NANOSONIC INC. — Department of Energy SBIR Phase I: 16a

Description

Packers are used in almost every well completion to isolate the annulus from the production conduit, enabling controlled production, injection or treatment. A typical packer assembly incorporates a slip arrangement as a means of securing the packer against the well casing or liner wall, with an expandable elastomeric packer element that creates a hydraulic seal, isolating the annulus. Due to the high temperature and high-pressure environment of geothermal wells, packer materials may degrade, fail, damage the completion design, and disrupt or stop even production. The in-situ monitoring of physical displacements in the packer material during both the setting process and well operation would allow direct analysis of packer status, potentially avoid packer failure and associated completion disturbance and cost. Modulus-matched piezoresistive strain sensors will be embedded inside well packers to determine the internal strain field. Such in-situ monitoring of the packer material during both the setting process and well operation would allow direct analysis of packer status, potentially avoid packer failure and associated completion disturbance and cost, and provide data that could be used to design and select proper packers for specific future uses. The objective of the proposed Department of Energy SBIR program is to investigate the feasibility of incorporating Metal Rubber sensors within packer materials to determine the long-term function of the packer at providing an adequate seal while supporting required mechanical load and deformation. This will involve demonstrating: 1) the ability to match the modulus of Metal Rubber sensors to those of packer materials so the sensor elements and packer materials deform in the exactly same way, 2) demonstrating the piezoresistive behavior of embedded elements and their use as short-term internal deformation and long-term creep sensors, 3) developing wired or wireless concepts to obtain sensor signals externally, and 4) relating internal strain distribution information as a function of time to packer material performance. Commercial Applications: Instrumented packers would be used in high temperature geothermal and other lower temperature wells. Metal Rubber sensors capable of being deformed to large strains could be used as embedded or attached large strain extensometers. Because they can be bent and flexed without permanent plastic deformation and damage, they would have application as strain sensors on and in flexible materials such as fabric s, clothing, tents, parachutes, deformable biomedical materials, and inflatable terrestrial and space structures.