Computer Aided Drafting, Design and Manufacturing

Volume 25, Number 1, March 2015, Page 56 CADDM

Stability Analysis of a Borehole Wall Based on ABAQUS

WANG Jian-wei, LIU Xiang-lei

College of Mechanical Engineering, Dalian University, Dalian 116622, China.

Abstract: The instability of borehole wall is always a difficult question in drilling borehole progress. It increases the cost of
production and prolongs production cycle. So it has a significant research value. Considering the effect of mud pressure and pore
pressure on the stability of borehole wall, this paper establishes a math model by applying the two-dimensional bond theory of Biot.
It applies the method of the numerical simulation to analyze the effect of mud pressure and pore pressure on the stability of borehole
wall. The simulation results show that the mud pressure imposes great influence on stress field and on the deformation of borehole
soil, which provides a theoretical basis during the drilling process to avoid the instability of the borehole and to study how to select
reasonable mud and mud pressure.
Key words: ABAQUS; borehole stability; numerical simulation; geostress

displacement field and plastic failure zone by using

1 Introduction
Due to all kinds of changeable and complex
geology conditions, instability phenomena such as
collapsing holes, spouting holes and jamming holes
always take place during gas drilling progress. To sum
up, the instability of borehole wall can be induced
mainly by two types of effects: internal effect and
external effect. Internal effect is the kind of instability
damage caused by geology stress, while external
effect is the kind of disturbance to borehole wall
caused by external loads during drilling progress.
External shake has a great effect on the stability of
borehole wall during gas drainage drilling process[1].
This paper will research on the instability effect of
both external mud pressure and internal pore pressure
respectively.
In recent years, many scholars have launched
quantities of researches to study borehole wall
instability problems. For instance, researchers like
Dong Zhigao adopted ANSYS to analyze fluid-solid
coupling model of borehole wall based on Biot
consolidation theory[2], researchers like X. Wang
applied the method of numerical simulation to study
the effect of mud pressure on the stability of borehole
wall[3]; Yao Xiangrong and other researchers aimed at
the difficult problem of pore-forming, and figured out
the transformation law of borehole stress field,
Project Item: Project Supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No.51275061 ).
Corresponding author: WANG Jian-wei, Male, Ph.D., Associate Professor, E-mail: wangjw72@163.com.
large deformation software of FLAC3D[4]; some
researchers proposed the methods of solidifying into a
hole on the basis of the stability analysis of borehole
wall and greatly accelerated the rate of
borehole-forming[5]; some researchers obtained the
distribution expression of secondary stress,
displacement and plastic zone of surrounding rocks of
the drilling borehole under strain softening conditions
by researching the stability of borehole wall[6]; some
researchers explored ways to improve the stability of
borehole wall by improving drilling tool and drilling
process[7]. Despite of many theoretical and practical
researches had been done by predecessors, the
stability mechanism of borehole wall remains
imperfect and asks for deeper plunges into problems
such as the instability caused by drill pipe disturbance
and the stability of borehole wall caused by fluid
disturbance under the effect of drill pipe.
On the basic of predecessors' research, this paper
applies Biot's two-dimensional consolidation theory to
analyze the effect of the mud pressure and the pore
pressure on the stability of borehole wall in order to
improve the mechanism of borehole instability.
2 Mathematical Model
The bond theory of Biot supposes that the solid
framework of coal is variable, pore pressure and solid
WANG Jian-wei et al., Stability Analysis of a Borehole Wall Based on ABAQUS 57

framework of coal is a couple of coupling deformation. is as follows:

Its basic assumption is shown as follows:

(1) The solid framework of coal is ideal linear x u
x
elasticity material; v
y (6)
(2) The variant of solid grain can be ignored; y
u v
(3) The compressibility of pore water, pore gas and xy
y x
solid particles should be neglected;
By solving the above three equations (Eqs.4, 5 and
(4) The seepage of pore water and pore gas accords
6) simultaneously, the differential equation of the pore
with Darcy's law.
stress and displacement can be obtained as follows:
The stability of borehole wall not only can be
u v p1 p2
affected by mud pressure during the gas drainage G u ( G ) x ( x y ) x x 0
2

drilling progress, but also affected by pore pressure.

(7)
This paper applies the principle of effective porous G 2v ( G ) ( u v ) p1 p2

y x y y y
medium without considering the effect of water
swelling to create a new hole wall mechanical model. where 2 is the laplacian, and , G are lame
constant, relating to E, , and E is Modulus of
The equation can be written as follows:
elasticity.
{ } { '} { p} (1) Applying the continuous equation of soil, the
where is total stress, ' is valid stress of soil, p is equation can be written as:
pore pressure. q q
v q q
( 1x 1 y ) 2 x 2 y (8)
Pore pressure has two parts in this paper, one is t x y x y
pore water, and the other is pore gas. In order to where q1x, q1y are the flow unit of pore water in x, y
further study the effect of gas and water on the directions, respectively, and q2x, q2y are the flow unit
stability of borehole wall, the paper judges the of pore gas in x, y directions, respectively.
composition of soil's pore pressure by the saturation of Applying the seepage of Darcy's law, the equation
soil. The equation can be obtained as follows: can be written as:
p p1 p2 (2) k1 p1
where p1 is pore gas, p2 is pore water, is the q1x x
w
parameter of saturation. k1 p1
q1 y
Using Eqs.1, 2 the general expressions for the valid w y
(9)
stress of soil can be obtained as follows: q k2 p2
2x a y
{ } { '} p1 { p2} (3)
q k2 p2
2y a y
Applying Navier Equilibrium differential equation
in Eq.3, the equation can be written as: where k1, k2 are the seepage coefficient of water
'x xy
and gas, respectively, and w, a are the fluid severe of
p p
1 2 0 water and gas, respectively.
x y x x
(4)

xy ' p p Solving the two Eqs.8 and 9 simultaneously, the
1 2
y
x y y y total equation can be written as:
where is the capacity of the soil.
v k 2 p 2 p k 2 p 2 p2
[8]
Applying generalized Hooke law , the equation 1 ( 21 21 ) 2 ( 22 ) (10)
t 1w x y 2 w x y 2
can be obtained as follows:
where v is the volumetric strain.
2G 0 Above all, the Eq.7 and the Eq.10 is the 2D
2G 0
' (5) solid-liquid-gas coupling control equations on the
0 0 G basic of the bond theory of Biot. The finite element
where G is the shear modulus is the coefficient of equation of solid-liquid-gas coupling can be obtained
Lame, u is the Isotropic Poisson's ratio. by the finite element discretization[9].
The geometric equation of rock and soil mechanics
58 Computer Aided Drafting, Design and Manufacturing (CADDM), Vol.25, No.1, Mar. 2015

Apply quadrilateral mesh in the Fig.1, and

kk ' R Rt
T (11) encryption grid nearby the borehole wall. As shown in

k
0
k the Fig.2.
where { } is the displacement increment from the
timet-tto tand is the full amount of pore The stress of soil is applied to the top of the model,
pressure at t timeand Rt is the external load at t time. and the top border is a permeable boundary. The
initial pore pressure is assigned 0.3 MPa. The
3 Numerical Simulations constraints of the model around two boundaries are
fixed constraints and impervious boundaries. The
3.1 Model Creation borehole wall sustains a uniform load of mud pressure
As shown in the Fig.1, the size model is 10*10 m, and pore pressure.
and there is a diameter of 0.15 m borehole in the 3.2 Model Solution
model. The center drilling hole is 300 m off the
ground. Define the attribute of model by Table 1.

Table. 1 Physical Property Parameters of Coal Containing

Gas
Parameter Numerical
Initial porosity 0.09
Initial permeability 3.8210-15
Elastic modulus /MPa 1623
Density/kgm-1 1350
Poisson's ratio 0.36
Friction angle/ 20
Cohesive/MPa 0.72

Fig.3. Displacement variation of around borehole wall.

Fig.1. Model of borehole wall.

Fig.4. Stress variation of around borehole wall.

Solving the model, the results of the variation

displacement and stress of around borehole wall can
be shown in Fig.3 and Fig.4.
To better analyze the impact of mud pressure and
pore pressure on the instability of borehole wall, the
paper do researches on the variation of surrounding
pressure and displacement of the borehole wall caused
by mud pressure and pore pressure respectively. While
Fig.2. Mesh model of borehole wall.
practically, the impacts of the gravity on the
WANG Jian-wei et al., Stability Analysis of a Borehole Wall Based on ABAQUS 59

surrounding borehole wall are differential, therefore,

the paper gives analysis to the impacts of mud
pressure and pore pressure on the surrounding
borehole wall respectively from horizontal and
vertical direction.
(1) The mud pressure has an effect on the radial
stress of around borehole wall (including the direction
of horizontal and vertical), as shown in Fig.5.

Fig.6. Variation of the radial displacement of around

borehole wall under the mud pressure.

It can be observed, from Fig.6, that as the

horizontal radial distance to the borehole wall
increases, the displacement slows and tends to be
stable; meanwhile, under the same mud pressure, the
displacement of the rock around the borehole wall in
the vertical radial direction is larger than the
Fig.5. Variation of the radial stress of around borehole horizontal radial direction. The reason is that the
wall under the mud pressure.
vertical borehole wall of soil is easier to loose in the
process of the secondary balance of stress under
It can be observed, from Fig.5, that as the distance gravity, while the horizontal is almost not affected by
to the borehole wall increases, the horizontal radial the gravity. Hence, the vertical radial displacement of
stress of borehole wall has an opposite variation trend borehole wall is always greater than the horizontal
to the stress of the vertical radial under the mud under the same mud pressure. It is further confirmed
pressure. After going through pressure and that when under mud pressure the vertical radial of
discharging pressure process in the horizontal borehole wall is easier to collapse, while the
direction, the rock around the borehole wall, when its horizontal radial is more apt to squeezing damages.
horizontal radial distance to the borehole wall is 0.2 m, (3)The pore pressure has an effect on the radial
will experience the peak stress and the borehole wall stress of around borehole wall (including the direction
will be more prone to squeezing damages. As the rock of horizontal and vertical), as shown in Fig.7.
around the borehole wall is affected by gravity, the
soil in the vertical direction will be in a relatively
sloppy state compared to the soil in the horizontal
direction during the secondary stress balance process
when the pressure will be manifested as the tensile
pressure. But as mud pressure starts to work, the soil
grows to be compact and the tensile pressure will be
balanced, hence the general trend of the pressure is to
decrease first and then to increase. Therefore, when
the mud pressure is below the failure criterion of the
borehole wall, to a certain extent it will maintain the
stability of the borehole wall, and the squeezing
damage instability will be more apt to happen in
horizontal radial direction.
Fig.7. Variation of the radial stress of around borehole
(2) The mud pressure has an effect on the radial
wall under the pore pressure.
displacement of borehole wall (including the direction
of horizontal and vertical), as shown in Fig.6.
60 Computer Aided Drafting, Design and Manufacturing (CADDM), Vol.25, No.1, Mar. 2015
It can be observed, by comparing Fig.7 and Fig.5,
that the effect of pore pressure on the stability of
borehole wall is in consistency with the mud pressure.
The horizontal radial stress around borehole wall
increases to a peak value first and then decreases
under the influence of pore pressure, and finally
almost tends to be stable when its horizontal radial
distance to the borehole wall is 0.5 m; while by
contrast, the vertical radial stress around borehole wall
decreases first, then increases under the influence of
pore pressure, and finally tends to be stable when its
vertical radial distance to the borehole wall is 1.9m. In
short, It shows that whether the mud pressure or pore
pressure, the effect on the vertical radial direction of
borehole wall is always greater than the horizontal
radial direction. That is to say, the soil around the
borehole wall in horizontal direction is more compact
than the vertical direction. From above, we can find
that the stability of the borehole wall is greatly
influence by the gravity during drilling process.
(4) The pore pressure has an effect on the radial
displacement of around borehole wall (including the
direction of horizontal and vertical), as shown in
Fig.8.
Fig.8. Variation of the radial displacement of around
borehole wall under the pore pressure.
It can be observed, from Fig.8, that the
displacement of the rock around the borehole wall
when under pore pressure will be in a decreasing trend
as the horizontal radial distance to the borehole wall
grows. It also reveals that the pore pressure almost has
no effect on the radial displacement of the borehole
wall. Similarly, when the pore pressure changes, the
displacement does not change. It shows that the pore
pressure only affects the stress rather than the
displacement of the rocks around borehole wall. By
comparing Fig.5, 6, 7, and 8, it shows that whether the
stress or the displacement of the rocks around the
borehole wall, it changes drastically as the radial
distance to the borehole wall is 0.5 m. Therefore, the
most instability range is within 0.5 m during the
drilling process. To knowing this, it will help us to
better understand solidified grouting technology.
4 Conclusions
In conclusion, this paper studies the instability of
borehole wall mainly from mud pressure and pore
pressure. It can be summarized as follows:
(1) Within a certain range, the pore pressure has a
less impact on the stability of borehole wall than the
mud pressure. So the mud pressure should be given
priority to avoid instability of borehole wall.
(2) Within a certain range, by comparing the
pressure and displacement of the rocks around the
borehole wall, the squeezing instability in the
horizontal direction as well as the collapse instability
in the vertical direction should both taken into account
during mud pressure selection process. To avoid
squeezing instability, the varying horizontal radial
stress should be set as the basic standard, oppositely to
avoid collapse instability; the varying vertical radial
stress should be set as the standard.
(3) Within a certain range, no matter the mud
pressure or the pore pressure, their effects on the
stability of borehole wall are mainly concentrated
within the range of the radial distance to the borehole
wall is 0.5 m. In another word, the instability of
borehole wall changes greatly as the radial distance to
the borehole wall is 0.5 m. That offers a reference for
applying grouting solidification technology and
maintaining the stability of borehole wall.
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