Prediction of wellbore temperatures during the scientific ultra-deep drilling process

In order to carry out a series of key basic researches, a scientific ultra-deep drilling plan is being undertaken in China. Wellbore temperature is one of the key factors during the drilling process. In this paper, we established a twodimensional transient numerical model to predict the ultra-deep wellbore temperature distributions during circulation and shut-in stages. The simulation results indicate that the cooling effort of drilling fluid circulation is very obvious, especially during the inception phase. Drilling fluid viscosity has great influence on the temperature distributions during circulation stage: the lower the viscosity, the higher the bottom hole temperature. While drilling fluid displacement and inlet temperature have a little effort on the bottom hole temperature. During the shut-in stage, the wellbore temperature recovery is a slow process. © Meng et al.