Disclosure of Invention
The embodiment of the invention provides a rapidly degradable sealing structure and an application method thereof, which aim to solve the problems that metal sealed by single soluble metal cannot achieve high plasticity and high strength at the same time, solve the problems that the degradation time is long and the later liquid discharge is influenced in the sealing of soluble rubber, and aim to solve the problems that the existing sealing structure can only be applied to a sleeve with a cylindrical surface and cannot meet the use requirement of the surface of an irregular sleeve.
In order to solve the technical problems, the invention provides a quick degradable sealing structure, which at least comprises a hollow truncated cone-shaped degradable metal cone, wherein a degradable metal sealing ring and a degradable metal bearing ring which are mutually clung are sleeved on the outer wall of the degradable metal cone in a sliding way, the degradable metal sealing ring is close to the large-caliber end of the degradable metal cone and can be sleeved on the large-caliber end in a tightening way, an annular groove is formed in the outer wall of the degradable metal sealing ring, and a degradable rubber sealing ring is sleeved in the annular groove;
The cavity wall of the hollow cavity of the degradable metal cone extends towards the axial center line to form a receiving cavity for receiving the soluble balls.
Further, the surface of the degradable metal cone is provided with a plurality of through holes communicated with the hollow cavity, and all the through holes are spirally distributed along the surface of the degradable metal cone.
Preferably, the inner ring surface of the degradable metal sealing ring is a conical surface, the conical surface is attached to the outer wall of the degradable metal cone, the outer ring surface of the degradable metal sealing ring is a cylindrical surface, the annular groove is formed in the cylindrical surface, and the depth of the annular groove is smaller than the thickness of the degradable rubber sealing ring.
Further, the degradable rubber sealing ring adopts a star-shaped sealing ring with a star-shaped section, and the width of the star-shaped sealing ring is smaller than 5mm.
Preferably, the surface of the inner ring of the degradable metal pressure-bearing ring is a conical surface, the conical surface is attached to the outer wall of the degradable metal cone, and the surface of the outer ring of the degradable metal pressure-bearing ring is a cylindrical surface.
Further, a gap is reserved between the outer surface of the degradable metal cone and the inner ring of the degradable metal bearing ring, and the outer diameter of the degradable metal bearing ring is smaller than that of the degradable metal sealing ring.
Preferably, the degradable metal cone and the degradable metal bearing ring are made of degradable metal materials with different hardness, wherein the hardness value of the degradable metal bearing ring is larger than that of the degradable metal cone.
Further, the degradable metal cone has a large caliber end and a small caliber end, the end of the large caliber end is provided with a shoulder for connecting an adapter of the setting tool, and the outer wall of the end of the small caliber end is provided with a thread for connecting a pushing cylinder of the setting tool.
The invention also provides an application method of the rapidly degradable sealing structure, wherein the rapidly degradable sealing structure is arranged between an adapter of a setting tool and a pushing cylinder of the setting tool and is put into a sleeve along with the setting tool, a large caliber end of a degradable metal cone is connected with the adapter, and a small caliber end of the degradable metal cone is connected with the pushing cylinder;
The pushing cylinder pushes the degradable metal bearing ring and the degradable metal sealing ring to slide along the outer wall of the degradable metal cone from the small-caliber end to the large-caliber end, and the degradable metal sealing ring and the degradable metal bearing ring expand in diameter simultaneously until the degradable metal sealing ring and the degradable metal bearing ring are close to the shoulder and do not shade any through hole, and at the moment, the outer surface of the degradable metal sealing ring, the outer surface of the degradable rubber sealing ring and the outer surface of the degradable metal bearing ring are clung to the inner wall of the sleeve, so that sealing and packing are completed.
The beneficial effects of the invention are as follows:
(1) The sealing of the mechanism is realized by the degradable metal sealing ring, and the pressure difference between the segments born by the sealing ring is supported by the degradable metal pressure-bearing ring, namely, the sealing function and the pressure-bearing function are separated, so that the requirement on the mechanical property of the degradable metal is reduced, the reliability of the sealing mechanism is improved, the sealing and the pressure bearing can be ensured at the same time, and the research and development difficulty of the degradable material can be reduced.
(2) Aiming at the condition that the dimensional deviation of the inner wall of the sleeve is large, the star-shaped degradable rubber sealing ring can seal a tiny gap between the sleeve and the sealing ring due to large deformation, so that the sealing mechanism is suitable for the sleeve with the irregular inner diameter.
(3) The sealing mechanism is made of degradable metal and degradable rubber materials, the volume of the degradable rubber is extremely small, holes are spirally distributed on the degradable cone, the contact area between the degradable cone and the dissolving liquid is increased, the volume of the soluble metal is reduced, the sealing mechanism can be rapidly dissolved after fracturing is finished, and the full drift diameter of a well bore after fracturing can be maintained.
In order to make the above-mentioned objects of the present invention more comprehensible, preferred embodiments accompanied with figures are described in detail below.
Detailed Description
Further advantages and effects of the present invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art from the disclosure of the present specification, by describing the embodiments of the present invention with specific examples.
In the present invention, the upper, lower, left and right in the drawings are regarded as the upper, lower, left and right of the rapidly degradable sealing structure described in the present specification.
The exemplary embodiments of the present invention will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings, however, the present invention may be embodied in many different forms and is not limited to the examples described herein, which are provided to fully and completely disclose the present invention and fully convey the scope of the invention to those skilled in the art. The terminology used in the exemplary embodiments illustrated in the accompanying drawings is not intended to be limiting of the invention. In the drawings, like elements/components are referred to by like reference numerals.
Unless otherwise indicated, terms (including technical and scientific terms) used herein have the same meaning as commonly understood by one of ordinary skill in the art. In addition, it will be understood that terms defined in commonly used dictionaries should be interpreted as having a meaning that is consistent with their meaning in the context of the relevant art and will not be interpreted in an idealized or overly formal sense.
First embodiment:
The first embodiment of the invention relates to a rapidly degradable sealing structure, which at least comprises a hollow truncated cone-shaped degradable metal cone 1, referring to fig. 1, wherein the outer wall of the degradable metal cone 1 is sleeved with a degradable metal sealing ring 2 and a degradable metal bearing ring 4 which are mutually clung, the degradable metal sealing ring 2 is close to the large-caliber end of the degradable metal cone 1 and is sleeved at the large-caliber end in a tensioning manner, the outer wall of the degradable metal sealing ring 2 is provided with an annular groove 10, the annular groove 10 is sleeved with a degradable rubber sealing ring 3, and the cavity wall of a hollow cavity of the degradable metal cone 1 extends towards the axial center line to form a bearing cavity 7 for bearing a soluble ball.
The working principle of the rapidly degradable sealing structure is as follows:
placing a rapidly degradable sealing structure between an adapter 13 of a setting tool and a push cylinder 14 of the setting tool and putting the rapidly degradable sealing structure into a sleeve 11 along with the setting tool, wherein a large-caliber end of a degradable metal cone 1 is connected with the adapter 13, so that the degradable metal cone 1 and the adapter 13 are coaxial, and a small-caliber end of the degradable metal cone 1 is connected with the push cylinder 14;
fig. 1 shows an initial state of the sealing mechanism, balls are thrown into a well, the soluble balls enter the receiving cavity 7 to seal an internal fluid channel, internal sealing is achieved, the pushing cylinder 14 pushes the degradable metal bearing ring 4 and the degradable metal sealing ring 2 to slide along the outer wall of the degradable metal cone 1 from the small-caliber end to the large-caliber end, the degradable metal sealing ring 2 and the degradable metal bearing ring 4 expand in diameter at the same time until the degradable metal sealing ring 2 and the degradable metal bearing ring 4 are close to the shoulder 8 and do not shade any through hole 6, and at the moment, the outer surface of the degradable metal sealing ring 2, the outer surface of the degradable rubber sealing ring 3 and the outer surface of the degradable metal bearing ring 4 are all clung to the inner wall of the sleeve 11, as shown in fig. 6, and sealing and packing are completed.
The adaptor 13 and the plunger 14 may be a bridge plug adaptor or a bridge plug plunger, or may be a tee adaptor or a tee plunger, that is, may be an adaptor or a plunger of any setting tool, without limitation.
It can be seen that the sealing mechanism is mainly made of two materials, namely degradable metal and degradable rubber, wherein the sealing ring and the bearing ring are both made of the degradable metal, the difference is that the sealing ring is made of the degradable metal with high elongation, and the bearing ring is made of the degradable metal with high strength, namely, the two materials have different metal characteristics, because the degradable metal sealing ring 2 has the functions of sealing and needs large deformation amount during diameter expansion, and the degradable metal bearing ring 4 is used for supporting the pressure difference between segments born by the degradable metal sealing ring 2 so as to prevent the degradable metal sealing ring 2 from being crushed. For the above reasons, the degradable metal seal ring 2 and the degradable metal backup ring 4 are made of different metal materials.
Considering that the soluble rubber sealing piece is slow in dissolution speed and long in degradation time after fracturing is finished, only the degradable rubber sealing ring 3 is made of a soluble rubber material, so that sealing can be ensured, and the volume of the rubber material with a low degradation speed can be reduced to the greatest extent.
The stress analysis of the sealing mechanism is shown in fig. 7, when the degradable metal sealing ring 2 and the degradable metal pressure-bearing ring 4 are tightly attached to the casing wall, the sealing mechanism completes the mechanism movement, and at this time, the degradable metal sealing ring 2 and the degradable metal pressure-bearing ring 4 generate an outward thrust and a reverse friction force to the degradable metal cone 1, in order to prevent the mechanism failure caused by extrusion of the degradable metal cone 1, the horizontal component force of the friction force should be greater than the horizontal component force of the positive pressure F, so as to realize the self-locking of the mechanism, namely, F eta cos theta > Fsin theta (wherein F is the positive pressure of the degradable metal cone 1, eta is the friction coefficient, and theta is the cone angle of the degradable metal cone 1), therefore, the sealing mechanism can realize self-locking by adjusting the friction coefficient eta and the cone angle theta at the same time, and the following concrete steps are as follows:
(1) When the taper angle theta is too small, the mechanism is easy to realize self-locking, but the tool length is too long, and when the taper angle theta is too large, the thrust required by the diameter expansion of the degradable metal sealing ring 2 and the degradable metal bearing ring 4 is increased, through test detection, the mechanism can realize safe self-locking when the taper angle of the degradable metal cone 1 is 12-13 degrees, the mechanism length can be furthest reduced, and the setting force is adjusted to be within a reasonable range.
(2) The hardness of the material is regulated, when the Brinell hardness of the degradable metal bearing ring 4 is greater than the Brinell hardness of the degradable metal cone 1 by HB10-20, the two materials are subjected to micro plastic deformation in the extrusion and diameter expansion process, and the microstructures are mutually embedded, so that the self-locking can be realized by increasing the friction coefficient eta.
Second embodiment:
The embodiment relates to a rapidly degradable sealing structure, referring to fig. 1, at least comprising a hollow truncated cone-shaped degradable metal cone 1, wherein a degradable metal sealing ring 2 and a degradable metal bearing ring 4 which are mutually clung are sleeved on the outer wall of the degradable metal cone 1 in a sliding way, the degradable metal sealing ring 2 is close to the large-caliber end of the degradable metal cone 1 and is sleeved on the large-caliber end in a tightening way, an annular groove 10 is formed in the outer wall of the degradable metal sealing ring 2, a degradable rubber sealing ring 3 is sleeved in the annular groove 10, and a bearing cavity 7 for bearing a soluble ball is formed by extending the cavity wall of a hollow cavity of the degradable metal cone 1 towards the axial center line.
Referring to fig. 1 and 8, the surface of the degradable metal cone 1 is provided with a plurality of through holes 6 communicated with the hollow cavity, and all the through holes 6 are spirally distributed along the surface of the degradable metal cone 1. The spiral hole distribution on the degradable metal cone 1 can increase the contact area with the dissolution liquid and reduce the volume of the soluble metal, the sealing mechanism can be quickly dissolved after the fracturing is finished, the full-diameter of the well bore after the fracturing can be kept, in addition, the spiral hole distribution can prevent the overstress of the degradable metal cone 1 on the same cross section, and the tensile strength of the degradable metal cone 1 is ensured to the greatest extent.
Third embodiment:
On the basis of the first embodiment, as shown in fig. 2, the inner ring surface of the degradable metal sealing ring 2 is a conical surface 9, the conical surface 9 is the same as the conical angle of the degradable metal cone 1, after diameter expansion, the conical surface 9 is attached to the outer wall of the degradable metal cone 1, the outer ring surface of the degradable metal sealing ring 2 is a cylindrical surface, an annular groove 10 is formed in the cylindrical surface, and the depth of the annular groove 10 is smaller than the thickness of the degradable rubber sealing ring 3.
Preferably, as shown in fig. 4, the degradable rubber sealing ring 3 is a star-shaped sealing ring with a star-shaped section 12, the width of the star-shaped sealing ring is smaller than 5mm, the sealing is ensured, and the volume of the rubber material with low degradation speed is reduced to the greatest extent.
The star-shaped degradable rubber sealing ring in the groove of the sealing ring is used for ensuring filling of irregular gaps between the sleeve and the sealing ring and effectively sealing tiny gaps between the sleeve and the sealing ring when the dimensional deviation of the inner wall of the sleeve is large.
Referring to fig. 3, the inner ring surface of the degradable metal pressure-bearing ring 4 is a conical surface 9, the conical surface 9 is attached to the outer wall of the degradable metal cone 1, and the outer ring surface of the degradable metal pressure-bearing ring 4 is a cylindrical surface.
In the initial state of the sealing mechanism, a gap (such as 1 mm) is reserved between the outer surface of the degradable metal cone 1 and the inner ring of the degradable metal bearing ring 4, and the outer diameter of the degradable metal bearing ring 4 is smaller than the outer diameter of the degradable metal sealing ring 2, such as the outer diameter of the degradable metal bearing ring 4 is smaller than the outer diameter of the degradable metal sealing ring 2 by 1mm. Therefore, the deformation of the degradable metal compression ring 4 during diameter expansion is relatively small, and the degradable metal compression ring 4 is ensured not to break during diameter expansion.
In order to realize self-locking of the sealing mechanism, the degradable metal cone 1 and the degradable metal compression ring 4 in the embodiment are made of degradable metal materials with different hardness, wherein the hardness value of the degradable metal compression ring 4 is larger than that of the degradable metal cone 1. For example, the hardness value of the degradable metal compression ring 4 is greater than that of the degradable metal cone 1 by HB10-20, the degradable metal cone and the degradable metal cone are subjected to micro plastic deformation in the extrusion and diameter expansion process, microstructures are mutually embedded, the friction coefficient is increased, and therefore self-locking of the mechanism can be realized, and movement of the mechanism is avoided.
As shown in fig. 1, in order to facilitate the interconnection or installation with other components at the time of application, the degradable metallic cone 1 has a large-caliber end and a small-caliber end, the end of the large-caliber end of which is provided with a shoulder 8 for connecting an adapter 13 of a setting tool, and the end outer wall of the small-caliber end of which is provided with a thread 5 for connecting a push cylinder 14 of the setting tool.
Fourth embodiment:
The present embodiment provides a method for applying a rapidly degradable sealing structure, referring to fig. 5 and 6, the rapidly degradable sealing structure is placed between an adapter 13 of a setting tool and a push cylinder 14 of the setting tool and is lowered into a sleeve 11 with the setting tool, wherein a large caliber end of a degradable metal cone 1 is connected with the adapter 13, and a small caliber end of the degradable metal cone 1 is connected with the push cylinder 14;
the pushing cylinder 14 pushes the degradable metal bearing ring 4 and the degradable metal sealing ring 2 to slide along the outer wall of the degradable metal cone 1 from the small-caliber end to the large-caliber end, and the degradable metal sealing ring 2 and the degradable metal bearing ring 4 expand in diameter simultaneously until the degradable metal sealing ring 2 and the degradable metal bearing ring 4 are close to the shoulder 8 and do not shade any through hole 6, and at the moment, the outer surface of the degradable metal sealing ring 2, the outer surface of the degradable rubber sealing ring 3 and the outer surface of the degradable metal bearing ring 4 are tightly attached to the inner wall of the sleeve 11, so that sealing and packing are completed.
The self-locking of the sealing mechanism in the use process is realized by adopting two means, namely self-locking of the sealing mechanism is realized by adopting the first means, namely self-locking of the friction angle between the pressure-bearing ring and the sealing ring and the cone is realized by adjusting the cone angle of the cone, and the second means, namely self-locking of the friction angle between the pressure-bearing ring and the sealing ring and the cone is realized by adjusting the hardness of the material, so that the Brinell hardness of the pressure-bearing ring material is greater than the Brinell hardness of the cone material by HB10-20, the two materials are subjected to micro plastic deformation in the extrusion and expanding process, the microstructures are mutually embedded, and the friction coefficient is increased.
Specifically, the rapidly degradable sealing structure at least comprises a hollow truncated cone-shaped degradable metal cone 1, wherein a degradable metal sealing ring 2 and a degradable metal bearing ring 4 which are mutually clung are sleeved on the outer wall of the degradable metal cone 1 in a sliding manner, the degradable metal sealing ring 2 is close to the large-caliber end of the degradable metal cone 1 and is sleeved on the large-caliber end in a tightening manner, an annular groove 10 is formed in the outer wall of the degradable metal sealing ring 2, a degradable rubber sealing ring 3 is sleeved in the annular groove 10, and a bearing cavity 7 for bearing a soluble ball is formed by extending the cavity wall of a hollow cavity of the degradable metal cone 1 towards the axial center line.
The surface of the degradable metal cone 1 is provided with a plurality of through holes 6 communicated with the hollow cavity, and all the through holes 6 are spirally distributed along the surface of the degradable metal cone 1.
The inner ring surface of the degradable metal sealing ring 2 is a conical surface 9, the conical surface 9 is attached to the outer wall of the degradable metal cone 1, the outer ring surface of the degradable metal sealing ring 2 is a cylindrical surface, the annular groove 10 is formed in the cylindrical surface, and the depth of the annular groove 10 is smaller than the thickness of the degradable rubber sealing ring 3.
The degradable rubber sealing ring 3 adopts a star-shaped sealing ring with a star-shaped section 12, and the width of the star-shaped sealing ring is smaller than 5mm.
The surface of the inner ring of the degradable metal pressure-bearing ring 4 is a conical surface 9, the conical surface 9 is attached to the outer wall of the degradable metal cone 1, and the surface of the outer ring of the degradable metal pressure-bearing ring 4 is a cylindrical surface.
The outer surface of the degradable metal cone 1 and the inner ring of the degradable metal bearing ring 4 are reserved with gaps, and the outer diameter of the degradable metal bearing ring 4 is smaller than the outer diameter of the degradable metal sealing ring 2.
The degradable metal cone 1 and the degradable metal bearing ring 4 are made of degradable metal materials with different hardness, wherein the hardness value of the degradable metal bearing ring 4 is larger than that of the degradable metal cone 1.
The degradable metallic cone 1 has a large-caliber end and a small-caliber end, the end of the large-caliber end is provided with a shoulder 8 for connecting an adapter 13 of a setting tool, and the outer wall of the end of the small-caliber end is provided with a thread 5 for connecting a push cylinder 14 of the setting tool.
In summary, the rapidly degradable sealing structure and the application method thereof provided by the invention seal the annular space between the degradable metal cone and the sleeve by adopting a combination mode of the high-expansion degradable metal sealing ring, the degradable star-shaped rubber sealing ring and the high-strength degradable metal bearing ring. The fracturing tool has the advantages of simple mechanism, reliable sealing and quick degradation after fracturing, and solves the problem that a conventional rubber sealing fracturing tool is difficult to treat a well shaft after fracturing.
It will be understood by those of ordinary skill in the art that the foregoing embodiments are specific examples of carrying out the invention and that various changes in form and details may be made therein without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention.