Efficient transport in vertical pipeline hydraulic lifting systems is vital for coarse-grained ore, necessitating a deep comprehension of the settling traits of coarse mineral particles. In this study, we conducted a series of settling experiments on individual coarse particles in Newtonian fluids with varying viscosities, employing a self-designed and manufactured settling apparatus. A total of 133 sets of experimental data on the free settling of coarse particles in Newtonian fluids were obtained by recording the particle settling process with a high-speed camera and applying image processing techniques. A mechanical model was employed to perform statistical analysis on the experimental data and establish a predictive model for the drag coefficient and an explicit predictive model for the settling terminal velocity of coarse-grained ore in Newtonian fluids. The average relative errors between the predicted values and experimental values of the drag coefficient and settling terminal velocity models are 4.26% and 7.34%, respectively. This confirms the reliability of the provided predicted model, providing a theoretical foundation for determining the hydraulic lifting speed of coarse mineral particles in vertical pipelines for deep mining.

The application of hole cleaning devices can effectively solve the hole cleaning problem during the drilling of horizontal wells. Improving the hole cleaning performance is directly related to subsequent drilling time and cost. In this paper, the solid–liquid two-phase hydrodynamic characteristics under the action of the V-shaped hole cleaning device for drilling horizontal wells were studied experimentally and numerically. The decay law of spiral flow induced by the V-shaped hole cleaning device was obtained numerically using the commercial CFD code “Fluent” by changing the blade rotational speed, blade helix angle, and consistency coefficient of drilling fluid. The helix angle will cause the flow direction of local fluid to deflect. The swirl intensity of spiral flow increases significantly with an increase in rotational speed. The hole cleaning performance was better when the helix angle was from about 10 to 20 degrees. Increasing the fluid consistency coefficient will rapidly make the spiral flow decay, resulting in a shorter effective action distance and a worse hole cleaning effect. The simulation results were validated against the experimental results of the flow loop. Both experimental and simulation results showed that the hole cleaning performance was improved by using the V-shaped hole cleaning device. The very good agreement achieved between the results has presented an opportunity to study the hole cleaning effect of a hole cleaning device in unsteady state conditions. The results will provide theoretical guidance for efficient hole cleaning using V-shaped hole cleaning devices for horizontal well drilling.

The hole cleaning device is a powerful application which can effectively slow down the deposition of cuttings during drilling. However, in this complicated swirl flow created by the device, the decay of the swirl flow and the particle behavior are not evident yet. In this paper, the decay of the swirl flow and the particle behavior in the swirl flow field are studied by the Eulerian–Eulerian two-fluid model (TFM) coupled with the kinetic theory of granular flows (KTGF), and sliding mesh (SM) technique for simulating the fluid flow. The results show that the swirl intensity decays exponentially along the flow direction under laminar flow conditions. The swirl flow has a longer acting distance at a higher rotational speed, which can effectively slow down the deposition of cutting particles. The initial swirl intensity of swirl flow induced by the blades increases significantly with the increase of blade height and the decrease of the blade angle. The tangential velocity of the cutting particles in the annulus is more significant near the central region, gradually decreases toward the wall in the radial direction, and rapidly decreases to 0 at the wall surface. The decay rate is negatively correlated with the initial swirl intensity. The results presented here may provide a useful reference for the design of the hole cleaning device.

Horizontal wells are more likely than vertical wells to have enlarged wellbore sections due to borehole instability. However, there is scarce research on borehole cleaning of horizontal wells with enlarged wellbore sections. In this paper, we establish a horizontal wellbore model with a breakout enlargement section using field borehole diameter data. We used the three-dimensional computational fluid dynamics (CFD) method and the Realizable k-ε turbulence model with the Euler–Euler approach to simulate the effects of the drilling fluid circulation return speed and the spinning speed of the drill pipe on the cutting movement of conventional horizontal wells and horizontal wells with a breakout enlargement section. The simulation results demonstrate that increasing the drilling fluid circulation return speed and the spinning speed of the drill pipe does not significantly improve the hole cleaning impact for horizontal wells with a breakout enlargement section. We analyzed the effects of the enlargement ratio, ellipticity, and principal axis orientation on the borehole cleaning effect of horizontal wells with a breakout enlargement section. The results show that the cleaning impact is better when the enlargement ratio is lower; moreover, the ellipticity is larger and the principal axis orientation is perpendicular to the gravity direction. This paper fills a gap in the existing theory of hole cleaning in horizontal wells and provides a theoretical basis for improving the hole cleaning effect in actual drilling processes.

In the drilling industry, it is of great significance to accurately predict the drag coefficient and settling velocity of drill cuttings falling in the non-Newtonian drilling fluid. However, the irregular shape of drill cuttings and the non-Newtonian rheological properties of drilling fluid (e.g., shear-thinning and yield stress behavior) make it challenging to predict the settling velocity. In this study, the velocity of particle settlement was studied by a visual device and high-speed camera system. Experimental data of the free settlement of 224 irregular drilling cuttings and 105 spherical particles in the Herschel–Bulkley fluid were obtained. A mechanical model dependent on the force balance of settlement particles was adopted to conduct a detailed statistical analysis of the experimental results, and a prediction model of the drag coefficient of spherical particles in the Herschel–Bulkley fluid was established. A two-dimensional shape description parameter is introduced to establish a model for predicting the drag coefficient of irregular-shaped cuttings in a Herschel–Bulkley fluid. The model has high prediction accuracy for the settling velocity of irregular shale cuttings in Herschel–Bulkley fluid. The average relative error is 7.14%, verifying the model’s accuracy.

The drag coefficient C_D plays an important role in studying the interaction forces between individual particles and fluid. Due to the irregular particle shape of natural sands, studying the sedimentation characteristics and drag coefficient model of irregular particles is of great significance in explaining natural phenomena, predicting the sedimentation process, and calculating the interphase forces between individual particles and fluid. In this paper, firstly, an experimental system for measuring the settling velocity was built, the settling velocity of 67 tests of spheres with different particle Reynolds number Re_s in the Newtonian fluid were obtained, and the C_D–Re_s correlation of sphere settling in the Newtonian fluid was established. The proposed C_D–Re_s correlation was in good agreement with the existing classical C_D–Re_s correlations, which proves the reliability of the experimental system and data processing method. Existing literature shows that the previous models are only suitable for irregular-shaped particles with three-dimensional shape-described parameters. However, the three-dimensional shape information of sand particles can only be obtained through accurate laboratory measurements, and it is often impossible to calculate accurately. By introducing the two-dimensional shape-described parameter (circularity c), using image analysis technology, the two-dimensional shape information of natural sands was obtained. The settling velocity of 221 tests of natural sands in the Newtonian fluid was obtained experimentally. It is found that the sand particles’ drag force exerted by the fluid is more significant than its equivalent sphere. With the increase in the particle Reynolds number, the shape irregularity’s influence on sand particle drag coefficient is more significant, and the C_D–Re_s correlation of natural sand was proposed by fitting. The established C_D–Re_s correlation has good prediction accuracy and can better predict the drag coefficient and terminal settling velocity of natural sand with irregular shapes.