The Downhole Drilling Industry is Ideal for Upfront CFD

Sitting around on a Saturday afternoon, flicking through the channels and stumbled upon a show on "Deep Sea Drilling". Pretty sure it was on the Discovery Channel. Having done a fair amount of work over the last two years in the Oil & Gas industry, I was intrigued. It was awesome. I think the majority of us take energy sources for granted. We just expect that it will always be there. But considering the fact that a good majority of the oil and gas drilling is done on the bottom of the ocean floor, many miles off the coast and in some cases miles under ground, the technology required is fairly sophisticated. The conditions are pretty harsh and the challenges are endless.

For every minute that a rig is not operating, the cost is tremendous. So, the reliability of the equipment is key. On the fluids side of the world, the issues are endless.

1. Cavitation
2. Erosion
3. Optimizing pressure drop
4. Optimizing flow patterns
5. Reducing flow impingement

Actually, the above issues are all related. Upfront CFD is a perfect fit for this world. Traditional CFD has been in this market for a number of years. But, quite frankly, having a "CFD Specialist" on staff is becoming a thing of the past. Certainly, there is a need for them in some of the companies out there, but the "multi-tasking" engineer is more the norm. He/she needs to get quick insight on the flow characteristics of his designs, have the ability to make a tweak to the CAD model, compare and repeat. This process has to be quick, intuitive and reliable.

Check out the video of a tri-cone bit. This is a very common design that is used in drilling the holes to extract the energy source. This device is 1000's of feet under ground with high pressure fluid being blasted through to wash the debris back up to the surface. This video shows the traces of the fluid in the hole as well as the pressure contour of the flow inside the bit. This is just one of the many components in this world that are reaping the benefits of Upfront CFD. Take a minute and Google "downhole drilling", pretty amazing industry.