AI Redefines Next-Gen Drilling Vibration Compliance

_ This case study from Tomax outlines the use of artificial intelligence to analyze high-fidelity data of the full drilling process. The problem of downhole vibrations remains a significant barrier for the drilling industry. An emerging technology based on direct interception of disturbing resonances is now being used to address the issue. Such solutions rely on a new level of understanding with respect to the true bottomhole assembly (BHA) dynamics. Artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML) techniques are now helping deliver the full picture. While the specific product development in this field belongs in the commercial space, the necessity for more and better data on drilling dynamics is commonplace. This case study describes a successful solution for data harvesting on a level that is both new and found to meet requirement for the application of AI/ML solutions. The study concludes with examples from analysis that reveal the potential from a true image of everything going on in a drillstring. Reinventing Drilling Dynamics Traditional analysis of drilling dynamics frequently references data from downhole accelerometers. However, these systems typically capture a mix of effects rather than the underlying coupling of forces that cause resonances and, consequently, poor performance and downtime from failures. The fundamentals of these resonances reside in the transfer of torsional and axial forces from surface to the bit. On most rigs, the surface input and reactive loads are recorded at sparse intervals (typically every 10 seconds or longer). Capturing this critical information at a high-fidelity level in this environment presents two critical challenges: - Signal Integrity: Eliminating data corruption and packet loss from intermittent transfer when sampling frequencies exceeding 1,000 Hz using RF from a rotating shaft in a rough environment. - Data Pipeline: While modern sensor assemblies can export structural acoustics and stress waves at extreme sample rates, the bottleneck is the data pipeline and the requirement for a continuous stream of megabytes of time-stamped data every second into a usable database.