Design Rule Checker for Sheet MetalComponents using Medial Axis Transforms andGeometric
Design Rule Checker is an essential component of design automation and for making design, process planning and manufacturing concurrent. In this paper, a set of algorithms are presented for detecting design violations in sheet metal components. Violations in sheet metal components occur when holes, slots, or other features are too close to one another. These violations, if undetected during design, increase the design life cycle of the product. Thus it is very essential to detect, if not eliminate these violations at the early stages of design. Typically sheet metal components have a number of features serving various purposes which include ventilation and fastening. As the contour of the parts gets complicated and the number of features on the sheet metal part increases it is diicult to check the rules exhaustively as it may lead to combinatorial explosion. 1 The algorithm presented here, uses Medial axis transformation to decompose a given domain thus preventing a combinatorial explosion, and also provides a means to integrate the rule checker with a design adviser.
Feature reasoning for sheet metal components
The objective of this paper is to develop a set of principles for extracting, recognizing and reasoning about features from sheet metal parts which are created in the CAD system. Recognition of such features will enable the automatic evaluation of designs and the development of process plans by among other things, mapping form features to tools needed to produce the form. The principles are developed by studying the face-oriented representations of features and deriving concepts which relate the features geometrically and topologically. Subsequently, the processes that relate to the geometrical forms are used to further uniquely identify the features.
Prevention of Barite Sag in Oil-Based Drilling Fluids Using a Mixture of Barite and Ilmenite as Weighting Material
Drilling high-pressure high-temperature (HPHT) wells requires a special fluid formulation that is capable of controlling the high pressure and is stable under the high downhole temperature. Barite-weighted fluids are common for such purpose because of the good properties of barite, its low cost, and its availability. However, solids settlement is a major problem encountered with this type of fluids, especially at elevated downhole temperatures. This phenomenon is known as barite sag, and it is encountered in vertical and directional wells under static or dynamic conditions leading to serious well control issues. This study aims to evaluate the use of barite-ilmenite mixture as a weighting agent to prevent solids sag in oil-based muds at elevated temperatures. Sag test was conducted under static conditions (vertical and inclined) at 350 °F and under dynamic conditions at 120 °F to determine the optimum ilmenite concentration. Afterward, a complete evaluation of the drilling fluid was performed by monitoring density, electrical stability, rheological and viscoelastic properties, and filtration performance to study the impact of adding ilmenite on drilling fluid performance. The results of this study showed that adding ilmenite reduces sag tendency, and only 40 wt.% ilmenite (from the total weighting material) was adequate to eliminate barite sag under both static and dynamic conditions with a sag factor of around 0.51. Adding ilmenite enhanced the rheological and viscoelastic properties and the suspension of solid particles in the drilling fluid, which confirmed sag test results. Adding ilmenite slightly increased the density of the drilling fluid, with a slight decrease in the electrical stability within the acceptable range of field applications. Moreover, a minor improvement in the filtration performance of the drilling fluid and filter cake sealing properties was observed with the combined weighting agent. The findings of this study provide a practical solution to the barite sag issue in oil-based fluids using a combination of barite and ilmenite powder as a weighting agent to drill HPHT oil and gas wells safely and efficiently with such type of fluids.