Thermal analysis on permafrost subsidence on the North Slope of Alaska
Master's Project (M.S.) University of Alaska Fairbanks, 2015 One of the major problems associated with the oil fields on the North Slope of Alaska is thawing permafrost around producing oil wells. In these wells, the heat from the producing well fluid gradually thaws the permafrost. This thawin...
Main Author: | |
---|---|
Other Authors: | , , , |
Format: | Other/Unknown Material |
Language: | English |
Published: |
2015
|
Subjects: | |
Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/11122/8028 |
id |
ftunivalaska:oai:scholarworks.alaska.edu:11122/8028 |
---|---|
record_format |
openpolar |
spelling |
ftunivalaska:oai:scholarworks.alaska.edu:11122/8028 2023-05-15T13:09:10+02:00 Thermal analysis on permafrost subsidence on the North Slope of Alaska Agrawal, Neha Dinesh Patil, Shirish Chen, Gang Dandekar, Abhijit Bray, Matthew 2015-11 http://hdl.handle.net/11122/8028 en_US eng http://hdl.handle.net/11122/8028 Department of Petroleum Engineering Permafrost Thermal conductivity Alaska North Slope Thermal properties Oil fields Methods Master's Project ms 2015 ftunivalaska 2023-02-23T21:36:58Z Master's Project (M.S.) University of Alaska Fairbanks, 2015 One of the major problems associated with the oil fields on the North Slope of Alaska is thawing permafrost around producing oil wells. In these wells, the heat from the producing well fluid gradually thaws the permafrost. This thawing in turn destroys the bond between the permafrost and the casing and causes instability that results in permafrost subsidence which further causes subsidence of the soil surrounding the wellbore and, subjects the casing to high mechanical stresses. The above problem has been addressed by several engineers, and several preventive measures, such as controlling the subsidence by refrigeration or by insulation of the wellbore, have been analyzed. Understanding the thermal behavior of the permafrost is imperative to analyzing permafrost subsidence and providing preventative measures. The current project focuses on building a scaled-down axi-symmetric model in FLAC 7.0 that will help us understand the thermal behavior (i.e., the heat input to the permafrost interval due to hydrocarbon production) and temperature distributions that result in permafrost subsidence. The numerical analysis estimated the thaw influence of steam injection used for heavy oil recovery and its effect on the area around the wellbore for 10 years. The developed model was compared with Smith and Clegg (1971) axi-symmetric model and COMSOL model and correlations of thaw radius and wellbore temperatures were obtained for different types of soils. Heat transfer mitigation techniques were also attempted which are discussed in the report further. Other/Unknown Material Alaska North Slope north slope permafrost Alaska University of Alaska: ScholarWorks@UA Fairbanks |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
University of Alaska: ScholarWorks@UA |
op_collection_id |
ftunivalaska |
language |
English |
topic |
Permafrost Thermal conductivity Alaska North Slope Thermal properties Oil fields Methods |
spellingShingle |
Permafrost Thermal conductivity Alaska North Slope Thermal properties Oil fields Methods Agrawal, Neha Dinesh Thermal analysis on permafrost subsidence on the North Slope of Alaska |
topic_facet |
Permafrost Thermal conductivity Alaska North Slope Thermal properties Oil fields Methods |
description |
Master's Project (M.S.) University of Alaska Fairbanks, 2015 One of the major problems associated with the oil fields on the North Slope of Alaska is thawing permafrost around producing oil wells. In these wells, the heat from the producing well fluid gradually thaws the permafrost. This thawing in turn destroys the bond between the permafrost and the casing and causes instability that results in permafrost subsidence which further causes subsidence of the soil surrounding the wellbore and, subjects the casing to high mechanical stresses. The above problem has been addressed by several engineers, and several preventive measures, such as controlling the subsidence by refrigeration or by insulation of the wellbore, have been analyzed. Understanding the thermal behavior of the permafrost is imperative to analyzing permafrost subsidence and providing preventative measures. The current project focuses on building a scaled-down axi-symmetric model in FLAC 7.0 that will help us understand the thermal behavior (i.e., the heat input to the permafrost interval due to hydrocarbon production) and temperature distributions that result in permafrost subsidence. The numerical analysis estimated the thaw influence of steam injection used for heavy oil recovery and its effect on the area around the wellbore for 10 years. The developed model was compared with Smith and Clegg (1971) axi-symmetric model and COMSOL model and correlations of thaw radius and wellbore temperatures were obtained for different types of soils. Heat transfer mitigation techniques were also attempted which are discussed in the report further. |
author2 |
Patil, Shirish Chen, Gang Dandekar, Abhijit Bray, Matthew |
format |
Other/Unknown Material |
author |
Agrawal, Neha Dinesh |
author_facet |
Agrawal, Neha Dinesh |
author_sort |
Agrawal, Neha Dinesh |
title |
Thermal analysis on permafrost subsidence on the North Slope of Alaska |
title_short |
Thermal analysis on permafrost subsidence on the North Slope of Alaska |
title_full |
Thermal analysis on permafrost subsidence on the North Slope of Alaska |
title_fullStr |
Thermal analysis on permafrost subsidence on the North Slope of Alaska |
title_full_unstemmed |
Thermal analysis on permafrost subsidence on the North Slope of Alaska |
title_sort |
thermal analysis on permafrost subsidence on the north slope of alaska |
publishDate |
2015 |
url |
http://hdl.handle.net/11122/8028 |
geographic |
Fairbanks |
geographic_facet |
Fairbanks |
genre |
Alaska North Slope north slope permafrost Alaska |
genre_facet |
Alaska North Slope north slope permafrost Alaska |
op_relation |
http://hdl.handle.net/11122/8028 Department of Petroleum Engineering |
_version_ |
1766164923584348160 |