Cutting concentration prediction in horizontal and deviated wells using artificial intelligence techniques

Improper hole cleaning or drilled-cutting transportation impacts drilling operations. To illustrate, inefficient cleaning of the wellbore can lead to many drilling problems such as low drilling rate (i.e. low ROP), early bit wear and, in the severe cases, a complete loss of the well due to stuck pipe. To understand efficiency in cutting transport in drilling and to provide solutions for the problem, many studies have been conducted. In all cases, they provide empirical models based on experimental data. In this study, different artificial intelligence (AI) techniques are employed to estimate the concentration of cuttings present in the wellbore. The purpose of this study is to indirectly measure the hole-cleaning efficiency in order to predict the cutting concentration from drilling parameters using artificial intelligence techniques. The study is based on 116 experimental data records from the studies. Two AI techniques were selected, namely artificial neural network (ANN) and support vector machine (SVM), to estimate the cutting concentration in the wellbore. The input parameters comprise mud density and mud rheological properties (yield point and plastic viscosity) in addition to drilling parameters including the hole inclination angle, pipe eccentricity (i.e. location of the drill pipe from the axis of the well), the rate of penetration (ROP), flow rate (GPM), drill pipe rotary speed (RPM) and temperature. The results obtained show the ability of the two employed techniques to accurately predict the cutting concentration in the wellbore with average absolute errors (AAE) less than 5% and correlation coefficients (R) higher than 0.9. Comparison of these results with a literature model showed that the AI techniques provide better predictions of cutting concentration and higher accuracy than that model. Applying the developed AI technique will help the drilling engineers to assess the hole cleaning in a real time.