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Investigation of cuttings transport in directional and horizontal drilling

wellbores injected with pulsed drilling fluid using CFD approach

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DOI: 10.1016/j.tust.2019.05.001

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Investigation of cuttings transport in directional and horizontal drilling T

wellbores injected with pulsed drilling fluid using CFD approach
⁎⁎ ⁎
Boxue Panga, Shuyan Wangb, , Cailei Lua, Wenjian Caia, Xiaoxue Jianga, Huilin Lua,
a
School of Energy Science and Engineering, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150001, PR China
b
School of Petroleum Engineering, Northeast Petroleum University, Daqing 163318, PR China

A R T I C LE I N FO A B S T R A C T

Keywords: Efficient cuttings transportation is a significant issue in wellbore drilling. The pulsed jet drilling technology is
Horizontal and directional drilling known to improve the rate of penetration (ROP), but lacks targeted research into its effect on cuttings transport.
Cuttings transport We presented a CFD model based on Eulerian-Eulerian method to investigate the cuttings transport character-
CFD model istics in horizontal and directional wellbores injected with pulsed drilling fluid. Kinetic theory of granular flow
Pulsed drilling fluid
was used to formulate the stress tensor of cuttings particles, and sliding mesh method was used to achieve the
Liquid-solid flow
rotation of the drill pipe. The wave propagation of the flow of cuttings particles was analyzed from the variation
of amplitude and frequency of the inlet velocities of pulsed drilling fluids. Effects of drilling fluid rheological
properties and hole and pipe diameters on borehole cleaning in traditional and pulsed drilling were studied.
Numerical results indicated that the pulsed drilling fluid contributes to borehole cleaning because it significantly
reduces the cuttings concentration in the moving bed zone and increases the velocities of cuttings in the fixed
bed zone. Increasing amplitude and frequency of the inlet velocity of pulsed drilling fluid also leads to a decrease
of the height of cuttings bed. The pulsed drilling fluid produces higher turbulent kinetic energy and lower
turbulent dissipation rate comparing with the case with a constant drilling fluid velocity. Furthermore, pulsed
drilling was also proved to be universally applicable to the improvement of cuttings transport within a wide
range of drilling fluid rheological parameters and hole and pipe diameters.

1. Introduction
During drilling boreholes with horizontal and highly inclined sec-
tions, drilling cuttings tend to settle down to the lower wall of the
borehole due to the radial component of gravity, building up cuttings
bed, which is detrimental to drilling. Efficient cuttings transportation is
one of the key issues in directional well drilling (Siamak et al., 2015;
GhasemiKafrudi and Hashemabadi, 2016; Moraveji et al., 2017) and
horizontal directional drilling (HDD) (Shu and Ma, 2016; Shu and
Zhang, 2018; Zeng et al., 2018; Yan et al., 2018). The former refers to
the important early stage of the exploration and development of oil and
gas and other underground resources, while the latter is generally used
to install underground pipelines with large diameters. In this paper we
investigate the cuttings transportation in directional and horizontal
well drilling in petroleum industry. To improve cuttings transport, re-
searchers (Pang et al., 2018a, 2018b) have conducted extensive in-
vestigations and they concluded that the transportation of cuttings in
borehole is dominated by many variables including wellbore structure,
cuttings size, drill pipe rotation, rheology and flow rate of drilling fluid,
etc.
All experimental and numerical studies have shown that drilling
fluid flow rate affect cuttings transport significantly. The flow rate of
drilling fluid in the borehole can be constant or fluctuating. The pulsed
jet drilling technology is an application of mud pulse, which has be-
come an effective way to improve the drilling rate (Wang et al., 2011).
Fig. 1 shows the schematic diagram of drilling fluid continuous wave
generation. The mud pulse generator is usually installed in the drilling
fluid flow path in front of the drill bit. The pulsed drilling fluid is
formed as the drilling fluid flows through the mud pulse generator, the
amplitude and frequency of which are generally adjusted by the rotary
valve. Comparing with the continuous jet, the pulsed jet improves
drilling efficiency (Bizanti, 1990). Research indicated that the pressure
of the pulsed jet will be at least four times higher than the continuous
jet at the same velocity (Foldyna et al., 2004). Fluid through the pulsed
jet formed by the self-excited oscillation nozzle provides a large in-
stantaneous energy, which can reduce the chip hold down effect, create

⁎
Corresponding author.
⁎⁎
Corresponding author.
E-mail addresses: wangshuyan@nepu.edu.cn (S. Wang), huilin@hit.edu.cn (H. Lu).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tust.2019.05.001
Received 21 October 2018; Received in revised form 25 April 2019; Accepted 3 May 2019
Available online 09 May 2019
0886-7798/ © 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
B. Pang, et al. Tunnelling and Underground Space Technology 90 (2019) 183–193

successful modeling tool in studies of cuttings transport (Rooki et al.,

2013; Sun et al., 2014; Siamak et al., 2015; GhasemiKafrudi and
Hashemabadi, 2016; Epelle and Gerogiorgis, 2018; Pang et al., 2019).

2.1. Governing equations

In present study, we prepared a three dimensional CFD model to

investigate the flow of cuttings particles and drilling mud through the
horizontal borehole with drill pipe rotation based on the two-fluid
model. The solid phase and the liquid phase are strongly coupled by the
interphase forces between them. For simplification, we assume that (1)
the drilling fluid phase is an incompressible non-Newtonian liquid de-
scribed by power-law or Herschel-Bulkley model; (2) the cuttings are
Fig. 1. Schematic diagram of drilling fluid continuous wave generation. spherical particles with a uniform particle size; (3) there is no inter-
facial mass transfer between the cuttings phase and the liquid phase
a partial pressure in the bottom-hole, and help to remove cuttings (Pang et al., 2018a).
(Chuanlin et al., 2007). Several types of downhole drilling tools using The continuity equation for both phases (i = s for solid phase or l for
pulsed jets have been developed, such as a shaped charge pulsed nozzle liquids) is expressed as:
(Wang et al., 1999), a negative-pressure-pulse tool (Kolle and Marvin, ∂
1999), an adjustable frequency pulse jet generating tool (Cui et al., (εi ρi ) + ∇ ·(εi ρi vi ) = 0
∂t (1)
2012) and a screw-type pressure intensifier (Wang et al., 2012).
Cleaning and breaking is enhanced and the penetration speed is im- where εi, vi and ρi are volume fraction, velocity vector and density,
proved due to the jet pulsation (Fu et al., 2012). The tests in field de- respectively. The momentum conservation equation for the liquid phase
monstrated that the mud pulse reduces the required energy to remove is given in Eq. (2) with the interphase momentum transfer:
the unit volume of the rock, and it can improve the rate of penetration ∂
(εl ρ l v l ) + ∇ ·(εl ρ l v l v l ) = εl ∇ ·τ l + εl ρ l g − εl ∇p − β (v l − vs) + Fvm,l
by 10.1–31.5% (Li et al., 2009, 2010). ∂t
Most of the above mentioned researches concerning mud pulse have (2)
mainly focused on the efficiency of hydraulic rock breaking and the rate
where g is the gravitational acceleration, β is the drag coefficient and
of penetration (ROP), but lack of quantitative analysis of the im-
Fvm,l is the virtual mass force of drilling fluid. τl is the stress tensor for
provement on cuttings transport. The high velocity periodic self-excited
drilling fluid and can be expressed as τl = η(D)·D, where η is the ap-
oscillation pulsed jet acts on the bottom rock after being accelerated by
parent viscosity and D is the rate-of-deformation tensor. For power law
the nozzle in the drilling bit. The annulus fluids and cuttings would also
model, η = K·γn−1, and η = τ0/γ + K·(γ/γc)n−1 for Herschel-Bulkley
be accelerated in the transportation, and the cuttings transport ratio
model, where γ is the shear rate of drilling fluid, τ0 is the yield stress, K
will be affected by frequency and amplitude of the pulsation of pressure
is the consistency coefficient, and n is the flow behavior index.
or velocity of drilling fluid. Even more impressively, there may be a
The turbulent viscosity of drilling fluid is calculated using the shear-
potential to enhance cuttings transport in borehole by applying the
stress transport k-ω model, where k and ω are the turbulent kinetic
velocity pulse or pressure pulse which have already been widely used in
energy and the specific dissipation rate (Wilcox, 1998). The transport
drilling engineering in many aspects.
equations of k and ω are expressed by Eqs. (3) and (4) for low Reynolds
In this paper, we investigated the cuttings transport characteristics
number modification (Menter, 1994):
in horizontal and directional wells injected with pulsed drilling fluid by
means of CFD method based on Eulerian-Eulerian two-fluid model. ∂ ∂ ∂ ⎛ ∂k ⎞
Kinetic theory of granular flow is used to account for the collisional (ρ k ) + (ρ kv li ) = ⎜Γk ⎟ + Gk − Yk
∂t l ∂x i l ∂x j ⎝ ∂x j ⎠ (3)
interactions of cutting particles, and the interactions between the cut-
tings and the walls of drill pipe and borehole. The effects of amplitude
∂ ∂ ∂ ⎛ ∂ω ⎞
and frequency of pulsed drilling fluids on cuttings transport are ana- (ρ ω) + (ρ ωv li ) = ⎜Γω ⎟ + Gω − Yω + Dω
lyzed. The wave propagation of drilling fluids and cuttings is also ∂t l ∂x i l ∂x j ⎝ ∂x j ⎠ (4)
analyzed with the change of amplitude and frequency of pulsed drilling where G is the generation due to mean velocity gradients, Г is the ef-
fluids through the horizontal borehole. fective diffusivity, Y is the dissipation due to turbulence, and D is the
cross-diffusion term.
2. CFD modeling for cuttings-drilling fluid flow To formulate collisional interactions between cuttings particles, we
use kinetic theory of granular flow (Gidaspow, 1994) for closure. The
Experimental and numerical studies are two major research momentum balance for cuttings particles is given as:
methods in multiphase fluid mechanics. The experiments are con- ∂
sidered to give more intuitive and reliable results, and they are the first (εs ρs vs) + ∇ ·(εs ρs vs vs)
∂t
choice if conditions permit. However, it is difficult and costly to achieve
= −εs ∇p + ∇ ·ps I + ∇ ·τs + εs ρs g + β (v l − vs) + Fvm,s (5)
experimental measurements in many complex geometries and condi-
tions. The computational fluid dynamics method shows good flexibility where the cuttings stress tensor τs is computed from:
for testing under extreme physical models and operating parameters
2
without expensive hardware replacement, and it provides valuable in-
formation about the flow field such as the local concentration and
{
τs = ξs ∇ ·vs I + μs [∇vs + (∇vs)T] −
3
(∇ ·vs) I } (6)
turbulence parameters of each phase, which are difficult or even im- in which ξs and μs are bulk viscosity and shear viscosity of solid phase,
possible to obtain through experiments. Since Bilgesu et al. (2002), as respectively. They are expressed as:
the first group of researchers, introduced the CFD method into the study
of cuttings transport, the CFD model is constantly improving and de- 4 θ
ξs = εs ρ d s g0 (1 + e ) s
veloping. Now the CFD method has been proved to be an efficient and 3 s π (7)

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B. Pang, et al. Tunnelling and Underground Space Technology 90 (2019) 183–193

Fig. 2. Computational grid of the horizontal annulus.

4 θ 10ρs d s πθs 4 2.2. Computational conditions and geometric modeling

μs = εs ρ g d s (1 + e ) s + [1 + g0 εs (1 + e )]2
5 s 0 π 96(1 + e ) εs g0 5 (8)
where ds is the particle diameter, g0 is the radial distribution function, e
is the coefficient of restitution, and θs is the granular temperature. ps is
the cuttings pressure and computed from:
ps = εs ρs θs + 2g0 εs2 (1 + e ) ρs θs
The granular temperature in the viscosity and pressure formula is
simulated using the conservation equation of solid phase fluctuating
energy:
3⎡∂
(εs ρs θs) + ∇ ·(εs vs ρs θs)⎤ = (−ps I + τs): ∇vs + ∇·(k s ∇θs) − γs + ϕls
2 ⎣ ∂t ⎦
where ks is the thermal conductivity of particles, γs is the dissipation of
fluctuating energy, and ϕls is the exchange of fluctuating energy be-
tween liquid and particles.
The last term on the right hand side of Eq. (5) represents the virtual
mass force of cuttings particles. When particles are accelerated through
the interaction of fluid phase, the inertia of the fluid mass encountered
by the accelerating particles exerts the virtual mass force on particles
(Drew and Lahey, 1993):
d
Fvm,s = 0.5εs ρl (vl − vs )
dt
which is proportional to the density of fluid phase. Due to the low
density of gas phase, the virtual mass force effect is often ignored in gas-
particles flow. However, for liquid-particles flow, the primary phase
density is not much smaller than the particles. Researchers (Ding et al.,
1995; Kendoush et al., 2007; Guskov, 2012; Wang et al., 2017) con-
firmed that the virtual mass force should not be ignored in liquid-par-
ticles flow. Therefore for the pulsed drilling fluids-cuttings flow, the
virtual mass force effect is considered in present study. Based on the
Newton’s third law, the virtual mass force of drilling fluid of the last
term on the right hand side of Eq. (2) is:
Fvm,l = −Fvm,s
To achieve a smooth transition in the case that the cuttings con-
centration is less than 0.2, we calculated the drag force between liquid
phase and solid phase by means of Huilin-Gidaspow model (Lu et al.,
2003), which can be shown as:
Due to the high shear rates caused by drilling fluid pulsed velocity
and drill pipe rotation, the power-law model is acceptable to describe
rheological properties of drilling fluids. The consistency coefficient and
the power-law index of drilling fluid are based on experimental mea-
surements (Kelessidis et al., 2006) and are specified as 0.9448 Pa·sn and
(9)
0.4097 respectively. The form of drilling fluid pulse is sinusoidal con-
tinuous wave. At the annulus entrance boundary, the pulsed inlet ve-
locity of drilling fluid takes the following form:
u f,in = u 0 + uA sin(2πf ) (17)
where f is the fluctuating frequency, u0 is the time-averaged velocity,
and uA is the amplitude of fluctuation. uA is smaller than u0 so that the
(10) fluctuating component makes up a relatively small fraction of the total
drilling fluid velocity. The maximum instantaneous velocity is u0 + uA,
while the minimum instantaneous velocity is u0-uA in a period. This
brings the following advantages over the conventional constant velocity
of drilling fluid: (1) helps to enlarge turbulence of drilling fluid; (2) the
controllability of the flow rate of drilling fluid is improved because only
part of the flow rate needs to be changed. The velocity magnitude of
drilling fluid at any given moment depends not only on u0, but on the
magnitudes of f and uA also. Therefore, the optimum performance of the
transportation of cuttings may be achieved through an optimum com-
bination of these parameters.
(11)
The computational domain in present work is a horizontal annulus
consisting of a borehole and an eccentrically rotating pipe. The com-
putational grid of the horizontal annulus is shown in Fig. 2 and the
dimensions of the annulus are shown in Table 1. In order to achieve the
rotation of the drill pipe in the wellbore, we use the sliding mesh
method due to its advantage of saving computing resources while en-
suring the accuracy of calculations. The mesh of the annular geometry
was divided into two flow zones, namely the inner moving mesh zone at
the same rotational speed as the drill pipe wall and the static outer
zone. The connections between the inner rotating zone and the outer
static zone were achieved by one pair of interfaces between them.
The feed concentration of cuttings phase are taken from the ex-
(12)
perimental measurements (Sifferman et al., 1974) and the inlet velocity
Table 1
Summarized input parameters in simulations.
Symbol Property Simulation value Units

β = φβErgun + (1 − φ) β Wen & Yu (13) Dh Hole diameter 203.2 mm

Dd Pipe diameter 101.6 mm
1 arctan[262.5(εs − 0.2)] e Eccentricity (e = E/(Dh/2 − Dd/2)) 0.5 –
φ= + ωd Drill pipe rotation speed 100 rpm
2 π (14)
ρf Mud density 1437.6 kg/m3
u0 Time-averaged velocity 1.016 m/s
εs2 μl εs ρ l uA Amplitude of velocity pulsation 0.1, 0.3, 0.5 m/s
βErgun = 150 + 1.75 |v l − vs |
εl ds2 ds (15) f Frequency of velocity pulsation 1.0, 2.0, 10.0 Hz
dp Particle diameter 3.0 mm
3Cd εl εs ρ l |v l − vs | −2.65 ρs Particle density 2550 kg/m3
β Wen & Yu = εl εin Injected particle volume fraction 4 %
4d s (16)

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B. Pang, et al. Tunnelling and Underground Space Technology 90 (2019) 183–193

is consistent with the drilling fluid. The exit is set to continuous outflow
boundary conditions for drilling fluids and cuttings particles. The re-
ference pressure is set to 300,000 Pa at the exit. At the walls, apply no-
slip velocity boundary conditions to the liquid phase and Johnson and
Jackson boundary conditions (Johnson and Jackson, 1987) to the solid
phase. In this study, we set the coefficient of restitution for cuttings
particles to be 0.9 since it is a widely accepted value in experimental
(Han et al., 2009, 2010) and numerical studies (Akhshik et al., 2015) of
conventional drilling, and in which the numerical simulation agrees
well with the experiment. While the specularity coefficient is an em-
pirical parameter that measures the fraction of relative tangential mo-
mentum transferred as a result of particle-wall collision (FLUENT,
2011; Huang and Kuo, 2018), and its value ranges between zero
(smooth wall) and unity (rough wall). In contrast to the restitution
coefficient, the specularity coefficient is generally not measured di-
rectly from experiments, and usually determined by empiricism
(Sommerfeld and Huber, 1999; Geng et al., 2016). As a relatively small
intermediate specularity coefficient (Fede et al, 2016; Huang and Kuo,
2018), the value of 0.1 was chosen to describe the conversion of tan-
Fig. 3. Compared cuttings volume fraction between simulations and experi-
gential momentum due to the collisions between the cuttings particles mental measurements (Han et al., 2010) at different borehole inclination an-
and the wellbore wall. gles. (0.4% CMC solution + 4% sand, ωdrillpipe = 200 rpm, uin = 0.89 m/s).
The set of governing equations described above is solved via the
commercial CFD code FLUENT 14.0 (FLUENT, 2011) on each cell
throughout the annulus. A constant time step of 1 × 10−5 s for sa-
tisfactory convergence is used in all simulations. Time-averaged sta-
tistics of simulation results are computed covering several periods of
the oscillation of pulsed drilling fluid from 80 to 110 s.

3. Results and discussion

3.1. Model validation

Numerical simulation facilitates the modeling of complex boundary

conditions including pulse jets, and educes predictive models that op-
timize the operating conditions. Effective numerical methods can make
up for the shortcomings in the experimental measurement, however,
the use of experimental results to verify the validity of CFD models is
essential for the study of numerical methods. Since there is still lack of
detailed experimental data specifically for cuttings transport in pulsed
drilling, simulations are performed and compared with the experiments
conducted by Han et al. (2010) in the wellbore injected with constant
velocity drilling fluid and with the drill pipe rotating at a constant
speed of 200 rpm. Detailed experimental configuration and parameters
are found in the literature (Han et al., 2010). Fig. 3 illustrates the time
history of the simulated concentration of the retained cuttings
throughout the wellbore and the corresponding experimental mea-
surements at different borehole inclination angles, and Fig. 4 depicts
the 3D view of retained cuttings concentration distribution along the
wellbore. The cuttings particles are continuously injected into the
wellbore from the inlet at a constant concentration of 4%. At the be-
ginning of the calculation, the cuttings gradually deposited to the lower
side of the wellbore, and the concentration of cuttings is gradually in-
creased in the annulus. After a certain calculation time, the flow rate of
injected and discharged cuttings reaches equilibrium and the total
cuttings concentration retained in the annulus no longer changes. With
the increase of the inclination angle of the wellbore, the cuttings re-
maining in the annulus increases, cuttings transport efficiency dete-
riorates, and the stratification of cuttings concentration is more ob-
vious. The simulation results agree well with the experimental data,
with an average error of 2.57%. The error mainly comes from the in-
evitable orbital motion of the drill pipe in the experiment and the given
rheology of the drilling fluid, which is determined only by the flow rate
of drilling fluid and the rotating speed of drill pipe. Furthermore, it is
recommended to conduct more verification of CFD models for non-
Newtonian fluids and experimental studies of cuttings transport in
wellbore injected with pulsed drilling fluid.
Fig. 4. Distribution of retained cuttings concentration throughout the borehole
at different inclination angles. (0.4% CMC solution + 4% sand,
ωdrillpipe = 200 rpm, uin = 0.89 m/s).
3.2. Instantaneous velocity and pressure fluctuations
The pulsed inlet velocity of drilling fluid is specified as sinusoidal
continuous wave which relates with two parameters of amplitude and
frequency. To study effects of pulsing amplitude and frequency on the
flow of drilling fluids and cutting particles in the annulus, the pulsed
inlet velocity of drilling fluid with three different pulsing amplitudes
(0.1, 0.3 and 0.5 m/s) and three different frequencies (10.0, 2.0 and
1.0 Hz) at the same average velocity of 1.016 m/s are simulated, and
the variations of relative pressure and inlet velocity of drilling fluid are
shown in Fig. 5 with times. It is worthy to first look at a case in which
no pulsation of inlet velocity of drilling fluid is applied, and the inlet
velocity is constant. The induced pressure of mixture does not vary with
times. For the pulsed inlet velocity of drilling fluid, the inlet velocity of
drilling fluid consists of an active phase and an inactive phase. In active
phase, the instantaneous velocity of drilling fluid is larger than the
time-averaged velocity. And in inactive phase, the situation is reversed.
Numerical simulations show that the inlet pulsing velocity of drilling
fluid provides a synchronized pressure fluctuation. The pulsing inlet
velocity of drilling fluid causes the increase in pressure in the inactive
phase and the decrease in pressure in the active phase, and enhances

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Fig. 6. Flow pattern of cuttings in the horizontal annuli injected with a constant
inlet fluid velocity and a pulsing inlet velocity with amplitude of 0.5 m/s and
frequency of 2.0 Hz.

annulus is significantly reduced under the action of pulsed drilling

fluid. The pulsed drilling fluid significantly improves hole cleaning in
horizontal borehole.
In the fixed bed zone, the moving bed zone and the suspension zone,
three points a (0, −65, 3000), b (60, −10, 3000) and c (0, 100, 3000)
are taken and the variations of cuttings flow parameters are monitored.
Fig. 5. Profile of inlet velocity pulse of drilling fluid and its induced pressure
Fig. 7 illustrates the variations of volume fraction of cuttings with time
fluctuation in the annulus. (a) Different pulsing amplitudes; (b) different pul-
sing frequencies. at points a, b, and c of the annuli injected with constant or pulsed
drilling fluid velocity. Because of the accumulation of solids, the cut-
tings concentration in the lower part of the annulus is the highest, while
the pressure oscillation in the borehole. At the same frequency of inlet
it is the lowest in the upper part of the annulus, maintaining at the
velocity, the maximum induced pressure increases with the increase of
order of magnitude of the feed concentration of cuttings. Due to the
amplitude of inlet velocity of drilling fluid. The amplitude of the
influence of the pulsed flow rate of the drilling fluid, the cuttings
pressure fluctuation decreases dramatically with the increase of inlet
concentration also fluctuates with time. In the three zones, the con-
velocity pulse period (i.e., the decrease of frequency).
centrations of cuttings in the annulus injected with pulsed drilling fluid
are lower than that in the annulus injected with the constant drilling
3.3. Flow pattern of cuttings in boreholes injected with constant or pulsed fluid velocity. It is worth noting that the decrease in cuttings con-
drilling fluid velocity centration is the greatest at point b of the moving bed zone.
Fig. 8 shows the variations of axial velocity of cuttings with time at
Fig. 6 illustrates the 3D view of cuttings volume fraction and velo-
city magnitude along the horizontal borehole injected with a constant
inlet fluid velocity or a pulsing inlet velocity. Both time-averaged inlet
velocities of drilling fluid are 1.016 m/s. As can be seen, the cuttings
gradually settle to the lower wall of the horizontal annulus under the
action of gravity components, and as a consequence, a fixed cuttings
bed forms along the borehole. Both bed height and velocity distribution
tend to a relatively stable state in a few meters from the entrance in
these simulations, consistent with experiments (Osgouei, 2010). Fur-
thermore, due to the rotation of drill pipe, both the core zone dis-
tribution of cuttings concentration on the lower side of the annulus and
that of cuttings velocity on the upper side reveal swaying phenomena
(Tomren et al., 1986). In the upper, middle and lower zones of the
borehole, flow parameters of cuttings are significantly different, which
can be used to define cuttings flow as three zones. They are the fixed
bed zone in the lower part of the borehole, the cuttings suspension zone
in the upper part of the borehole and the moving bed zone between
them, similar to the experimental conclusion (Doron and Barnea,
1996). Comparing with the annulus injected with the drilling fluid with Fig. 7. Variations of volume fraction of cuttings with time at point a, point b
a constant inlet velocity, the concentration of cuttings retained in the and point c of the annuli injected with constant or pulsed drilling fluid velocity.

187
B. Pang, et al.
Fig. 8. Variations of axial velocity of cuttings with time at point a, point b and
point c of the annuli injected with constant or pulsed drilling fluid velocity.
points a, b, and c of the annuli injected with constant or pulsed drilling
fluid velocity. As can be seen, the cuttings velocity is the highest in the
cuttings suspension zone (point c), and the lowest in the fixed bed zone
(point a). In the annulus injected with a constant drilling fluid velocity,
the velocity of cuttings in the three zones varies significantly, and it is
almost zero in the fixed bed zone. In the annulus injected by pulsed
drilling fluid, the velocity difference of cuttings in the three zones de-
creases. Pulsed drilling fluids significantly increase the velocity of
cuttings in the fixed bed zone.
Spectral analysis of turbulent oscillations is commonly used in the
study of fluid turbulent flow using the Fourier transforms. Thus, we can
estimate the power spectrum of velocity of particles using the fast
Fourier transform (FFT) technique. Fig. 9 shows the power spectrum
density from the instantaneous velocity of particles as a function of
frequency. The spectrum densities decay with the increase of frequency.
While at low frequencies the oscillations of cuttings velocities play an
important role. The magnitudes of the fluctuations are different at these
three points. It gives a highest power spectrum density at point c and a
lowest value at point a. However, the trends are similar. From the
figures, the diagram highlighted a dominant frequency at about 1.94 Hz
which is close to the frequency of the inlet velocity. This indicates the
oscillation of velocity of cuttings is dominated by the pulsed inlet ve-
locity of drilling fluid.
Similar to the thermal temperature in the kinetic theory of gases, the
granular temperature θs is defined as θs = 〈Cs Cs〉/3, where Cs is the
Fig. 9. Power spectrum density at point a, point b and point c of the annuli as a
function of frequency.
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Tunnelling and Underground Space Technology 90 (2019) 183–193
Fig. 10. Variations of granular temperature of cuttings with time at point a,
point b and point c of the annuli injected with constant or pulsed drilling fluid
velocity.
fluctuation velocity of particles. In the present work, θs characterizes
the intensity of the oscillations of the cuttings. Fig. 10 shows the var-
iations of granular temperature of cuttings with time at points a, b, and
c of the annuli injected with constant or pulsed drilling fluid velocity.
Due to the lower particle concentration in the cuttings suspension zone
(point c), interactions between the cuttings are very weak, leading to
lower granular temperatures. While in the moving bed zone (point b),
the drastic rolling and collision of cuttings particles increase the gran-
ular temperature sharply. In the fixed bed zone (point a), even if the
particle concentration is high, the lower mean free path restricts the
interaction between the particles, making the granular temperature
lower than that in the moving bed zone. The statistical results show that
the velocity pulses of drilling fluids significantly increase the granular
temperature in the fixed bed zone. In the moving bed zone, although
the average granular temperature does not increase significantly, the
pulsed drilling fluid enhances the pulsation of the granular temperature
and increases its extremum.
Fig. 11 shows the variations of turbulent kinetic energy and its
dissipation rate with time at points a, b, and c of the annuli. Due to the
dense accumulation of cuttings particles, the turbulent kinetic energy
and its dissipation rate are significantly lower in the fixed bed zone
(point a) than that in the moving bed zone (point b) and in the sus-
pension zone (point c). The turbulent dissipation rate in the moving bed
zone is the highest because the energy of the drilling fluid is transferred
to the energy required for the intense interaction between the particles.
In the moving bed zone and the suspension zone, the pulsed drilling
fluid increases the turbulent kinetic energy and reduces the dissipation
rate. The pulsation of inlet velocity of drilling fluid enhances the os-
cillation of flow parameters in the annulus, which introduces high in-
teraction forces between the drilling fluid and the cuttings. As a con-
sequence, the pulsed drilling fluid carries more cuttings out of the
borehole.
3.4. Impact of rheological properties of drilling fluids on cuttings transport
in conventional drilling and pulsed drilling
Rheological properties of drilling fluids have apparent influence on
flow characteristics and thus affect cuttings transport in the annulus.
The three parameters Herschel-Bulkley model which is expressed as
τ = τ0 + KHBγn is considered to be more suitable for describing drilling
fluids in more conditions (Kelessidis et al., 2005). Compared with the
power law model, the H-B model has better applicability under low
shear rates due to the existence of yield stress τ0. It is of research value
to separate effects of different rheological parameters on cuttings
transport, but it is difficult to vary a certain rheological parameter of
drilling fluids independently in experimental studies. In order to study
B. Pang, et al. Tunnelling and Underground Space Technology 90 (2019) 183–193

Fig. 12. The histograms of cuttings transport ratio for different drilling fluids in
conventional drilling and pulsed drilling.

and 2.0 Hz, respectively. As the rheological parameters increase, the

Fig. 11. Variations of turbulent kinetic energy and its dissipation rate with time
at point a, point b and point c of the annuli injected with constant or pulsed
drilling fluid velocity. (a) Turbulent kinetic energy; (b) turbulent dissipation
rate.
apparent viscosity of the drilling fluid increases, and the cuttings
transport ratio increases regardless of conventional drilling or pulsed
drilling. What’s more, for all the drilling fluids calculated, the cuttings
transport ratio in pulsed drilling is higher than that in conventional
drilling, which indicates that pulsed drilling is universally applicable to
the improvement of cuttings transport within a wide range of drilling
fluid rheological parameters. However, for drilling fluids with higher
consistency coefficient (S5) or flow behavior index (S7), the improve-
ment in cuttings transport by pulsed drilling is not significant.

3.5. Impact of wellbore and drill pipe diameters on cuttings transport in

Table 2 conventional drilling and pulsed drilling
Rheological parameters for drilling fluids and corresponding simulated retained
cuttings volume fraction. To investigate the effect of hole and pipe diameters on cuttings
Drilling fluid Rheological parameters Retained cuttings volume fraction transport, five sets of annulus configurations are modeled in this sec-
samples tion, and the detailed size information is listed in Table 3, all taken from
τ0 (Pa) K (Pa·sn) n Conventional Pulsed the API (American Petroleum Institute) standard. The hole diameters of
drilling drilling
configurations P1, P2 and P3 are the same, while the diameter ratios of
S1 0.1747 0.9448 0.4097 0.09626 0.07503 the hole to the pipe of configurations P2, P4 and P5 are approximately
S2 3 0.9448 0.4097 0.07376 0.05754 equal to 2. The drilling fluid used in this section is S6, where
S3 6 0.9448 0.4097 0.06355 0.04966 τ0 = 0.1747 Pa, K = 0.9448 Pa·sn, and n = 0.6. Same as the previous
S4 0.1747 2 0.4097 0.07182 0.05684
section, the amplitude (uA) and frequency (f) of the pulsed drilling fluid
S5 0.1747 4 0.4097 0.04889 0.04634
S6 0.1747 0.9448 0.6 0.07651 0.06123 velocity are 0.5 m/s and 2.0 Hz, respectively.
S7 0.1747 0.9448 0.8 0.04906 0.04825 Fig. 13 depicts the simulated contours of cuttings concentration in
conventional drilling and pulsed drilling for different hole and pipe
diameters, and Fig. 14 shows the corresponding histograms of cuttings
the independent effects of the three rheological parameters of drilling transport ratio. It can be seen from the configurations P1, P2 and P3
fluids on hole cleaning while controlling variables, seven sets of drilling
fluids based on S1 (Drilling fluid S1: real rheological parameters taken Table 3
from the experiment (Kelessidis et al., 2006)) were simulated, and the Wellbore and drill pipe diameters and corresponding simulated retained cut-
detailed rheological parameters are listed in Table 2, which are within tings volume fraction.
the wide range of parameters often encountered in drilling engineering Hole and pipe Hole Pipe diameter Retained cuttings volume fraction
(Horton et al., 2005; Pang et al., 2018a). diameter pairs diameter Dh Dd (mm)
Fig. 12 shows the histograms of cuttings transport ratio for different (mm) Conventional Pulsed
drilling fluids in conventional drilling and pulsed drilling. The cuttings drilling drilling
transport ratio (CTR) is expressed as the ratio of the injection con- P1 201.2 73.0 0.09018 0.07694
centration of cuttings (0.04 in present study) to the total concentration P2 201.2 101.6 0.07651 0.06123
of cuttings retained in the annulus. A greater value of CTR means more P3 201.2 139.7 0.05539 0.05195
cuttings are removed from the wellbore. The amplitude (uA) and fre- P4 178.5 88.9 0.07703 0.06331
P5 121.4 60.3 0.07683 0.06863
quency (f) of the pulsed drilling fluid velocity in this section are 0.5 m/s

189
B. Pang, et al.
Fig. 13. Simulated contours of cuttings concentration in conventional drilling
and pulsed drilling for different hole and pipe diameters. (a) Dh = 201.2 mm;
(b) Dh/ Dd ≈ 2.
Fig. 14. The histograms of cuttings transport ratio for different hole and pipe
diameters in conventional drilling and pulsed drilling.
(Figs. 13a and 14), when the hole diameter is constant and the pipe
diameter is increased, the cuttings transport is improved and the
swaying phenomenon of the cuttings bed is more obvious. From P2, P4
and P5 (Figs. 13b and 14), we found that in the case of the same dia-
meter ratio of the hole to the pipe, the cuttings transport ratio is not
much different. Furthermore, for all the configurations calculated, the
cuttings transport ratio in pulsed drilling is higher than that in con-
ventional drilling, which indicates that pulsed drilling is applicable to
the improvement of cuttings transport within a wide range of hole and
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Tunnelling and Underground Space Technology 90 (2019) 183–193
Fig. 15. Variations of volume-average cuttings concentration over time
throughout the annulus for different amplitudes of pulsed drilling fluid velo-
cities.
pipe diameters also.
3.6. Impact of amplitude and frequency of drilling fluid velocity on cuttings
transport in pulsed drilling
Fig. 15 shows the variations of volume-average cuttings con-
centration over time throughout the annulus as a function of the am-
plitude of pulsing drilling fluid velocity. The injection concentration of
cuttings remains at a constant of 4%. Initially cuttings gradually settle
to the bottom of the annulus and the accumulation of cuttings is
formed. The exit flux of cuttings is lower than the inlet, so the total
volume-average cuttings concentration throughout the annulus is gra-
dually increased over time in the beginning. Within a few tens of sec-
onds, the discharge of the cuttings tends to be stable, and the total
concentration of cuttings throughout the annulus also tends to a stable
value. The time-averaged cuttings concentration (εs) and standard de-
viation (σ) are calculated at the different amplitudes of pulsed drilling
fluid. The volume average cuttings concentration throughout the an-
nulus is reduced with the increase of the amplitude of drilling fluid
velocity. The contour plots of cuttings concentration at the cross section
of the annulus are shown in Fig. 16 with the change of amplitude of
pulsed drilling fluid velocity. It can be seen that increasing the ampli-
tude of velocity pulse reduces the height of cuttings bed.
Fig. 17 shows the variations of volume-average cuttings con-
centration over time throughout the annulus as a function of the fre-
quency of pulsing drilling fluid velocity, and Fig. 18 shows the contour
plots of cuttings concentration. The concentration of solids oscillates
over time because of the fluctuation of the inlet velocity of drilling
fluid. The cuttings concentration decreases from 0.0841 with the fre-
quency of 1.0 Hz to 0.0781 with the frequency of 10.0 Hz of pulsed
drilling fluid velocity. As the amplitude and frequency of pulsing fluid
velocity increase, the oscillation of fluid velocity produces high local
accelerations of fluid and cuttings, and increases the interaction
Fig. 16. Simulated contours of cuttings concentration in the horizontal annulus
at different amplitudes of drilling fluid velocity.
B. Pang, et al. Tunnelling and Underground Space Technology 90 (2019) 183–193

Fig. 17. Variations of volume-average cuttings concentration over time Fig. 20. Variations of area-weighted average turbulent kinetic energy with time
throughout the annulus for different frequencies of pulsed drilling fluid velo- at different amplitudes and frequencies of pulsed drilling fluid velocity.
cities.

fluid velocity, the pulsed drilling fluid produces a high turbulent kinetic
energy. With the increase of the amplitude of pulsed inlet velocity, the
time-averaged value of turbulent kinetic energy is increased. However,
the time-averaged turbulent kinetic energy at the different frequencies
of the pulsed drilling fluid is approximately the same.
The effect of the amplitude and frequency of the pulsed drilling fluid
on the attenuation of the pulsed velocity of cuttings is shown in Fig. 21
from the inlet (black line) to the exit (red line) of the borehole. From
simulated instantaneous axial velocity of cuttings, the time-averaged
Fig. 18. Simulated contours of cuttings concentration in the horizontal annulus
at different frequencies of drilling fluid velocity.

between them. The cuttings concentration throughout the annulus de-

creases.
Fig. 19 shows the effects of amplitude and frequency of pulsed inlet
velocity of drilling fluid on the area-weighted average turbulent dis-
sipation rate in the borehole. The oscillation of turbulent dissipation
rate is caused by oscillation of drilling fluid velocity. Comparing with
results at the constant inlet fluid velocity, the energy dissipation is re-
duced using the pulsed drilling fluid. With the increase of amplitude
and frequency of inlet velocity of drilling fluid, the energy dissipation is
reduced in the borehole. Fig. 20 shows the effects of amplitude and
frequency of pulsed drilling fluid velocity on the area-weighted average
turbulent kinetic energy. Comparing with results at the constant inlet

Fig. 21. Variations of area-weighted average axial velocity of cuttings at inlet

Fig. 19. Variations of area-weighted average turbulent dissipation rate with and exit of the annulus. (a) Different pulsing amplitudes; (b) different pulsing
time at different amplitudes and frequencies of pulsed drilling fluid velocity. frequencies.

191
B. Pang, et al.
velocity of cuttings ue,ave and its amplitude ue,A at the exit are obtained.
As shown in Fig. 21a, at the same average velocity u0 at the inlet, the
high amplitude of the inlet pulsed drilling fluid results in a high average
velocity ue,ave at the exit. The similar trends are found with the change
of frequency of the pulsed drilling fluid, seeing in Fig. 21b. At the exit,
the average velocity increases from 0.888 m/s to 0.904 m/s, and the
amplitude decreases from 0.423 m/s to 0.404 m/s with the frequency of
pulsed drilling fluid velocity from 1.0 Hz to 10.0 Hz. This indicates that
increasing pulse frequency reduces the attenuation of the average ve-
locity but increases the attenuation of the pulse velocity amplitude at
the exit of the borehole.
To obtain an analytical solution for the wave propagation, the
propagation characteristics of cuttings and pulsed drilling fluids are
predicted. For the homogeneous flow in a liquid-solid system, the sound
speeds of liquid phase and solid phase are al and as, respectively. The
wave speed of liquid-solid mixture can be expressed by (Gidaspow,
1994):
−1/2
⎡ ε ε ⎤
cm = ⎢ ⎜⎛ 2s + 2l ⎟⎞ (εl ρ l + εs ρs )⎥
⎣ ⎝ a s ρs al ρ l ⎠ ⎦ (18)
There exists a wave speed of cuttings and drilling fluid mixture that
is dependent on the cuttings concentration. At the low cuttings con-
centration, the wave speed of mixture depends upon the sound speed of
drilling fluid. The wave speed of mixture at the cuttings volume fraction
of 0.081 is on the order of 1000 m/s, which is close to the magnitude of
the measurements at the range from 1400 m/s to 1500 m/s in the se-
dimentation of particles (Hampton, 1985). The phase shift of the
average axial velocity of particles within 3.0 m is about 0.004 s at the
inlet mean velocity and amplitude of 1.016 m/s and 0.5 m/s with the
frequency of 2.0 Hz. The propagation velocity is approximately 750 m/
s, which is close to the calculated value from Eq. (18).
4. Conclusions
The transport performance of cuttings driven by pulsed drilling
fluids through the horizontal and directional boreholes is investigated
based on the kinetic theory of granular flow. Effects of drilling fluid
rheological parameters and hole and pipe diameters on cuttings trans-
port in conventional and pulsed drilling are analyzed. Three zones of
cuttings flow are observed from simulations, namely the fixed bed zone,
the moving bed zone and the cuttings suspension zone. Moreover, the
non-symmetric distributions of cuttings deposition due to the rotation
of drill pipe are observed in the horizontal borehole.
Comparing with the cuttings transport in the annulus injected with a
constant drilling fluid velocity, the pulsed inlet velocities of drilling
fluid produces oscillations of pressure, and significantly increase the
velocity of cuttings in the fixed bed zone and reduce the cuttings con-
centration in the moving bed zone. With the increase of amplitude and
frequency of the inlet velocity of pulsed drilling fluid, the granular
temperature and turbulent kinetic energy are increased, and the height
of cuttings bed is reduced. Present simulations indicate that the pul-
sation of drilling fluid contributes more cuttings out of borehole and it
offers an effective approach to enhance borehole cleaning in horizontal
and directional drilling.
Funding
This work was supported by the National Natural Science
Foundation of China [grant numbers 11472093, 51421063 and
51776059].
Declaration of Competing Interest
None.
192
Tunnelling and Underground Space Technology 90 (2019) 183–193
Appendix A. Supplementary material
Supplementary data to this article can be found online at https://
doi.org/10.1016/j.tust.2019.05.001. These data include Google maps
of the most important areas described in this article.
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