In the complex fracturing process of shale gas wells, casing is subjected to serious deformation, which can easily to the failure of wellbore integrity and the reduction of well construction productivity. It is particularly important to clarify the casing deformation mechanism and carry out effective control. Based on the logging data of casing deformation from well and full-scale indoor tests, the casing deformation mechanism is mainly considered to be shear and non-uniform extrusion deformation caused by formation slip and displacement control, i.e., the ultimate working conditions. The slip displacement boundary (<40 mm) under complex fracturing conditions is quantified to provide the design and optimization basis. Then, the influence laws of steel grade and wall thickness on the shear and non-uniform extrusion bearing characteristics are studied, using unconventional oil and gas well casing simulation test systems for 110 ksi (φ139.7 × 10.54 mm) and 125 ksi (φ139.7 × 12.7 mm) casings. Furthermore, combined with the full-scale simulation tests and finite-element simulation, the effects of elastic and modified cement slurry with hollow glass beads on casing deformation are compared and studied. The results show that the deformation capacity mitigation of casing is limited by reducing the cement elastic modulus and increasing the elastic cement thickness. By reasonably adding hollow glass beads of modified cement slurry, the maximum geological movement absorption of cement slurry is up to 27 mm. This new method can obviously decrease casing deformation and have an excellent control effect. Combined with the cementing technology of Luzhou blocks, the formula of modified cement slurry is optimized, and the optimization window of the casing deformation control process is formed, which can ensure the smooth progress of engineering fracturing.
Under shear and non-uniform loads, the deformation of the section shape of a casing results in an irregular section, and the spatial continuity is poor. The change in the distance between the wall of the casing before and after stress is recorded to analyze the deformation of the casing, and the distance value is taken as the key characteristic of the casing. A large number of the key characteristic values of shale gas casing deformation can be obtained by using the circular traversal detection method. At the same time, this article focuses on the center deviation between the laser sensor axis and the pipe string axis, as well as on the disturbance problem during measurement. An eccentricity error correction algorithm is derived to correct the eccentricity error that occurs during the detection process, and then we use interpolation algorithms to draw cubic spline curves to improve detection accuracy. The test results show that the algorithm can effectively eliminate eccentricity errors in measurement and achieve the accurate measurement of deformation casing characteristic values, which can provide basic data for the study of a shale gas casing deformation mechanism.