Causes of Sand Control Screen Failures and Their Remedies

摘要

A number of completion failures have occurred recently inrnwhich screen erosion or plugging has been found to be thernprimary cause. The screen failures, which occurred duringrnhigh-rate water packs, have been successfully duplicated in thernlaboratory through large scale tests. Through these tests andrnmathematical analyses, the mechanisms involved in thernerosive screen failures have been identified. Partial pluggingrnof the screen in the presence of fines leads to high fluidrnvelocities, which cause erosion of the screen by the passage ofrnsolid particles through the screen openings. The time requiredrnfor the erosion to reach critical levels is fairly short i.e. on thernorder of a few minutes. A number of design and operationalrnguidelines have been suggested to prevent screen failures. Arncharacteristic pressure signature of a screen failure, which canrnbe used for diagnostic purposes, has been identified.