Deformation Analysis and Fracture Mechanism of Steel Casing in Oil Wells

Abstract:

Steel casing damage in oil wells is the primary hazards of oil production in China. There are two main reasons for the steel casing damage, one is the displacement loads on the external interface which primary come from rock creep, and another reason is temperature load on the internal surface which comes from steam injection. In this article, rock creep under fluid-solid interaction is calculated, and the displacement loads on external interface of steel casing is worked out. Then, steel casing deformation and crack propagation with temperature load is investigated. Underground rocks can be treated as porous media and rock creep is controlled by fluid-solid interaction for porous media. The method of fluid-solid interaction for finite element analysis is the calculation of two-way fluid-solid coupling for porous media; it means fully coupling between the solid and fluid solution variables. This method is analyzed and the displacement load is worked out as an example application. Finite element model is constructed; deformation and crack propagation of steel casing under multiple actions of outer loads and inner temperature load are calculated. Finally, fracture mechanism of steel casing in oil wells is analyzed, and some advice is proposed.

• Periodical: Applied Mechanics and Materials (Volume 467)
• Pages: 317-322
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.4028/www.scientific.net/AMM.467.317
• Online since: December 2013
• Authors: Qing Jie Zhu, Jing Chen
• Keywords: Casing, Deformation Mechanism, Fluid-Solid Interaction, Oil Wells, Petroleum Engineering, Rock Creep

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