Debris collection device with passive check valve
AssigneeHalliburton Energy Services, Inc.
InventorsPramod Chamarthy, Wei Zhang, Rodney Marlow
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Abstract
A variety of methods and apparatus are disclosed, including, in one embodiment, a bailer to collect debris from a wellbore, the bailer including a passive check valve to provide preferential flow through an annular path over a central path of the bailer with the flow of debris-laden fluid and filtered fluid in an uphole direction through the bailer and provide preferential flow through the central path over the annular path with the flow of fluid in the downhole direction.
Claims18
A bailer for use in a wellbore to collect debris from the wellbore, the bailer comprising:
- a housing;
- a central path to receive debris-laden fluid from the wellbore with flow of the debris-laden fluid in an uphole direction and to receive wellbore fluid from the wellbore with flow of the wellbore fluid through the bailer in a downhole direction;
- a filter to separate the debris from the debris-laden fluid to give filtered fluid;
- an annular path radially between the central path and the housing for flow of the filtered fluid in the uphole direction and for the flow of the wellbore fluid in the downhole direction;
- a pump to provide motive force through the central path and the annular path in both the uphole direction and the downhole direction;
- a chamber to hold the debris filtered from the debris-laden fluid;
- and
- a passive check valve to provide a first preferential flow through the annular path over the central path with the flow of the debris-laden fluid and the filtered fluid in the uphole direction and provide a second preferential flow through the central path over the annular path with the flow of the wellbore fluid in the downhole direction.
A method of collecting debris from a wellbore, comprising:
- deploying a bailer into the wellbore, the bailer comprising a passive check valve having a fixed geometry with no moving parts;
- flowing debris-laden fluid from the wellbore in an uphole direction into a central path of the bailer via a pump of the bailer as operating in a debris-collecting mode of the bailer;
- filtering debris from the debris-laden fluid in the debris-collecting mode giving a filtered fluid in the uphole direction in an annular path of the bailer, wherein the passive check valve provides for preferential fluid flow through the annular path over the central path in the debris-collecting mode;
- holding the debris in a chamber of the bailer;
- raising the bailer to a surface of Earth from the wellbore;
- and
- emptying the chamber of the debris at the surface.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.