Cross-over housing for gas lift valve
AssigneeWeatherford/Lamb, Inc.
InventorJames H. Holt, Jr.
Life of this patent
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Abstract
The present invention provides a cross-over housing for a gas lift valve. In the present invention, the series of radial apertures, or jets, typically utilized within the cross-over housing of a production pressure operated gas lift valve are removed. In their place, a substantially continuous through opening is employed, having an area somewhat greater than the area of the pressure chamber seat. This avoids the occurrence of sonic flow, or critical flow, within the jets of the prior art which hampered the ability of the pressure chamber valve to close. The new configuration for the cross-over housing allows the bellows within the pressure chamber to sense the decrease in production fluid pressure, or tubing pressure, as gas is injected, allowing the pressure chamber valve to be reseated.
Claims6
A cross-over housing for a production pressure operated gas lift valve for controlling the through-flow of production fluids and casing gas, the gas lift valve having a pressure chamber and a pressure chamber valve, the cross-over housing comprising:
- a side wall, a lower surface area and an upper surface area;
- a casing gas through-opening providing fluid communication between said side wall and said upper surface for receiving pressurized casing gas;
- and
- a substantially continuous production fluid through-opening for providing fluid communication between said lower surface area and said upper surface area, said through opening having a geometric configuration wherein the area of said production fluid though-opening is of sufficient size so as to avoid critical flow of gas when the pressure chamber valve is unseated, thereby permitting the gas lift valve to sense the pressure drop in the tubing, and thereby allow the gas lift valve to reseat.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.