Title: Experiments and numerical investigation on rock-breaking enhancement mechanism of supercritical CO₂ jet drilling

Authors: Can Cai; Shengwen Zhou; Hao Chen; Bangrun Li; Wenyang Cao; Lang Zeng; Xianpeng Yang; Kejie Chen; Tianzhou Li; Liehui Zhang

Addresses: School of Mechatronics Engineering, Southwest Petroleum University, Chengdu 610500, China; Laboratory of High-pressure Jet Theory and Application Technology, School of Mechanical Engineering, Southwest Petroleum University, Chengdu 610500, China; The State Key Laboratory of Oil and Gas Reservoir Geology and Exploitation, Southwest Petroleum University, Chengdu 610500, China ' School of Mechatronics Engineering, Southwest Petroleum University, Chengdu 610500, China; Laboratory of High-pressure Jet Theory and Application Technology, School of Mechanical Engineering, Southwest Petroleum University, Chengdu 610500, China ' School of Mechatronics Engineering, Southwest Petroleum University, Chengdu 610500, China; Laboratory of High-pressure Jet Theory and Application Technology, School of Mechanical Engineering, Southwest Petroleum University, Chengdu 610500, China ' School of Mechatronics Engineering, Southwest Petroleum University, Chengdu 610500, China; Laboratory of High-pressure Jet Theory and Application Technology, School of Mechanical Engineering, Southwest Petroleum University, Chengdu 610500, China ' School of Mechatronics Engineering, Southwest Petroleum University, Chengdu 610500, China; Laboratory of High-pressure Jet Theory and Application Technology, School of Mechanical Engineering, Southwest Petroleum University, Chengdu 610500, China ' School of Mechatronics Engineering, Southwest Petroleum University, Chengdu 610500, China; Laboratory of High-pressure Jet Theory and Application Technology, School of Mechanical Engineering, Southwest Petroleum University, Chengdu 610500, China ' School of Mechatronics Engineering, Southwest Petroleum University, Chengdu 610500, China; Laboratory of High-pressure Jet Theory and Application Technology, School of Mechanical Engineering, Southwest Petroleum University, Chengdu 610500, China ' Laboratory of High-pressure Jet Theory and Application Technology, School of Mechanical Engineering, Southwest Petroleum University, Chengdu 610500, China ' School of Mechatronics Engineering, Southwest Petroleum University, Chengdu 610500, China ' The State Key Laboratory of Oil and Gas Reservoir Geology and Exploitation, Southwest Petroleum University, Chengdu 610500, China

Abstract: Supercritical CO₂ (SC-CO₂) jet drilling technology has been proposed to solve the problems of low rock-breaking efficiency and severe thermal wear of PDC cutters in high temperature formation. However, the rock-breaking enhancement mechanisms of SC-CO₂ jet on PDC cutter are poorly understood. Therefore, in this paper, SC-CO₂ jet-PDC cutter composite rock-breaking experiments and numerical simulation have been employed to study the fundamental factors of SC-CO₂ jet enhanced rock-breaking and the influence of different working parameters on composite rock-breaking. The results indicated that the rock debris carrying, and impact effects of SC-CO₂ jet are the fundamental causes of cutting force reduction. The main reason for the SC-CO₂ jet cooling cutter is the heat absorption of gas expansion and phase transition. The research findings offer a theoretical basis for SC-CO₂ jet-PDC cutter composite rock-breaking and could support gas drilling, hot dry rock drilling, and deep oil-gas development. [Received: 25 April 2024; Accepted: 24 June 2024]

Keywords: supercritical CO₂ jet; rock-breaking; numerical simulation; PDC cutter; experimental study; rock debris carrying; one-way fluid-solid coupling; cooling effect; jet impact.

DOI: 10.1504/IJOGCT.2025.145447

International Journal of Oil, Gas and Coal Technology, 2025 Vol.37 No.3, pp.275 - 300

Received: 15 Apr 2024
Accepted: 24 Jun 2024
Published online: 01 Apr 2025 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article