Mathematical Methods and Systems in Science and Engineering

Reverse Engineering of PDC Drill Bit Design to Study Improvement on

Rate of Penetration
AHMAD MAJDI ABDUL RANI, KHARTHIGESAN A/L GANESAN
Mechanical Engineering Department
Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS
Bandar Seri Iskandar, 31750 Tronoh, Perak,
MALAYSIA
[email protected], [email protected]

Abstract: - In exploration and production of oil and gas, drilling process is one of the most crucial due to its
economics implications. Reduction in drilling completion by increasing drilling rate of penetration is desired to
lower overall production costs. This research focuses on design improvement of Polycrystalline Diamond
Compact drill bit by analyzing on effect of chamfer cutter angle, number of blades and size of cutter diameter
on rate of penetration. Reverse engineering using a 3D laser scanner is adopted to generate cloud model and
extract the existing Polycrystalline Diamond Compact drill bit design. Finite element method is utilized to
analyze the effect of design feature modification. Result shows that the optimum PDC Drill Bit design is
achieved for 5 blades cutter with cutter edge geometry at 20° and cutter diameter of 19.05 mm. The average
ROP for this PDC drill bit is found to highest among all design at 10.6mm/s.

Key-Words: - PDC Drill Bit; Rate of Penetration; Reverse Engineering; Finite Element Analysis

1 Introduction in various industries such as automotive,

Drilling process plays a vital role in oil and gas aerospace, and ship building.
Exploration and Production (E&P). Efficiency of
the drilling operation is partly measured based on 2 Problem Statement
the rate of penetration (ROP) in meter/hour. Failure of PDC drill bit often happens during
Overhead cost for hiring a drill-rig can run up to a drilling operation due to cutter damage such as lost
few hundred thousand dollars daily. Thus a higher cutter, broken cutter, chipped cutter, and junked
ROP contributing towards shorter time taken for damage. These problems lead to lower penetration
drilling completion is highly desired. One of the rate which significantly affects the drilling
factors which affect the ROP is drill bit design. performance and increases the drilling cost.
Drilling industry and research community Hardness of formation is one the factor that causes
embark on continuous research in search for cutter damage. However, low ROP and cutter failure
improved drill bit design to improve the overall can also be due to poor drill bit design.
drilling performance and reduce drilling costs
and thus increase their margins.
Reverse engineering (RE) is a very effective 3 Objective
method for reconstruction of existing product The objective of this paper is to analyze various bit
design. The application of reverse engineering design in order to increase ROP. This paper aims to
is robust in a wide spectrum of engineering optimize drill bit design in relation to number of
field. Often RE is associated with obtaining blades, cutter angle and size of cutter diameter by
conducting Finite Element Analysis (FEA).
computer-aided design (CAD) model for quality
control application, reproduction and replication
function. According to [1], the advancement of
4 Review
scanning and CAD technology in recreating
geometric models of existing objects by various
RE techniques can be quickly and almost 4.1 Reverse Engineering
seamlessly executed. RE are now widely used Engineering is a profession to develop and apply
structures, machines, materials, devices and systems

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 Mathematical Methods and Systems in Science and Engineering

through various technical, scientific, and • Number of blades with cutters

mathematical analyses [2]. There are two types of • Cutter edge geometry
engineering which are forward engineering and • Diameter of the cutter
reverse engineering. Forward engineering is
traditional process of engineering where the 4.4 Finite Element Analysis
development of such inventions comes from critical Finite Element Analysis (FEA) is a computer model
thinking, to creation of logical design up to of a material or design that is analyzed to get more
implementation and production [3]. RE is a process specific results. It is used in existing or new product
to reproduce an existing part in order to analyze the improvement. A company can verify a proposed
design and to modify the design to improve its design to meet client's specifications subject to the
function, to change its dimension and design for the manufacturing, fabrication and construction [8].
aesthetic value, or to reproduce the object that is Modifying an existing product or model is utilized
specially made for a product to be used by others. to improve or qualify the product for a new service
RE typically starts with measuring or scanning an condition and purpose. If the model fails, FEA is
existing object, so that a solid model can be deduced very useful to help designer to modify back the
in order to make use of the advantages of design to meet the desired condition and optimal
CAD/CAM/CAE technologies [3]. design.

4.2 Drill Bit 5 Methodology

The success of drilling operations depends on drill Research procedure used in this project is divided
bit performance. According to Schlumberger oilfield into 5 stages:-
glossary, drill bit is a tool used to crush or cut rock. i. Defining stage: Understanding the project
Drill bits come in many sizes, types, and shapes and background, problem statement, setting the
are designed to drill all types of rocks [4]. The objectives, methodology to be adopted and
choice of bit depends on several factors. One is the identifying the required tools.
type of formation to be drilled, whether it is hard, ii. Research stage: Conducting extensive study
soft, medium hard or medium soft. Type of drill bits on the literatures related to the project.
that are often used in drilling operation are shown in iii. Analytical stage: Analysis and classification
Fig.1, from left, Polycrystalline Diamond Compact of drill bit designs based on feasible
(PDC) bit, Diamond bit and Tricone bit, parameters and features.
respectively. iv. Modeling stage: Performing design
optimization for four (4) drill bits using
CAD software.
v. Interpretation stage: Analyze the effect of
optimized drill bit design on the ROP using
Finite Element Analysis (FEA).

5.1 Reverse Engineering

A 3D laser scanner is used to obtain cloud model of
PDC drill bit. The cloud model is then converted to
Fig.1: Type of Drill Bits 3D CAD model using a 3D modeling software.
Once the 3D CAD drawing is obtained, design
modification is executed by changing the design
4.3 Drill Bit Design parameters, i.e., the number of blades, cutter edge
Drill bit design is one of the major factors affecting geometry and diameter of cutter. Finite element
the ROP during drilling process [5]. According to analysis is conducted on each of the new drill bit
[6], drill bit designers improve some design features design in order to find the optimal design.
in order to obtain desired drilling performance [6].
There are two main design feature affecting PDC
drill bit performance according to [7] in his journal 5.2 Analysis on Drill Bit Features
entitled “PDC Drill Bit Design and Field The above mentioned parameters and features are
Application Evolution”. The features are: modified and adjusted to test and analyze their

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 Mathematical Methods and Systems in Science and Engineering

effect on ROP. Original chamfer edge angle is Features of the drill bit model developed and
adjusted to 16° and 20° and drill bits with 5 and 6 parameters used in the analysis are shown in Fig.2.
blades were also tested for effect on ROP (Table 1). Sandstone is used as rock type formation for this
Apart from that, 13mm cutter size was replaced by case study project. This material is selected for its
16.25mm and 19.05mm size of cutters. high homogeneity and medium strength.

Table 1: Modified features

Fig.2: Drill Bit and Rock Analysis

Based on inputs from drilling companies an

angular velocity of 350 rpm is defined in initial
condition system. The direction of the rotation is
defined by Z-axis component and Sandstone
formation is kept as a static object with fixed
5.3 Taguchi Method for Design Optimization support feature. Analysis and simulation on the four
Taguchi method which is widely used in different drill bit models is conducted using a target
manufacturing field is adopted in order to reduce the solver (Fig.3).
number of experiments to a practical level by
automatically selecting the optimal parameters for
simulation purpose [9]. In this research the total
number of runs using Taguchi is shown in Table 2.

Table 2: Total number of Runs using Taguchi

Runs No.of Chamfer Cutter

Blades Edge Diameter
Geometry (mm)
1 5 16° 16.25
2 5 20° 19.05
3 6 16° 16.25
4 6 20° 19.05

5.4 FEA of Drill Bit ROP

The purpose of FEA is to understand the physical
behaviors of a complex object and to predict the Fig.3: Analysis and Simulation on ROP
performance and behavior of the design; to identify
the weakness of the design accurately [8]. A total of
four drill bits and rock interface is modeled by using ROP is defined as the speed at which a drill bit
3D CAD model. breaks the rock under it to deepen the borehole. In

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 Mathematical Methods and Systems in Science and Engineering

the simulation, total velocity is selected to measure

the rate of penetration. Table 3 shows the ROP
result on the four different drill bit models tested.
6 Conclusion
Table 3 : Average ROP for Drill Bit Models
Design feature such as cutter edge geometry,
Model ROP (mm/s)
1 8.4 cutter diameter and number of blades can be
2 10.6 analyzed and manipulated to improve the
3 8.6 performance of the drill bit in terms of ROP as
4 9.6 shown in this research work. To further improve the
drill bit design other parameters need to be
considered as well. Also, further analysis need to be
16.0 conducted to consider the effect of these design
parameters on the PDC bit wear rate as well.
Rate of Penetration (mm/s)

14.0
12.0 References:
10.0 [1] Wang, J., Gu, D., Yu, Z., Tan, C., & Zhou, L.,
8.0 A Framework for 3D Model Reconstruction in
Reverse Engineering, Computers & Industrial
6.0
Engineering, Vol.63, No.4, 2012, pp. 1189-
4.0 1200.
2.0 [2] Colin Bradley, The Application of Reverse
0.0 Engineering in Rapid Product Development,
Sensor Review, Vol.18, No.2, 1998, pp. 115-
0.50
0.00
0.10
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Fig.4: Analysis data of four different models [4] T. C. Chang & E. Faison III, Shrinkage
Behavior and Optimization of Injection Molded
Fig.4 shows the comparative study of the Parts Studied by The Taguchi Method, Polymer
penetration rate between the four drill bit models. Engineering and Science, Vol.41, No.5, 2001,
Result shows that the optimum PDC Drill Bit design pp. 703–710.
is for 5 blades cutter with cutter edge geometry at [5] L. Gerbaud, S. Menand, & Sellami, H., PDC
20° and cutter diameter of 19.05 mm. The average Bits: All Comes From the Cutter Rock
ROP for this PDC drill bit is found to highest among Interaction, IADC/SPE Drilling Conference,
all design at 10.6mm/s. A calculation is made to 2011.
calculate the percentage of improvement of ROP as [6] Ohno, T., Karasawa, H., & Kobayashi, H., Cost
shown in Fig.5. PDC Drill bit capable of drilling a Reduction of Polycrystalline Diamond
sandstone formation for 35.3m/hr which is about Compact Bits Through Improved Durability,
9.8mm/s per second. Geothemics, Vol.31, No.2, 2002, pp. 245-262.
[7] Kerr, C. J., PDC Drill Bit Design and Field
Application Evolution, Journal of Petroleum
Technology, 1998.
[8] Barna Szabo, Finite Element Analysis, Canada,
John Wiley and Sons Inc, 1991. Retrieved from
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chnology/Structural+Analysis
/Explicit+Dynamics, on December 5, 2013.
[9] Minh, D. N., Geoffroy, H., Bergues, J., &
Putot, C., Evaluation of Drilling Parameters of
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Fig.5: Percentage improvements in ROP 5, 1998, pp. 578-580.

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