University of Dar es Salaam

OG 321 : Drilling I
Lecture 04 Drill string design

School of Mines and Geosciences

Department of Petroleum Science and Engineering
 University of Dar es Salaam
Introduction
• The drill string means the tubulars and the accessories used to run the
drill bit to the bottom.
• Consist of the following major sections
• Standard Drill pipe and Heavy Weight Drill pipe (HWDP)
• Bottom-hole-assembly (BHA)
• The BHA consists of drill collars and stabilizers, and a drill bit and
other components like drilling jars
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Introduction
There are many functions of the drill string among them:
1. Transmit the rotary motion from the Kelly or top drive to the drill
bit
2. Produces WOB for effective drilling section
3. Provide a flow path to circulate drilling fluids
4. Provides control borehole direction
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Drill string components
The drill string is typically made up of three sections:

• Bottom hole assembly (BHA)

• Heavy Weight Drill pipe (HWDP)

• Drill pipe

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Drill Pipe
• Strong but relatively light weight pipe
• Attached to Top drive or Kelly Drive
• Forms the upper and major part of a drill string
• Rotates which also rotates the bit
• Each section of the pipe is called the Joint

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Drill Pipe
Specification of Drill Pipes:
• Diameter
• Grade or Strength
• Weight of Steel
• Length

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Drill Pipe
• All Drill Pipes come in three ranges of length:
1. Range 1 – (18 to 22 ft)
2. Range 2 – (27 to 30 ft) –used most commonly
3. Range 3 – (38 to 45ft)

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Heavy Weight Drill Pipe (HWDP)
• Made up between the Drill Pipe and Drill Collars
• Provides the transition between normal drill pipe and the drill collar which is
quite stiff
• Reduces stress between Drill Pipes and Drill Collars
• Reduces fatigue on a regular Drill Pipe
• Help to keep the Drill Pipe in tension
• Sometimes provide Weight on bit (WOB) (especially in directional drilling)

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Bottom hole Assembly (BHA)
The Bottom Hole Assembly is made up of:
• Drill bit: used to break up the formations
• Drill collars: used to apply weight to the bit
• Drilling stabilizers: keep the assembly centered in the hole.
• The BHA may also consists of MWD tools, cross over subs, logging while
drilling (LWD) tools, drilling jars, rotary steerable systems (RSS), and downhole
motors among other features

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Drill Collar
• Have thick wall, very heavy, provide Weight on bit (WOB) and help
keep Drill Pipe in tension

• Weight on bit (WOB) is determined by

• Formation type

• Bit type

• Bit size

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Crossover Subs
• Matching threads

• Designed to join part of the drill string that have different thread

design , e.g. Drill Pipe and Drill Collar

• e.g. Drill Pipe pin may not screw directly into the Drill Collar box.

• Allow the Drill Pipe string to join the Drill Collar string
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Stabilizer and Reamers
• Reduce Drill Collar wear
• Guide drill bit to objective
• Reamers have cutter that cut the rock they contact with
• Stabilizer have blades that touches the wall of the wall but not cut
the wellbore

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Drilling Jars
• Very important piece of equipment which has to be used in any drill
string.

• Used to free the string if any stuck pipe is faced.

• Activated by a straight pull and provide an upward blow. The sharp

motion or blow can shake the string and free it.

• Placed above the drill collars

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Shock sub
• Used to dampen the vibration caused by the bit while drilling hard
formation.
• Located above the drilling bit to minimize stresses due to bit bouncing.
• The shock sub absorbs the vertical vibrations using a steel spring.
• Reducing bit bouncing has many advantages:
• Extending bit life by reducing impact on teeth
• Avoid string failures
• Reduce damage to surface equipment

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Tool joints
• Provide screw threads in order to connect drill pipes together.

• The seal is guaranteed by the shoulder/shoulder connections between pin

and box.

• Hard facing material is welded on the surface to protect the tool joint from
abrasive wear when rotating drill string in the borehole or when making
connection by rig tongs.
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Buoyancy Effect of drill string in mud
• The steel displaced drilling mud which reduces the weight of the drill collars in
mud

• We: effective weight of the well equipment immersed in fluid

• W: weight of the well equipment in air
• ρm : density of mud
• ρs: density of Steel
The density of steel is approximately 490 lbm/ cubic ft or 65.5 lbm/gal.
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Example

• A 10,000 ft of 19.5-lbm/ft drillpipe and 600 ft of 147-lbm/ft drill

collars are suspended off bottom in a 15-lbm/gal mud. Calculate the
effective hook load that must be supported by the derrick.

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Stress –strain curve
• Stress –strain curve

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Stress –strain curve
• Yield Point or Yield strength, is defined as the stress at which a
material begins to plastically deform. Before the yield point the
material will deform elastically and it will return to its original shape
when the stress is released.

• Tensile strength is the maximum stress applied before the material is

completely parted.

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Tensile load capacity of drill Pipe
• Tensile load capacity of used drill Pipe

• As pipe is used, its wall thickness is gradually reduced by wear caused

primarily by contact with the wall of the hole but also by corrosion.
This reduction in cross sectional area results in a lower Tensile Load
Capacity in pounds.

• Tensile load capacity = Minimum Yield Strength (psi)x CSA (in2)

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API classification grade of Drill Pipe

• API classifies a grade of drill pipe body according to yield strength and
tensile requirement

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API Drill Pipe Classification
• For design purpose, drill pipes are classified according to the
following four characteristics:
• Outside diameter (OD): ( e.g. 3.5 in., 4 in., 4.5 in., 5.5 in.)
• Nominal unit weight (e.g 19.5 lbs/ft)
• Steel grades: E, X, G, S, Z, and V (the most commonly used of which are X,
G, and S)
• Class: I (new, premium-class drillpipe; base on ≥ 80% wall thickness), II
(based on ≥ 70% wall thickness), and III (based on < 70% wall thickness)

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Determination of Axial Stress
• The axial stress is the axial tension in the
pipe string divided by the cross sectional
area of steel.
• To apply a downward force, Fb, on the bit,
the drill string is lowered until a portion of
the weight of the pipe string is supported
by the bottom of the hole.
• The cross-sectional area of the drill
collars, A2, cross-sectional area of the
drillpipe, A1
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Determination of Axial Stress
The axial tension FT in the drill collars:

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Determination of Axial Stress
The axial tension FT in the drill pipes:

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Effect of Buoyancy on Buckling
• Long slender columns such
as drill pipe have a low
resistance to any applied
bending moments and tend
to fail by buckling when
subjected to a vertical
compressional load.
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Effect of Buoyancy on Buckling
• If a buckling tendency exists
above the drill collars, helical
buckling may occur in the
drill pipe
• The point above which there
is no tendency to buckle is
sometimes referred to as the
neutral point.
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Effect of Buoyancy on Buckling
• Current design practice is to maintain the neutral point below the drill
pipe during drilling operations.
• The length of drill collars then can be chosen such that the weight of
the collars is equal to the desired weight to be applied to the bit.
• WOB= weight of collars

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Effect of Buoyancy on Buckling

• The minimum length of drill collars, Ldc , is given by

Where:
• Fb is the maximum force to be applied to the bit during drilling
operations,
• wdc is the weight per foot of the drill collars.
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Effect of Buoyancy on Buckling

• The effect of buoyancy on buckling should not be ignored if a liquid

drilling fluid is used.

• Ldc, is the required length of drill collars, to eliminate a tendency for

the drill pipe to buckle. 30

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Design criteria
• The drill string must be designed in accordance with the following
criteria for the entire drilling operation
• Static load; such as tension, torsion, and pressure loads
• Torque and drag
• Buckling
• Fatigue

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Static loads
• Static loads acting on the drill string are tension, compression, torsion,
collapse, or burst pressure. The static loads change with the location of
the drill string, as well as in different drilling operations.
• Seven load cases should be considered during drilling operations:
• Rotating drilling mode
• Sliding drilling mode
• Tripping into the hole
• Tripping out the hole
• Rotating off bottom
• Reaming into the hole
• Back reaming

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Required Length of drill pipe
• As part of drill string, the maximum length of drill pipe that is allowed
under a given set of drilling conditions can be calculated using the
following relationship

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Margin of overpull
• This is the additional allowed tension to be applied to free stuck pipe. It is

the difference between the maximum allowable tension and the calculated

hook load.

• The ratio of these tensions gives the safety factors (SF)

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Collapse check
• The collapse pressure can be calculated as follows:

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