Investigation of Drilling Performance in Core Bit Drilling using passive-Vibration Assisted Rotary Drilling (p-VARD) Technology

Md. Shaheen Shah, Yingjian Xiao, Stephen Butt

In the proceedings of: GeoSt. John's 2019: 72nd Canadian Geotechnical Conference

Session: Rock Mechanics

ABSTRACT: Diamond core drilling is the primary means of exploration drilling for mineral deposits and in Canada is stipulated to the meet legislative requirements for mineral deposit evaluation. However, it is the slowest and thus most expensive form of drilling in the mineral industry, and economic analysis has shown that increase in drilling Rate of Penetration (ROP) can have a significant impact on drilling costs and overall levels of exploration. The passive-Vibration Assisted Rotary Drilling (p-VARD) technology was developed to improve the ROP for drilling with the roller cone and PDC drill bits used in the oil and gas industry, and the purpose of this investigation was to evaluate the potential for p-VARD to improve ROP for natural diamond coring bit. In the Drilling Technology Laboratory (DTL) of Memorial University of Newfoundland (MUN), a small drilling simulator (SDS) was used at this stage of experiments using 26 mm diameter coring bit drilled into a 154.54 MPa hard rock material. Drill-off tests were conducted by applying a series of weight-on-bit (WOB) and evaluating the drilling ROP at various p-VARD tool configurations and comparing these with drilling without the p-VARD technology. Rate-of-penetration (ROP) was well correlated with WOB and drill string compliance. From results, the increase of ROP was observed using two p-VARD configurations, with a maximum increase of 28% from one p-VARD configuration compared to drilling without p-VARD. This study demonstrates the potential of decreasing the time for core drilling in hard rock using p-VARD technology. Résumé Le forage au diamant est le principal moyen de forage d'exploration pour les gisements minéraux. Au Canada, il est stipulé de ge technologie de forage rotatif assisté par vibration passive (p-VARD) a été développée pour améliorer le ROP pour le forage avec le trépan conique et les forets PDC utilisés dans l'industrie du pétrole et du gaz. Le but de cette enquête était d'évaluer le potentiel de -VARD améliorera la POR pour le foret diamant naturel. Dans le Drilling Technology Laboratory (DTL) de l'Université Memorial de Terre-Neuve (MUN), un petit simulateur de forage (SDS) a été utilisé à ce stade des expériences en utilisant un foret de 26 mm de diamètre foré dans un matériau de roche dure de 154,54 MPa. Les tests de forage ont été réalisés en appliquant une série de poids sur l'outil (WOB), en évaluant la POR de forage pour diverses configurations d'outils p-VARD et en les comparant à un forage sans technologie p-VARD. Le taux de pénétration était bien corrélé avec la conformité WOB et de la colonne de forage. D'après les résultats, l'augmentation de ROP a été observée avec deux configurations de p-VARD, avec une augmentation maximale de 28% d'une configuration de p-VARD par rapport à un forage sans p-VARD. Cette étude démontre le potentiel de réduction du temps de carottage dans les roches dures utilisant la technologie p-VARD.

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Cite this article:
Md. Shaheen Shah; Yingjian Xiao; Stephen Butt (2019) Investigation of Drilling Performance in Core Bit Drilling using passive-Vibration Assisted Rotary Drilling (p-VARD) Technology in GEO2019. Ottawa, Ontario: Canadian Geotechnical Society.

@article{Geo2019Paper437,author = Md. Shaheen Shah; Yingjian Xiao; Stephen Butt,title = Investigation of Drilling Performance in Core Bit Drilling using passive-Vibration Assisted Rotary Drilling (p-VARD) Technology,year = 2019}