27-02-2013, 10:09 AM
A Drilling Rig
Drilling.doc (Size: 110 KB / Downloads: 24)
INTRODUCTION
A drilling rig is a machine which creates holes in the ground. Drilling rigs can be massive structures housing equipment used to drill water wells, oil wells, or natural gas extraction wells, or they can be small enough to be moved manually by one person .They sample sub-surface mineral deposits, test rock, soil and groundwater physical properties, and also can be used to install sub-surface fabrications, such as underground utilities, instrumentation, tunnels or wells. Drilling rigs can be mobile equipment mounted on trucks, tracks or trailers, or more permanent land or marine-based structures (such as oil platforms, commonly called 'offshore oil rigs' even if they don't contain a drilling rig). The term "rig" therefore generally refers to the complex of equipment that is used to penetrate the surface of the Earth's crust.
Drilling rigs can be:
Small and portable, such as those used in mineral exploration drilling, water wells and environmental investigations.
Huge, capable of drilling through thousands of meters of the Earth's crust. Large "mud pumps" circulate drilling mud (slurry) through the drill bit and up the casing annulus, for cooling and removing the "cuttings" while a well is drilled. Hoists in the rig can lift hundreds of tons of pipe. Other equipment can force acid or sand into reservoirs to facilitate extraction of the oil or natural gas; and in remote locations there can be permanent living accommodation and catering for crews (which may be more than a hundred). Marine rigs may operate many hundreds of miles or kilometers distant from the supply .
Mud Pump
A mud pump is a reciprocating piston/plunger device designed to circulate drilling fluid under high pressure (up to 7,500 psi (52,000 kPa) ) down the drill string and back up the annulus.
Mud pumps come in a variety of sizes and configurations but for the typical petroleum drilling rig, the triplex (three piston/plunger) mud pump is the pump of choice. Duplex mud pumps (two piston/plungers) have generally been replaced by the triplex pump, but are still common in developing countries. Two later developments are the hex pump with six vertical pistons/plungers, and various quintuplex's with five horizontal piston/plungers. The advantages that these new pumps have over convention triplex pumps is a lower mud noise which assists with better MWD and LWD retrieval.
The "normal" mud pump consist of two main sub-assemblies, the fluid end and the power end.
The fluid end produces the pumping process with valves, pistons, and liners. Because these components are high-wear items, modern pumps are designed to allow quick replacement of these parts.
To reduce severe vibration caused by the pumping process, these pumps incorporate both a suction and discharge pulsation dampener. These are connected to the inlet and outlet of the fluid end.
The power end converts the rotation of the drive shaft to the reciprocating motion of the pistons. In most cases a crosshead crank gear is used for this.
Parts of mud pump: 1.housing itself 2.liner with packin. 3.cover plus packing. 4.piston and piston rod. 5.suction valve and discharge valve with their seats. 6.stuffing box (only in double-acting pumps). 7.gland (only in double-acting pumps).