Design and Output Performance Model of Turbodrill Blade Used in a Slim Borehole
Small-diameter turbodrills have great potential for use in slim boreholes because of their lower cost and higher efficiency when used in geothermal energy and other underground resource applications. Multistage hydraulic components consisting of stators and rotors are key aspects of turbodrills. This study aimed to develop a suitable blade that can be used under high temperature in granite formations. First, prediction models for single- and multi-stage blades were established based on Bernoulli’s Equation. The design requirement of the blade for high-temperature geothermal drilling in granite was proposed. A Φ89 blade was developed based on the dimensionless parameter method and Bezier curve; the parameters of the blade, including its radial size, symotric parameters, and blade profiles, were input into ANASYS and CFX to establish a calculation model of the single-stage blade. The optimization of the blade structure of the small-diameter turbodrill enabled a multistage turbodrill model to be established and the turbodrill’s overall output performance to be predicted. The results demonstrate that the design can meet the turbodrill’s performance requirements and that the multistage model can effectively improve the accuracy of the prediction.
Flow simulation and performance analysis of a drilling turbine
Turbodrills are axial hydraulic turbines which are used in drilling hydrocarbons in extreme conditions, possessing advantages over other drilling techniques with their high speed of rotation, and higher operating torques.In The present work, a numerical simulation of a Newtonian Drilling Mud flow was carried out through one stage of this turbine that has a stator and a rotor. The steady state mixing plane model was used for the simulations to take the rotation of the rotor into account besides the spatially averaged property fluxes of the flow. The turbulence K-e model was used to consider the turbulence effects.Key performance parameters are calculated as a function of rotation speed and they are validated against the experimental data of the same model geometry in real operating conditions, a good agreement have been found between manufacturer power and torque data,  and our simulation results for the same variables.Various flow fields are presented such as velocity and pressure, which had a great influence on the performance of the studied turbine. This will lead to choose the best parameters configuration of an optimal field operation.
Phase characterisation of simulated high burn-up UO2 fuel
Abstract To determine the lattice constant variation with burn-up and the oxidation behaviour at high temperatures, simulated UO2-spent fuels with burn-ups up to 200 GWd tM−1 were prepared by cold pressing and sintering and characterised by X-ray diffraction analysis and thermogravimetry. The fcc-lattice parameter of the sintered samples determined at room temperature, showed a continuous decrease with the simulated burn-up. During oxidation the conversion of the simulated fuels to the (U,FP)4O9 and (U,FP)3O8-type phases was strongly delayed when the simulated burn-up exceeded 80 GWd tM−1. Also, at high burn-ups (>100 GWd tM−1), large fractions of the (U,FP)4O9-type phase remained untransformed to (U,FP)3O8 after prolonged exposure to air at 950–1000°C. This suggests a marked widening of the (U,FP)4O9-phase field when the amount of substituted uranium atoms exceeds values of about 8%.