Vortex drill bit
OwnerNorval R. Dove, Stephen K. Smith +1inventors
InventorsNorval R. Dove, Stephen K. Smith, W. Gerald Lott
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A drill bit for removing a surface subject to a subsurface pressure and an environmental surface pressure at least equal to the subsurface pressure, which comprises jetting fluid through a nozzle facing and located a predetermined distance from said surface, said nozzle being shaped to eject the fluid in a steam having a higher core pressure than said environmental pressure, said higher pressure stream having adjacent thereto at least one zone of pressure negative relative to said subsurface pressure, said distance being predetermined to expose said surface to said zone of negative pressure, whereby said surface is caused to explode into said zone of negative pressure from the force of said subsurface pressure.
Claims13
A drilling bit comprising a housing forming an exterior shell having a pin end and rock cutter end, said pin end including means for connection to a fluid supply, said housing having an inlet at said pin end and an interior cavity extending from said inlet to at least one nozzle in said rock cutter end, said nozzles including a passageway fluidly communicating with said cavity and converging to an outlet at an exterior face, at least one said outlet having a slot configuration therein extending to at least a portion of said passageway convergence, said passageway convergence, reaching a maximum at said slot, and said slot configuration being effective, when fluid is forced therethrough under turbulent flow conditions into a fluid environment having a hydrostatic pressure at least equal to the formation pressure at the drilling depth of the rock cutter end, to eject said fluid as a zone of higher hydrostatic pressure having adjacent thereto a zone of hydrostatic pressure lower than said formation hydrostatic pressure.
A drilling bit comprising a housing forming an exterior shell having a pin end and a cutter end, said pin end including means for connection to a fluid supply, said housing having an inlet at said pin end and an interior cavity extending from said inlet to at least one nozzle in said cutting end, said nozzles including a passageway fluidedly communicating with said cavity and converging to an outlet at an exterior face, at least one said outlet having a slot configuration therein extending to at least a portion of said passageway convergence, said passageway convergence, reaching a maximum at said slot, and said slot configuration being effective, when fluid is forced therethrough under turbulent flow conditions into a fluid environment having a hydrostatic pressure at least equal to the formation pressure at the drilling depth of the rock cutter end, to eject said fluid as a zone of higher hydrostatic pressure having adjacent thereto a zone of hydrostatic pressure lower than said formation hydrostatic pressure such that a plurality of zones of positive hydrostatic pressure are generated that degrade from a maximum positive value to other zones of relative negative hydrostatic pressures wherein the zones of hydrostatic pressure degrade from a maximum negative value in a core portion to a zero reference value at a distal pressure periphery.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.