Reel for supporting composite coiled tubing

Winding – tensioning – or guiding – Reeling device – With particular spool

Reexamination Certificate

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Details

C242S571000, C242S577100, C242S609400, C242S610400, C137S355160

Reexamination Certificate

active

06460796

ABSTRACT:

FIELD OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates generally to reels for supporting and transporting coiled tubing and, more specifically, to tubing reel cores and methods for wrapping composite coiled tubing around a tubing reel core.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Coiled tubing has been used successfully in the oil and gas industry for many years. The development of new technology has expanded the role of coiled tubing in completion, workover, drilling and production applications. The vast majority of technology and applications have focused on metallic coiled tubing. Although uses for metallic coiled tubulars have significantly increased in the past twenty years, limitations are experienced on occasion with metallic tubulars, including tensile strength limitations due to string weight and corrosion susceptibility from inhospitable conditions.
Technology advancements in non-metallic, composite based coiled tubing products have facilitated solutions to many of the limitations encountered with metallic tubing. Composite tubing is commonly composed of a combined resinous-fibrous outer tube concentrically encompassing a plastic inner tube, with the inner tube substantially providing the desired strength and protective properties. When manufactured, the inner tube commonly becomes integrally fixed to the outer tube. As compared to steel tubulars of like size, composite tubulars tend to have lower weight, superior burst properties, improved flow coefficients and increased fatigue resistance, while steel tends to exhibit more favorable collapse, compressive and tensile properties. Thus, in certain applications, composite tubulars are a direct alternative to steel while in other applications composites are the highly preferred option.
The physical properties of composite coiled tubing pose challenges and opportunities for the development of new technology to exploit its advantages compared to metal tubulars. One significant property of composite tubing is its markedly different Poisson's ratio compared to steel tubulars. As a result, composite tubing at a given pressure will undergo a contraction in length much greater than the contraction in length of steel tubulars at the same pressure. One problem with coiled composite tubing arises from the exaggerated contraction in length resulting from this difference in Poisson's ratios between composite and steel tubulars. When the composite tubing is spooled onto a tubing reel and pressurized for pumping fluid into the well, the composite tubing contracts and results in very high loading on the tubing reel. This high loading is much more severe than that commonly experienced with steel tubulars, possibly damaging the tubing reel core structure.
Technological advancements in tubular storage reels has been minimal over the past few years. The prior art demonstrates tubing storage reels for steel tubing, e.g., Blount U.S. Pat. No. 5,865,392, and therapeutic gas tubing, e.g., Pierce U.S. Pat. No. 5,826,608, and also demonstrates composite tubing capable of being spooled onto a reel for stowage and use in oil field applications, e.g., Quigley U.S. Pat. No. 5,921,285. However, the prior art fails to demonstrate tubing reels capable of withstanding the high loading resulting from pressurizing coiled composite tubing. The prior art also demonstrates methods for laying rigid pipeline, e.g. Lang U.S. Pat. No. 3,982,402, but fails to demonstrate a method for storing composite tubing in such a manner that does not result in damage to the tubing storage reel.
In order for composite tubing to be commonly accepted by operators for use as production tubing, it is highly desirable to either provide tubing storage reels capable of storing pressurized composite tubulars despite the high loading resulting from the pressure-driven contraction in length of the pressurized composite tubulars, or alternately to provide methods of using existing tubing storage reels with pressurized composite tubing in such a manner as to substantially minimize or prevent damage to tubing storage reels of current design.
The disadvantages of the prior art are overcome by the present invention, and an improved reel for supporting coiled tubing, and particularly composite tubing, is hereinafter disclosed. Also disclosed is a method of winding coiled tubing onto a reel to minimize forces on the tubing reel core when the tubing is substantially pressurized while coiled onto the reel.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
A typical system for a coiled tubing operation involves a rather long length of coiled spoolable tubing, either steel, composite or other material, wound onto a relatively large reel. This invention pertains to the reels commonly used to store or aid installation of such coiled tubing. Typically, the tubing is coiled onto the tubing reel or spool for storage, and then pressurized prior to installation at the worksite. However, as the desire to replace steel coiled tubing with composite coiled tubing has increased within the industry, existing designs for tubing reels or spools have been inadequate in withstanding the radial forces imparted by the composite coiled tubing once pressurized.
The present invention provides apparatus and a method for pressurizing and spooling composite coiled tubing, and affords solutions to the challenges of using composite coiled tubing with existing tubing reel designs. This invention offers advantages over the prior art in that it facilitates and encourages the installation of composite coiled tubing at the worksite by using modified tubing reels without changing the common procedures exercised during installation of the composite coiled tubing down the wellbore.
A compliant material or an assembly of springs and moveable panels located on the exterior surface of the tubing reel core may absorb the radially inward forces exerted by the pressurized coiled composite tubing on the tubing reel core. This allows the existing tubing spooling procedures to be exercised. In the alternative, this invention also offers advantages over the prior art in that it facilitates and encourages the use of composite coiled tubing by using modified coiled tubing spooling procedures without changes to the commonly utilize tubing reel cores for storage and installation of the composite coiled tubing. The modified coiled composite tubing spooling procedure may substantially reduce or eliminate the radially inward forces exerted by the pressurized coiled composite tubing on the tubing reel core, thereby allowing the use of existing tubing reel cores.
A primary objective of this invention is to alleviate or compensate for the radially inward forces exerted by the pressurized coiled composite tubing on the tubing reel core. Three embodiments are disclosed in detail which afford this characteristic. The first embodiment utilizes a specially designed tubing reel core with a compliant material, such as rubber, applied to the spooling surface prior to spooling the coiled tubing. The compliant material provides compliance of the tubing reel core structure. A second embodiment preferably utilizes springs or other biasing members placed between the tubing reel core and the tubing reel spooling surface, and also providing compliance of the tubing reel core structure. The third embodiment utilizes tubing reels of a conventional design, new or existing, or tubing reels of the new designs as disclosed above. This third embodiment pressurizes the coiled composite tubing prior to spooling the tubing onto the tubing reel, and may include releasing the pressure once the tubing is completely spooled.
In the first embodiment, the tubing reel may be comprised of a portable base, a hub rotatable around a hub axis, an end flange at both ends of the hub, and a compliant material on the spooling surface of the hub. The hub preferably has a substantially cylindrical cross-section, but may be other geometric shapes. The compliant material may be rubber, but alternatively may be wood, plastic, glass, carpet, or other woven textiles. The compliant material is preferably placed over a majority of t

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