Back to results
US 10,590,736 B2Granted
Fusible alloy plug in flow control device
AssigneesConocoPhillips Company, Total E&P
InventorsGarret Madell, John Lowell Stalder, Jesse Stevenson
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A “passive” apparatus and method for isolating flow within a thermal wellbore wherein inflow apertures are plugged with a temporary fusible alloy plug that can be selectively removed by increasing the wellbore temperature.
Claims6
An apparatus for controlling hydraulic flow along a length of a well, comprising:
- a. a plurality of pipe joints including a plurality of passive flow control devices (“FCDs”) in a well in a reservoir;
- b. each FCD having an exclusion media to limit particulate flow into said FCD;
- c. each FCD having one or more apertures therein to restrict hydraulic flow into said FCD;
- d. each FCD having one or more temporary fusible alloy plugs securely installed into said one or more apertures to temporarily block hydraulic flow into said FCD;
- e. each FCD's plugs having different melting points, such that a first FCD has first plugs that melt at Tm1, which is higher than a temperature of said reservoir, and a second FCD has second plugs that melt at Tm2, which is higher than Tm1, thus allowing for the passive removal of said first plugs upon heating said reservoir to Tm1 and thereby controlling hydraulic flow along a length of said well without mechanical intervention.
2 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.