Design, Fabrication and Preliminary Testing of Experimental Rock Drilling Rig

Due to the foreseen need in literature to develop a more complete bit to formation interface law to be used in petroleum drilling applications, a full-scale bit force measurement drilling test rig was developed to measure the various forces acting on the drill bit. The rig features a rock formation sample container that is fixed with sensors to measure the weight on bit, torque on bit, lateral loads on the bit, the rate of penetration and the position of the bit. This sample container is drilled into using a short drill shaft and data is collected during the experiment. The data collected from the test rig can be used to develop a database containing bit factors and drilling factors that can be used to develop a more complete bit to rock interface law. In order to make a functional drilling rig, much work was put into redesigning and modifying the existing rig to improve performance, reduce cost and to meet updated requirements. The entire rig was analyzed for strength, stability and cost. This included an analysis of manufacturability for all complex parts. This also included the testing and calibrating of all sensors to ensure that all data collected was accurate and useful. A small portion of the work went into the design of a second test rig to measure the drillstring vibrations downhole in an existing well to validate the force law developed with the bit force measurement rig. However, this rig was not manufactured. The bit force measurement rig was manufactured and completed in May 2015. Once the rig was built and completed, preliminary testing was done to ensure the functionality of the mechanical aspects of the rig and data acquisition system. The data collected from these runs proved that the rig functions as designed and proposed and that additional testing should be undertaken to develop the bit to formation interface law