Analysis of Fixed Cutter Bit for Directional Drilling in Hard Formation

Polycrystalline Diamond Cutters (PDC) are widely used in today’s drilling activities as challenging environments which consist of HPHT wells, directional drilling implementation and deep-water drillings arise to the occasion at more frequent rate than ever. These harsh conditions have proven a margin of error lies within the conventional cutter design, thus, this study allocates resources and engineering data in which is validated by field data for the modified cutters, namely, the Conical Diamond Element (CDE) and Axe Element Cutter where the study of structural integrity and volumetric wear loss is brought to light with the implementation of mathematical models such as the Hertzian Stress Contact and Archard’s Law Model to compute the desired comparison with the conventional cutter. The FEA simulation is carried out with ANSYS 19.2 under the branch of static structure and explicit dynamic where the parameters are validated by present reports ad field data, this includes the material properties as well. With Granite rock selected as the benchmark of hard-formation, the boundary conditions are altered to suit the natural rock under HPHT.