Mud pump valve leak detection and forecasting
AssigneeSchlumberger Technology Corporation
InventorsAlejandro Camacho Cardenas, Vishwanathan Parmeshwar, Manat Singh
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A system and method for controlling a pump in a drilling system, of which the method includes determining a plurality of baseline behaviors for one or more valves of the pump, determining a plurality of in-use behaviors for the one or more valves of the pump. Each of the plurality of in-use behaviors are determined based on one or more measurements from one or more sensors. The method also includes comparing the in-use behaviors and the baseline behaviors, and forecasting, based on the comparison of the in-use behaviors and the baseline behaviors, a remaining useful life of the at least one of the one or more valves.
Claims17
A method for controlling a pump in a drilling system, the method comprising:
- embedding at least one marker within a valve element of at least one valve of the pump, wherein the at least one marker comprises a plurality of different materials that are detectable in a fluid pumped by the pump, and wherein the plurality of different materials are successively released into the fluid in response to wear of the valve element;
- determining baseline behaviors for the at least one valve of the pump by determining a first amount of the plurality of different materials present in the fluid downstream of the pump using at least one sensor;
- determining in-use behaviors for the at least one valve of the pump by determining a second amount of the plurality of different materials present in the fluid downstream from the pump using the at least one sensor;
- comparing the in-use behaviors and the baseline behaviors by comparing the first and second amounts of the plurality of different materials in the fluid downstream from the pump;
- and
- forecasting, based on the comparison of the in-use behaviors and the baseline behaviors, a remaining useful life of the at least one valve.
A system for pumping fluid into a well, the system comprising:
- a pump comprising at least one valve;
- a leakage detection system coupled to the pump and comprising at least one sensor;
- at least one marker embedded within a valve element of the at least one valve, wherein the at least one marker comprises a plurality of different materials that are detectable in a fluid pumped by the pump, and wherein the plurality of different materials are successively released into the fluid in response to wear of the valve element;
- and
- a processor coupled to the leakage detection system, the processor configured to perform operations by executing computer-readable instructions stored on a non-transitory computer-readable medium, the operations comprising:
- determining baseline behaviors for the at least one valve by determining a first amount of the plurality of different materials present in the fluid downstream from the pump using the at least one sensor;
- determining in-use behaviors for the at least one valve by determining a second amount of the plurality of different materials present in the fluid downstream from the pump using the at least one sensor;
- comparing the in-use behaviors and the baseline behaviors by comparing the first and second amounts of the plurality of different materials in the fluid downstream from the pump;
- and
- forecasting, based on the comparison of the in-use behaviors and the baseline behaviors, a remaining useful life of the at least one valve.
A non-transitory, computer-readable medium storing instructions that, when executed by at least one processor of a computing system, cause the computing system to perform operations, the operations comprising:
- determining baseline behaviors for at least one valve of a pump, by determining a first amount of a plurality of different materials successively released from at least one marker embedded within the at least one valve, the plurality of different materials being present in a fluid downstream from the pump and detected using at least one sensor;
- determining in-use behaviors for the at least one valve of the pump, by determining a second amount of the plurality of different materials successively released from the at least one marker embedded within the at least one valve, the plurality of different materials being present in the fluid downstream from the pump and detected using the at least one sensor;
- comparing the in-use behaviors and the baseline behaviors by comparing the first and second amounts of the plurality of different materials in the fluid downstream from the pump;
- and
- forecasting, based on the comparison of the in-use behaviors and the baseline behaviors, a remaining useful life of the at least one valve.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.