Pressurizing rotating control devices
AssigneeHalliburton Energy Services, Inc.
InventorsChristopher Allen Grace, Raymond Ronald Bullock, Joseph Michael Karigan
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A rotating control device (RCD), for use in drilling a wellbore, includes an RCD body, a sealing element, and a bearing assembly disposed within the RCD body and supporting an inner mandrel to rotate relative to the RCD body. The sealing element is carried by the inner mandrel, and the bearing assembly includes a bearing sealed in an internal bearing fluid chamber. The internal bearing fluid chamber includes a bearing fluid maintained at a pressure greater than a pressure of wellbore fluid in an interior of the RCD body by a pressure compensating piston between the bearing fluid contacting a first end of the piston and the wellbore fluid contacting a second, opposite end of the piston.
Claims15
A rotating control device (RCD) for use in drilling a wellbore, the device comprising:
- a RCD body;
- a sealing element;
- and
- a bearing assembly disposed within the RCD body and supporting an inner mandrel to rotate relative to the RCD body, the sealing element carried by the inner mandrel, the bearing assembly comprising a bearing sealed in an internal bearing fluid chamber, the internal bearing fluid chamber comprising a bearing fluid maintained at a first pressure greater than a second pressure of wellbore fluid in an interior of the RCD body by a pressure compensating piston between the bearing fluid contacting a first end of the piston and the wellbore fluid contacting a second end of the piston opposite to the first end of the piston, wherein the piston is disposed between the internal bearing fluid chamber and a wellbore fluid chamber in fluid communication with the wellbore fluid, the piston biased to pressurize the bearing fluid in the internal bearing fluid chamber to the first pressure greater than the second pressure of the wellbore fluid.
A method comprising:
- receiving a pressure from a wellbore fluid in a wellbore on a bearing system of a rotating control device (RCD), the rotating control device comprising a RCD body, a sealing element, and a bearing assembly disposed within the RCD body and supporting an inner mandrel to rotate relative to the RCD body, the sealing element carried by the inner mandrel, the bearing assembly comprising a bearing sealed in an internal bearing fluid chamber;
- and
- maintaining a pressure of the bearing fluid at a first pressure within the internal bearing fluid chamber greater than a second pressure of the wellbore fluid in an interior of the RCD body by a pressure compensating piston between the bearing fluid contacting a first end of the piston and the wellbore fluid contacting a second end of the piston opposite the first end of the position, wherein the piston is disposed between the internal bearing fluid chamber and a wellbore fluid chamber in fluid communication with the wellbore fluid, the piston biased to pressurize the bearing fluid in the internal bearing fluid chamber to the first pressure greater than the second pressure of the wellbore fluid.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.