Session: 02-03-01: Optimization

Paper Number: 145143

145143 - New Shear Ram Development via Digital Toolkit and Multiple Objective Optimization Process. 

A BOP (blowout preventer) stack serves as a safety valve system in the drilling process in oil and gas industry.   It will be closed if an influx of formation fluids occurs and threatens the rig.  A Ram ROP plays the key role as the last safety guard in the BOP stack.  The development of shear rams traditionally involved analysis along with trial-and-error methods.  However, with customer requirements for deeper wells and heavier tubulars, it drives the need for improved capabilities in our existing products via a faster method.  This paper presents the development of a new 18” DSI shear ram through a more efficient digital design optimization method.

The digital design optimization method combines simulation toolkit and multiple objective optimization methods.  The simulation toolkit, based on finite element analysis (FEA), predicts the performance of the prototype design for given pipes and boundary conditions.  Multi-objective optimization is used to compare the shear pressure and ram deformation of each design for different pipes, identify the critical geometry features, and validate the improvement of revisions.  The optimal ram design is obtained as the shear pressures and ram deformation both meet the predefined criteria. 

In this work, three representative pipes with the most challenging features are first chosen for the shearing simulation and optimization study.  The simulation toolkit provides 3D visualization of the shearing process and accurate prediction of shear pressure for a design under each pipe.  The 3D visualization results are used to identify root causes to the issues of high shear pressure and large ram deformation.  Multi-objective optimization is applied to improve the critical geometry features for the identified issues.  This forms a goal-oriented loop which efficiently optimizes the design.  Through this loop, with less than ten revision iterations, an optimal shear ram design is achieved.  The design is finally checked with other required types of pipes, and it successfully minimizes the shear pressure and ram deformation within the predefined criteria. 

The digital design optimization method provides a most efficient test free design development process of shearing rams.  It utilizes 3D visualization results to orientate the optimization direction and avoids aimless optimization efforts.  The method meets customer’s requirements of faster new ram development, saves company costs and lead time, and reduces waste of resources.  Using this method, the new shear ram design has been successfully delivered to customers along with months of lead time savings and hundreds of thousands of dollars cost reduction. 

Presenting Author: Yaou Wang SLB

Presenting Author Biography: The author obtained his doctorate degree in the department of Mechanical Engineering from the Ohio State University. After that, he worked in the automobile industry and then joined the oil and gas industry. Till now, he has accumulated more than ten years’ experience of computer aided design and analysis, and design and process optimization based on statistical methods. Currently, he is a Senior Modeling and Simulation Engineer at SLB, the world’s leading oilfield services provider. He is in charge of the drilling equipment design analysis and optimization, and new simulation method and automation procedure development.

Authors:

Yaou Wang SLB
Terry Clancy SLB
Nate Pettibone SLB
Matthew Givens SLB
Chris Nault SLB
Haitao Zhang SLB