Enhancement of long hole drilling efficiency with drilling units with replaceable core tubes

Abstract

The article presents a procedure to calculate fluid pressure losses in hole drilling with units equipped with replaceable core tubes and using non-Newtonian mud fluids. It is found that main hydraulic loss takes place when mud fluid flows in clearing between a drill string and drill hole walls. Numerical modeling has shown that it is possible to reduce hydraulic pressure loss by 76.5–89.0% by increasing drill string diameter by 2 mm. Based on the analytical research results, diamond drill bits and underreamers with the outer diameters of 78.0 and 78.4 mm, respectively, are manufactured for drilling operations in Talnakh ore field.