As global energy demand rises, developing unconventional oil and gas resources has become a strategic priority, with horizontal well technology playing a key role. However, wellbore instability during drilling often leads to irregular geometries, such as enlargement or elliptical deformation, causing issues like increased friction and stuck-pipe incidents. Most studies rely on idealized, regular wellbore models, leaving a gap in understanding cuttings transport in irregular wellbore conditions. To address this limitation, this study employs a coupled CFD-DEM approach to investigate cuttings transport in enlarged wellbores by modeling the two-way interactions between drilling fluid and cuttings. The study analyzes the impact of various factors, including drilling-fluid flow rate, drill pipe rotational speed, rheological parameters, wellbore enlargement ratio, and ellipticity, on wellbore cleaning efficiency. The result indicates that increasing the flow rate in conventional wellbores reduces cuttings volume by 75%, while in wellbores with a 0.7 enlargement ratio, the same flow rate only reduces it by 37.8%, highlighting the limitations of geometric complexity. In conventional wellbores, increasing drill pipe rotation reduces cuttings volume by 42.6%, but in enlarged wellbores, only a 13% reduction is observed, indicating that rotation alone is insufficient in large wellbores. Optimizing drilling fluid rheology, such as by increasing the consistency coefficient from 0.3 to 1.2, reduces cuttings volume by 58.78%, while increasing the flow behavior index from 0.4 to 0.7 results in a 38.17% reduction. Although higher enlargement ratios worsen cuttings deposition, a moderate increase in ellipticity improves annular velocity and enhances transport efficiency. This study offers valuable insights for optimizing drilling parameters in irregular wellbores.

Efficient cutting transport is crucial in challenging drilling environments such as ultra-short-radius horizontal wells. Flexible drill pipes, designed for complex wellbore geometries, offer a potential solution. However, the cutting transport behavior within them remains poorly understood. To improve wellbore cleaning and drilling efficiency, this study investigates the underlying transport mechanisms. The investigation employs a coupled CFD-DEM approach to model cutting transport in flexible drill pipes. This method combines fluid dynamics and particle motion simulations to analyze the interaction between drilling fluid and cuttings, evaluating the impact of factors such as rotational speed, flow rate, and fluid properties on cleaning efficiency. The results indicate that increasing the flow rate at a constant rotational speed significantly reduces the cutting concentration. Nevertheless, beyond a critical flow rate of 1.5 m/s, further increases yield diminishing returns in cleaning efficiency due to transport capacity saturation. In contrast, increasing the rotational speed at a fixed flow rate of 1.42 m/s has a less pronounced effect on cutting transport and increases frictional torque, thereby reducing energy efficiency. Higher rotational speeds primarily enhance the suspension of fine cuttings, with minimal impact on larger particles. Additionally, the rheological properties of the drilling fluid play a key role. A higher flow behavior index increases viscosity near the wellbore, improving transport performance. Conversely, a higher consistency index enhances the fluid’s carrying capacity but increases annular pressure drop, which imposes greater demands on pump capacity. Thus, optimal drilling performance requires balancing pressure losses and cleaning efficiency through comprehensive parameter optimization.