Real Time Data Acquisition and Prediction Model Comparison using Maxi Directional Drills

Abstract

Horizontal Directional Drilling (HDD) is used around the world when traditional open cut methods are not practical or impossible for installing pipelines. Maxi-sized drill rigs are the largest and most powerful directional drills and are more common in the field than ever before with over 5,000 rigs in operation world wide. The complexity of installations and the design associated with them continues to increase. This research has two main objectives. 1. Develop a real time data acquisition system for monitoring pullback forces on the product pipe; and, 2. Compare data gathered using maxi-sized drill rigs with current modelling methods using BoreAid. The first portion of the research, as listed above, required attaching multiple pressure transducers to the drilling display panel in an American Auger DD-1100 drill rig and recording, in real time, the carriage, rotation, and mud pressure as seen by the operator. This research also describes the various challenges and issues associated with developing real time in-the-bore data acquisition processes. Finally, future recommendations for further development of the in-the-bore data acquisition are discussed. The second portion of this research describes how the gathered data was processed into a workable data set. The field data was then compared to theoretical models by using the drill assistant tool BoreAid. The results of this comparison show that these models are appropriate for all size drill rigs, although some limitations are present.