Making downhole completion tools interventionless is the ultimate level of integrated design of material and product that enhances well performance and saves operation time and cost. Two common approaches to interventionless tools are novel mechanical design and use of new engineered materials. New interventionless tool designs, though effective, are often limited to the small downhole geometry available. Use of high strength, disintegrable materials becomes a more attractive solution for downhole tools which require eventual removal after the tool completes its functions. This paper presents a new, groundbreaking, smart, disintegrable nanostructured composite (DNC) and its successful use for multistage fracturing tools to enhance shale gas/oil well productivity. The disintegrable nanostructured composite (DNC) is manufactured through a powder metallurgy process by consolidating reactive metal powders that were coated with metallic and/or ceramic reinforcements. Material composition and microstructure were engineered at the micro- or nanoscale, to vary material strength and disintegration rate. The DNC is lighter than aluminum and stronger than some mild steels, but disintegrates when it is exposed to the appropriate fluid. More broadly, the DNC has the potential for radically changing the downhole tool functionality landscape by reducing product operational complexity and potentially the wholesale elimination of complete well trips by causing all, or a portion of, a tool to disintegrate in the well.
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