The Hanging Performance’s Simulation Research Of Expandable Liner Hanger

The technique of Expandable Liner Hanger (ELH) which shows the function of bothliner hanger and packer develops on the basis of expandable tube. As its superior functioncompared to conventional liner hanger when first applied successfully, perfect financial effecthas been achieved since2001. Nowadays, countries worldwide have invested heavily for thedevelopment of this technique, but China has just got its first step on exploration andexploitation of this advanced technique. This paper represents the properties of the ELH byrunning simulations on data bases, reducing the capital expenditure in the research process.Two types of model have been built according to the real ELH in and abroad. One is thetype with expansion cone, expansion tube and casing (or cement and stratum included); Theother type is the one including expansion cone, expansion tube, rubber tube and casing;Expansion simulation analysis, thermal analysis and stress analysis are applied on the firsttype of model. As for the difficulty caused by the existence of rubber tube in the second type,only expansion analysis method is performed on this model.In this paper, for first type, expansion simulation is performed for various sizes ofexpansion cone on2-dimensional ax-symmetric data model. Thus optimal expansion modelcan be built based on the properties of liner according to the data achieved, closely followedby the thermal analysis. And then, calculation methods for heating radius in thermalproduction wells are built, after comparing the results of the calculation method andsimulation method, the thermal simulation method proves to be reliable. Based on the formeranalysis, relations between thermal environment and properties of ELH are found accordingto the data achieved by thermal analysis. For second type, the rubber tube model is added, parameterized model is built. Then,through changing the diameter of the expansion cone, thickness of the casing, thickness of therubber tube and friction factor, relations are found on how would the expansion driven forceand the expansion rate change with different diameters of expansion cone, how rubber tubecompressibility, extension rate, average contacting pressure, hanging force vary according tothickness of the rubber tube, and how much the properties of the liner hanger depend on theconical degree and friction factor of the rubber tube.In this paper, equations and relations are found based on the data derived from thesimulations on two types of ELH, which can be referred to in the process of later expansionexperiments.