation devices,
emergency grapple release, chemical encapsulation containers,
screen protectors, beaded screen protectors, whipstock lugs,
whipstock coatings, pins, set screws, emergency release tools, gas
generators, mandrels, release mechanisms, staging collars, C-rings,
components of perforating gun systems, disintegrable whipstock for
casing exit tools, shear pins, dissolvable body locking rings, mud
motor stators, progressive cavity pump stators, shear screws. Or
the downhole tool is configured to inhibit flow without being
pumpable, such as, seals, high pressure beaded frac screen plugs,
screen basepipe plugs, coatings for balls and seats, compression
packing elements, expandable packing elements, O-rings, bonded
seals, bullet seals, sub-surface safety valve seals, sub-surface
safety valve flapper seal, dynamic seals, V-rings, back up rings,
drill bit seals, liner port plugs, atmospheric discs, atmospheric
chamber discs, debris barriers, drill in stim liner plugs, inflow
control device plugs, flappers, seats, ball seats, direct connect
disks, drill-in linear disks, gas lift valve plug, fluid loss
control flappers, electric submersible pump seals, shear out plugs,
flapper valves, gaslift valves, sleeves. Or the downhole tool is
configured to inhibit flow and be pumpable, such as, plugs, direct
connect plugs, bridge plugs, wiper plugs, frac plugs, components of
frac plugs, drill in sand control beaded screen plugs, inflow
control device plugs, polymeric plugs, disappearing wiper plugs,
cementing plugs, balls, diverter balls, shifting and setting balls,
swabbing element protectors, buoyant recorders, pumpable collets,
float shoes, and darts.
[0017] FIG. 4 depicts a magnified partial cross sectional view
through an alternate embodiment of a body 214 employable in a
frangible and disintegrable tool disclosed herein. Faces 220 of the
body 214 can be flat or smooth making the inclusion of stress
risers 222 employed therewithin substantially hidden from view when
the body 214 is viewed externally. The body 214 is constructed of
two portions 214A and 214B that are connected or weakly glued
together such that stress encountered by the body 214 is
concentrated at the stress risers 222. As with the stress risers 22
the stress risers 222 include surfaces 240 that intersect at sharp
corners 244 including but not limited to 90 degree angles. The
foregoing geometric construction of the body 214 promotes breakage
of the body 214 into multiple pieces with many of the multiple
pieces being of substantially similar size.
[0018] While the invention has been described with reference to an
exemplary embodiment or embodiments, it will be understood by those
skilled in the art that various changes may be made and equivalents
may be substituted for elements thereof without departing from the
scope of the invention. In addition, many modifications may be made
to adapt a particular situation or material to the teachings of the
invention without departing from the essential scope thereof.
Therefore, it is intended that the invention not be limited to the
particular embodiment disclosed as the best mode contemplated for
carrying out this invention, but that the invention will include
all embodiments falling within the scope of the claims. Also, in
the drawings and the description, there have been disclosed
exemplary embodiments of the invention and, although specific terms
may have been employed, they are unless otherwise stated used in a
generic and descriptive sense only and not for purposes of
limitation, the scope of the invention therefore not being so
limited. Moreover, the use of the terms first, second, etc. do not
denote any order or importance, but rather the terms first, second,
etc. are used to distinguish one element from another. Furthermore,
the use of the terms a, an, etc. do not denote a limitation of
quantity, but rather denote the presence of at least one of the
referenced item.
* * * * *