This 5-day course provides a comprehensive treatment of well design for geothermal applications, in particular high-temperature geothermal resources used to generate electricity. The coverage begins with an overview of geothermal resources, and an introductory treatment of conventional (oil and gas) well design. Casing point selection, and aspects unique to geothermal wells, is discussed.
Since high temperature applications are of interest in this course, thermal modeling and thermodynamics are necessarily covered. The need for alternative (strain-based) design approaches is demonstrated, and the two most commonly used strain-based methods are discussed in detail- The Modified Holliday Approach and the Low Cycle Fatigue design approach.
Since materials selection and corrosion control are a critical part of geothermal well design, several sections are devoted to this area, delving into metallurgy, corrosion and corrosion modeling, brittle failure and fracture mechanics.
Connections and connection selection for geothermal wells present unique considerations, which are discussed in the course. Cementing and cement design are also discussed, given the importance of cement design for geothermal well integrity. Existing standards are reviewed to familiarize students with their scope and content.
Finally, several special considerations and design challenges in geothermal wells are discussed. Numerous examples and exercises are used throughout the course to illustrate the methods discussed. All necessary software tools to work the exercises will be provided. The course is very useful to practicing geothermal well engineers.
Participants leave with a good understanding of the complexity and challenges in geothermal wells, and a quantitative grasp of the different design methods and how they can be implemented in their practice.
Dr. P.V. (Suri) Suryanarayana has 30 years of professional experience as a practicing engineer in upstream energy.
The underlying theme of his professional career has been solving unique engineering problems and developing new technologies in the energy industry, with a focus on well engineering, advanced tubular mechanics (applied to HPHT, ERD and Deepwater), thermal problems, multiphase flow modeling and probabilistic design (Quantitative Risk Analysis and RBD) techniques.
His experience in design and engineering of complex wells and underbalanced drilling is well recognized in the industry. Lately, he has been very active in energy storage, thermal and geothermal well engineering, carbon sequestration, risk and reliability-based design.
Suri is a member of ASME and SPE. He has authored or co-authored over 90 archival papers in the industry and given numerous invited talks. Suri served as an SPE Distinguished Lecturer in 2006-07 and received the SPE Regional Drilling Engineering award for the Mid-continent region in 2013. In 2000, Suri co-founded Blade Energy Partners and has been on its executive board ever since, with executive responsibility for engineering, R&D, training and software products.
He currently serves as Chairman of the Executive Board of Blade. Suri co-developed several of Blade’s advanced training courses, including Thermal Well Design, Geothermal Well Design, ERD well design, and Advanced Casing and Tubing Design, and has trained over 2000 engineers worldwide through his teaching. Of all his achievements, he is proudest of this. Suri earned his PhD in Mechanical Engineering from Rice University.
Dr. Ravi Krishnamurthy is an Innovative, results-driven Principal Engineer/Scientist in Blade, with extensive multi-disciplinary experiences in the oil and gas industry including drilling, completion, reservoir and production.
Ravi recently led the effort on the Root Cause Analyses of the Aliso Canyon Failure. Ravi was involved in all aspects of investigation and integration of the results into a cohesive interpretation.
Ravi has deep knowledge and demonstrates successes in drilling and completion materials selection and corrosion control. Ravi has substantial experience with HPHT Materials selection and was responsible for unique metallurgical and corrosion control solutions for X-HPHT and geothermal completions. Additionally, Ravi is has successfully applied fracture mechanics and ASME Section VIII Div 3 to completion components operating at pressures exceeding 20,000 psi. Experience also includes pipeline integrity management, stress corrosion cracking management, pipeline inspection technology and mechanical damage.
Ravi excels in applying his unique combination of skills in engineering mechanics, metallurgy, chemistry, electrochemistry and fracture mechanics to materials selection problems, as well as root cause and failure analyses. Ravi conceived, set up, and continues expanding Blade Laboratories, based in Houston. Ravi has a PhD in Materials Science from the University of Virginia.
Note: Course information is subject to change. Additionally, most courses require a minimum of 10 students and have a maximum of 20.
