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Abstract
A set of partial differential equations which consider the combined effects of fluid column, sucker-rod string and tubing
motion were developed to describe the motion of a sucker-rod pumping system.
If the tubing is fixed, only the fluid column and rod motion need be considered; however, when the tubing is free to
move, energy in the system is lost and, therefore, pump system efficiency declines, hence, the need to consider these effects
in the design of the sucker-rod system.
Using finite differences this model was used to evaluate performance of sucker-rod pumps (pumping rate as a function of
number of strokes, stroke length, rod length, ratio of plunger to cylinder diameter, etc.) in both vertical and deviated wells.
The results indicate that the developed model simply and accurately models the dynamic motion of the sucker-rod string.
The examples presented illustrate its general applicability in both vertical and deviated wells.
column in the sucker-rod pumping system are devel- particular case is for a vertical well where; /z 1 = 0 N
oped and then solved using a finite-difference ap- s m - N=-12 rpm, L = 1400 m, 1 = 8 m and
proach (see Eqs. A - l - A - 6 in Appendix A). R = 1.2 m. Po(t) is assumed to be a periodic func-
tion with a maximum amplitude 106 N m -2.
As the value of dynamic viscosity, ~7, increases,
2. Solutions and analysis the area enclosed by the dynamograph will increase
because the work done by the pumping unit in-
The finite-difference method was used to obtain creases.
the numerical solution of Eqs. A - l - A - 6 ( " u p w i n d A comparison (Fig. 2) was made between the
diferencing"; Press et al., 1990) was applied. The results generated using different vibrational models.
following three conditions had to be met for stabil- The key is:
ity: C r A t / A x < 1, C t A t / A x < l and C f A t / A x < (a) non-linear model of the sucker-rod string,
1. Insofar as the boundary conditions are concerned, tubing and liquid column;
the surface conditions Vt, Vr and Po(t) are known (b) non-linear model of the sucker-rod string and
and the downhole conditions depend upon the condi- liquid column;
tion of the valve, i.e. open or closed. (c) linear model of the sucker-rod string.
To further simplify the analysis, we assume that The damping factor in (c) could be adjusted to
the sucker-rod pump is a conventional (Type 1) unit remove the same amount of energy as in (a) and (b)
connected to an untappered rod string. by practical "wellsite" means (Gibbs, 1963; Everitt
Using known data of the sucker-rod pumping and Jennings, 1988; Lollback et al., 1994). The
system, one obtains the values of Qr, Qt, Pf, Vr, Vt method described accounts for these energy losses in
and Vf at any arbitrary depth X. Predictive dynamo- the original problem formulation. At the beginning
graphs can then be drawn from these data. of the upstroke the standing valve opens sooner on
curve (b) than curve (a) and, therefore, loads the rod
2.1. Example 1 sooner, because the tubing is anchored in (b). Simi-
larly, the path traced by curve (b) is closer to curve
Fig. 1 shows the effect of changing the dynamic (a) than to curve (c) because the vibration of the
viscosity of the liquid column in a vertical well. This liquid column is ignored in (c). Inclusion of the
80,000
10,000
0 I .... I i - - 1
0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1
PR (dimensionless)
90,000
" - " (a)
~. 45,000 j Z ~
Z
30,000
15,000 -
0 -
liquid column effect becomes especially important and Fig. 4 represents the axial, Coulombic, side and
for analysing the performance of rod pumps lifting rod weight forces applied to a rod element of length
heavy oils. AS. The assumption is that the only contact that the
sucker rod has with the tubing is at the coupling.
2.2. Example 2 In this case, the equation of the rod string in
Appendix A has changed from Eq. (A-l) to:
Fig. 3 depicts a planned, deviated, rod-pumping OVr aQr
well. The friction between the tubing and the rod prAr at aS + P r g A r c ° s y - F r (1)
couplings is dependent on the deviation of the well
where S is the rod length below the polished rod
(measured depth); and y is the inverse tangent of the
" + !IA slope at depth X, i.e. tan y = d y / d x.
x, i
• IB .P
I /-
Q,(S,t)
\ \ J +.\++++
: "\
/ / \
XF "\\
\\
' \\
// //,//
" ~:+s
\" /" t', 't\
0::
++ 5,LJ-
+ +i:
-~a2
\
t .:J - + Jrl F " AW, Qr(iS+~l.t)XkkX
HF
Fig. 3. Well profile in two-coordinate system. Fig. 4. Forces acting on a rod element of length AS.
316 P.A. Lollbaek et al. / Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 17 (1997) 313-320
C-r + F~.f = 0.5pfVflVfl~r D~C ~ 0.086 1164.55 27.86 28.00 457.2 1166.94 39.65
0.114 873.41 30.50 34.42 457.2 971.75 33.40
+ 0.5pfVrlVrl ( a~ - A r ) C J l (3) 0.143 698.73 42.[2 41.91 457.2 861.24 33.95
0.171 584.65 47.34 47.02 457.2 791.38 31.53
F~t = +tXe( p~ga~ s i n y + K, Qr ) (4) 0.229 434.06 63.10 62.73 457.2 701.69 30.76
0.343 291.14 91.39 90.84 457.2 619.02 29.49
F,=b~V~-bfrVf+__l~z(prga~,siny+K~O~) (5)
t).458 218.35 116.13 115.71 457.2 577.77 27.95
where K~, is the curvature of the planned well and
/x: is friction coefficient between the tubing and the
coupling. The sign in Eq. (4) is chosen to be positive Additional tubing information: 1 = 8 m, D t =
if Vr > 0, negative if V~ < 0 and zero if Vr = 0. 0.062 m, Dp = 0.044 m and D r = 0.0254 m. Observe
For a deviated well in which the tubing is an- that depth L refers to the true vertical depth (TVD)
chored the following information describes the tub- of the pump. Table 1 shows the effect of increasing
ing string (see Fig. 3). 4'1 on F~t, Fr(max) and the length of the build-up
section.
Horizontal displacement ( H v) = 1828.8 m
An interesting phenomenon is evident in Fig. 5.
Depth of pumping = 3657.6 m
As curvature, 95l, increases the area enclosed by the
( T V D ) ( X F = L)
dynamometer trace decreases. This " t h i n n i n g " of
Depth of pumping (MD) (S F) = 4175.5 m
the area can be explained by observing that as the
Kick off point ( X B) = 457.2 m
build-up rate increases the length of the build-up
Build-up r a t e ( ( ~ ) 1 ) : 0.114 r a d / 1 0 0 m
section decreases, the total frictional losses (see Table
Drop-off rate 14~ ) = 0.114 r a d / 1 0 0 m
1) increase and the work done at the pump decreases.
TVD at end of drop-off ( X E) = 3352.8 m
In general when 6~ increases the total frictional loss
Final inclination (o~ 2) = 0.349 rad
decreases; however, because the loss depends on
170,000 -
r
155,000- ;,'!~'"",.
• \•~ y/° "° ~ • _
1 25 °\ . ....
,~ 110,00O- °\
'o Values of
Z \~q~l(tad/lOOm) [ 0.171 ~2=0.086,[1,2=0.2, q = 0 . 0 3
z 95.00o-
\\° [.... 0.458'.
.... . ~ . ~ ! :
i'(
i)
80.000 -
65,000 /1~/+
50,000 -
35,000 - - i . . . . !
0.00 0.10 0.20 0.30 0.40 0.50 0.60 0.70 0.80 0.90 1.00
PR (dimensionless)
210,000
---0 I'
! ~ Values of I
180,000 ~ ~ - - ~ ~ ~(Ns/m ~) I 0-0"25 I
/ / . . . . *-*- *- *- .~ ~ !--°'41
30,000 I I I I - -f I
0. 00 0. 10 0. 20 0. 30 0. 4 0 0.50 0.60 0.70 0.80 0.90 1.00
PR (dimensionless)
Fig. 6. Surface dynamometer card - - Effect of increasing the friction coefficient between the tubing and sucker-rod coupling.
both Fct + F r (N m -1 ) and the measured depths Possible areas for improvements to the model are
between C and B, this is not always true as can be mainly in the areas of fluid dynamics and fluid/tub-
observed when the inclination increases from 0.114 ing, fluid/sucker-rod interactions. One reviewer has
to 143 rad/100 m and the frictional loss increases. noted that fluid dynamics can only be accurately
Fig. 6 shows the surface dynamometer cards as a considered if the elastic effects of the flowline
function of ~2. The area enclosed by the curve ("more massive and elastic than that considered in
increases with increasing b¢2 as more work is re- the tubing") are included.
quired to lift the fluid column. Accurate determination of the boundary condi-
tions dictates the reliability of the calculated data set.
At the surface it has been customary to enforce a
3. Summary and conclusion constant pressure condition and thereby ignore the
fluid in the surface flowlines - - this will not always
Analysis of the vibration of the sucker-rod string, be a reasonable assumption to make.
tubing and liquid column provides useful informa-
tion on the design and operation of sucker-rod pump-
ing installations. The equations described herein sim- Appendix A
ply and accurately describe the dynamics of the
sucker-rod system. Their solution by finite differ-
ences is straightforward and easily implemented on A. 1. Formulation of the problem
computer.
As demonstrated in the worked examples the Fig. 7 shows a sucker-rod pumping system. To simplify the
analysis the following assumptions are made:
model can be used for predicting the behavior of
(a) A conventional pumping unit is used. The prime mover has
sucker-rod pumping systems in both vertical and no slip and the crank angular speed, ~o, is a constant.
deviated wells. It also has the potential for wellsite (b) The fluid column contains no gas.
diagnosis implementation. (c) Fluid density, pf, casing pressure at the plunger level, P1
A number of the simplifying assumptions made in and, liquid dynamic viscosity, "q, are constant.
(d) The valve resistance is ignored and the friction coefficient,
this paper, namely constant slip, gasless fluid col-
~1, between the piston and the housing (see Fig. 9) is constant.
umn, planned well and tubing-rod contact only at In the following discussion the subscripts r, f, c and t refer to
couplings can be removed as other authors have rod, fluid, coupling and tubing properties respectively. The deriva-
shown. tion of Eqs. A - l - A - 6 is discussed further in Wang et al. (1992).
318 P.A. Lollback et al. / Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 17 (1997) 313 320
24 R; (//.2+0.39~ (A-10)
< 0 (A-24)
Os tp = + ~, sin(0 - 05)
Using the cosine rule:
( C2+B2-J2
/3 = cos i =,7o (A-25)
vr (0,0
i [ C2 + j 2 _ B2 ]
e cos (A-26)
t 2 CJ )
K2 + J 2 - R
= cos ' (A-27)
t
where
Fig. 8. Schematic of walking beam.
J CK 2 ~ R 2 - 2 K R c o s ( O - 09) (A-28)
When the crank rotates antic!ockwise, the negative sign of Eq.
(A-21) will cancel.
The surface boundary condition for the tubing is:
Similarly, Ft can found in terms of V~ and Vf: L~((),t) = 0 (A-29)
F~ =Ftr = btVt - bf~Vf (A-17) Whereas the surface boundary condition of the liquid column is:
where Ftf is the liquid column viscous force per unit length of e,-(0,, ) = Po(t) (A-30)
tubing and the constants b t and bfl respectively are:
A.2.2. Downhole boundar3" conditions (X = L)
b,=12rr'q(O.2+O.39Dr)(Dt-Ii~ Dt ~Dr ] ' (a-18) Fig. 9 shows a downhole pump. From basic mechanical theory
the three equilibrium equations are:
and
)l (a) The equilibrium equation of the pumping plunger is:
Or( L,t)+ P A p - Pf( L,t)( ap A r ) = p,,[Vt( L d ) - Vr( L,t)]
(a-31)
Finally, the viscous force per unit length of liquid column. Ff, where ,% is the damping coefficient between the plunger and
cylinder and, Ap is the area of the plunger.
is equal to the sum of F~ and F~ (Eqs. A-14 and A-17, respec-
(b) The equilibrium equation of the cylinder is:
tively):
O ~ ( L , t ) - P A p - e f ( L , t ) ( A t - a p ) + anP ]
ff= (Err + F~,f+ Ftf ) (n-20)
= #.[V(L,t)- Vt(L,t)] (A-32)
where P and Pi are the pressures in the pumping cavity and in
A.2. Boundary conditions the casing at the plunger level, respectively.
: PI ::::::2: .:
Eq. (A-21) is obtained from the general solution of the "four-
bar" linkage problem (McLean and Nelson. 1980) and may be Fig. 9. Schematic of travelling and standing valve.
320 P.A. Lx~llback et aL / Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 17 (1997) 313-320