Universal physics-based rate of penetration prediction model for rotary drilling

The drilling process is one of the most important and expensive aspects of the oil and gas industry. Drilling is required during mining for different ore production processes such as blasting and large drilling operations. Overall, it contributes significantly to the total cost of mining. As a result, an accurate prediction of the rate of penetration (ROP) is crucial for drilling performance optimization and contributes directly to reducing drilling costs. Knowledge of drilling performance is a powerful tool to aid in the development of a consistent drilling plan as well as to anticipate issues that may arise during drilling operations. Several approaches, with varying degrees of complexity and accuracy, have been tested to predict drilling performance, but all have shown several limitation to predict the complete drilling performance curve including locate the founder point. This limitation can be extended to their capacity of covering different drilling scenarios with high accuracy. In this thesis (manuscript style) a review of the history of drilling performance prediction is conducted with emphasis on the rotary drilling of small and large diameters. The approaches are grouped into two categories: physics-based models and data-driven models. Due to the low complexity of the physics-based models and the scarcity of drilling performance prediction research that reports the founder point location, a novel physics-based ROP prediction model for rotary drilling that includes the founder point location is presented. This model presents high accuracy to predict the drilling performance for fixed cutter drill bit, roller-cone drill bit, and large diameter drilling operations. The behaviors of the new model constants (drillability coefficient and drillability constant term) are discussed when analyzed in relation to the unconfined compressive strength (UCS), bit diameter, and rotary speed. Additionally, a new experimental setup approach was developed based on the circular movement of the full-scale disc cutter that are normally used in raise boring and tunnel boring machines. This setup will permit to simulate the large diameter drilling operations in laboratory scale aiming the understanding of the fragmentation process and application of optimization to this scenario