Hydraulic oscillators can effectively reduce the frictional resistance of the horizontal well drilling column and increase mechanical drilling speed, but the influence of geological and operational conditions on the drag reduction performance of these tools has not been fully studied, resulting in the selection of hydraulic oscillators still relying mainly on field experience. This study investigates the effects of drill string material, drilling fluid, and tool type on the drag reduction capability of tools. Friction coefficients of two commonly used drill string materials (G105 steel, S135 steel) with three common formation types (sandstone, shale, and limestone) were measured under oil-based and water-based drilling fluid infiltration conditions at different speeds of movement. The experimentally obtained friction coefficients were incorporated into a nonlinear mechanical model of the drill string equipped with a hydraulic oscillator, which was solved using the finite difference method. The results showed that the drill string materials had a limited effect on tool drag reduction capabilities, while rock type and drilling fluid type had a more significant impact. The drag reduction effect of tools in oil-based drilling fluids was better than that of water-based drilling fluids. In shale, the drag reduction effect of tools was better than that in sandstone and limestone. Increasing the amplitude enhanced the drag reduction ability of tools more than increasing the vibration frequency. Increasing the amplitude and frequency of the tool in an oil-based drilling fluid environment produced a more significant increase in drag reduction than doing the same in a water-based drilling fluid environment. These findings can provide theoretical guidance for the design of output characteristics of hydraulic vibrators and field selection of tools under different drilling conditions.

The rotary steerable system (RSS) is the core equipment for precise wellbore trajectory control in deep oil and gas drilling, and its performance is directly determined by the coordination and adaptability of the tool’s offset actuator and control platform. To overcome the limitations of complex control architectures and low positioning accuracy of conventional offset actuators for rotary steering drilling tools, a novel three hydraulic cylinder synchronous steering offset actuator driven by a drilling fluid rotary valve distributor, along with its dedicated control strategy, is proposed. Laboratory experiments and numerical simulations are performed to analyze the piston displacement characteristics of the three hydraulic cylinder under different drilling fluid flow rates and rotary valve rotational speeds. The results demonstrate that the proposed actuator exhibits controllable piston displacement behavior. The simulated and experimental data show consistent variation tendencies with a relative error of less than 8%, thus validating the reliability of the proposed numerical model. Increasing the flow rate from 1 to 1.5 L/s increases the cycle-averaged peak-to-peak piston displacement by 14.5 mm, while raising the rotational speed from 60 rpm to 120 rpm reduces it by 25.3 mm, corresponding to a dogleg severity variation of approximately 1.9–3.1°/30 m. Piston displacement deviations are mainly attributed to valve port machining tolerance, drilling fluid compressibility, pipeline pressure loss, and internal leakage, and these discrepancies are exacerbated as the rotary valve speed or flow rate increases. Finally, optimization strategies for improving synchronization performance are proposed, thereby providing theoretical and technical support for the engineering implementation and parameter optimization of the proposed actuator.

Horizontal well drilling is the mainstream technology for developing deep oil and gas resources. Engineering practice has demonstrated that hydraulic oscillators can solve the problem of the backing pressure of pipe strings and improve drilling efficiency. However, the design of excitation parameters for hydraulic oscillators is currently largely based on idealized friction models and does not fully consider the nonlinear characteristics of friction between the drill string and the formation, resulting in a lack of quantitative basis for parameter selection under different operating conditions. A series of laboratory friction tests was conducted to systematically characterize the dependence of interfacial friction behavior on sliding velocity across different combinations of drill string materials, drilling fluid systems, and rock lithologies. Based on the experimentally determined velocity–friction relationships, a drill string dynamic model incorporating a hydraulic oscillator was developed in which nonlinear frictional effects at the interface were explicitly represented. Using this modeling framework, parametric simulations were carried out to examine how variations in excitation amplitude and excitation frequency influence drag reduction performance under diverse operating conditions. The simulation results indicate that the contribution of drill string material to overall drag reduction effectiveness is comparatively limited, whereas drilling fluid type plays a dominant regulatory role. Oil-based drilling fluids significantly enhance drag reduction performance relative to water-based systems and exhibit greater responsiveness to adjustments in excitation parameters. Rock lithology exerts a pronounced influence on the effectiveness of drag reduction. When water-based drilling fluids are used, the overall performance ranks from highest to lowest as limestone, shale, and sandstone. In contrast, under oil-based drilling fluid conditions, the relative ordering shifts to shale, followed by sandstone, and then limestone. Excitation amplitude is the dominant parameter in enhancing drag reduction capability, and in most cases, its incremental effect exceeds that of excitation frequency; however, under certain specific operating conditions, increasing the excitation frequency can provide additional drag reduction benefits. Based on the above findings, a hydraulic oscillator excitation parameter design method was proposed that matches drilling conditions and formation characteristics by distinguishing between different drilling fluid environments and lithologies, with amplitude as the primary control parameter and frequency as a supplementary parameter. This method provides a theoretical foundation for the design of output parameters of hydraulic oscillators operating under diverse working conditions.