Field applications of ERD hole cleaning modeling

With the ever-increasing measured depths and horizontal displacements in ex tended-reach (ERD) wells,good hole cleaning remains a major challenge. Rece ntly a hole cleaning model for fluids in laminar flow was presented to the industry. Since its introduction, the model has been used on many occasions to characterize hole cleaning efficiency in post-well analysis, evaluate f luid performance during the drilling of ERD wells, and to predict fluid rhe ological properties and pump output levels for optimum cleaning in prewell planning. In this paper, four field applications of the hole cleaning model ing in ERD and deviated wells are discussed. In these cases, the hole clean ing model was used to predict intervals of hole cleaning problems and ident ify certain ranges of fluid rheological properties that promoted good clean ing.