Leading Academic Lab Experimental Trial Demonstrating the Intelligent Drill Pipe Technology Functionality
Nowadays, it is common for oil and gas boreholes to be drilled with many sensors located at the bottom-hole assembly to continuously measure directional and geological information while drilling. The measured information must be transmitted to the surface in real-time, so that engineers on the surface can monitor and navigate the well bores to targeted reservoirs in real-time and make educated decisions about the boreholes during drilling operations. Many telemetry methods have been developed in the past five decades to uplink the information in the boreholes in real-time during drilling operations, such as electromagnetic, mud pulse telemetry, acoustic telemetry, and intelligent drill pipes (also known as wired pipes). However, among all these methods, intelligent drill pipes have the highest data transmission rates and unlimited transmitting range. Despite their potential, there is a lack of research studies in the literature, particularly at the university level, investigating the process of data transmission in boreholes using wired pipes. The main objective of this study is to fill this gap by designing and developing a laboratory prototype and testing the functionality of the intelligent drill pipes for data transmission in boreholes in the lab. The prototype has been developed and tested successfully at Tishk International University as a first step. This small-scale prototype has great potential to simulate the process of data transmission in boreholes using intelligent drill pipes and offers good opportunities for further investigations and collaboration with universities and companies. These include, but not limited to, testing different codes, signal analysis approaches, the signal reflection and attenuation value, developing models, etc., in order to improve the process of data transmission in boreholes with intelligent pipes in a cost-effective and low power-consumption manner.