During drilling operations and the like, drilling fluid or mud is circulated down through the drill string, out the bottom of the pipe string and back to the surface through the wellbore. Among its other purposes, the drilling mud removes cuttings and debris from the wellbore. In high-angle wellbores, the gravity vector is substantially vertical and the velocity vector of the mud deviates from vertical and may be horizontal or substantially horizontal in sections of the wellbore. Thus, the cuttings tend to settle to the low side of the wellbore and form cutting beds. Attempts to improve cutting removal have included increasing rotational speed of the pipe, increasing the flowrate of the mud and altering mud rheology with little effect. Additionally, wellbore conditions and/or rig limitations limit these options.
Therefore, it is a desire to provide a system and method for improving cutting removal in high-angle wellbores.
USPTO Backgrounds
USPTO Backgrounds