Estudo numérico de início do tamponamento na cravação do revestimento condutor em solos argilosos

Abstract

Due to high demand of energy and the continuous need of the society, oil fields that are easier to be explored, like onshore and shallow waters, are being exhausted. Hence, there is the need to explore new fields at deep waters, and requires technology and understanding of the phenomena. At the construction of a petroleum well, the conductor casing installation is one of the firsts steps. The installation of the conductor casing can be done by drilling, jetting or driving. During this process, the soil can obstruct the interior of the conductor, partially or completely, creating a soil plug. With the advancement of the pile penetration, the frictional resistance may increase, impeding further material entering the tube. It is called soil plug effect and can change the dynamic process and the casing behavior, once it will be needed more energy to complete the installation, thus this causes delay in the project and more cost. This work analysed the soil plug development during pile driving, at which depth the plug may be formed and how the diameter of the conductor influences the process. It was used Finite Element Method with the Coupled Eulerian-Lagrangian approach and Mohr-Coulomb model. And it was noticed that the conductor’s diameter interferes directly in the driving and the formation of the plug. For the results found in the beginning of penetration there weren’t any plug formed in the soil.