Effect of drilling and wellbore geometry parameters on wellbore temperature profile: Implications for geothermal production

Prediction of the wellbore fluids and formation temperatures is crucial during drilling operation, especially for high temperature wells, such as geothermal applications. This work presents the applications of an improved comprehensive drilling simulator for predicting the wellbore system temperature during the drilling process. A fully transient numerical model of the wellbore temperature is developed for drilling and geothermal production applications. The model describes the dynamic behaviour of the thermal state of the wellbore during circulation and static conditions. The developed model is implemented with the commercial virtual drilling simulator through an application programming interface. This implementation allows the coupling of the thermal model with other physical models, which leads to more advanced and realistic simulations. The model has been previously validated through a direct comparison with field data from geothermal well located in the Hanover area in Germany. The results showed a good agreement between the predicted outlet fluid temperature and the measured one. Furthermore, an analysis of the effect of various parameters on the wellbore system temperature is performed. This analysis showed the impact of these parameters on the wellbore temperature profile including the critical areas such as the casing setting point and bottom hole assembly. This information may lead to enhancing the wellbore stability by monitoring the thermal stresses, especially in high-temperature wells. Moreover, predicting the drill bit temperature can result in increasing the lifetime of the bit by adjusting the operating conditions to keep the bit temperature within the specified range. Based on these results, the enhanced drilling simulator with the transient temperature model showed to be a suitable tool for effective well planning.