About Us > Background

Thanks to our close collaboration with Mines Paris Tech, the scientific core of our software is based on powerful numerical models developed in the geosciences research centre (ABIS Numerical Model), that have been subject to numerous studies and experimental and field validations. The Geosciences Research Centre laboratories have several experimental facilities:

• Full scale drilling simulator
• Geosciences centre
• Directional drilling testing
• Hydraulic simulator
• Small scale buckling facility

The DrillScan team is composed of high skilled engineers, consultants and experts with strong scientific backgrounds in mechanics, physics, mathematics and computer development.

ABIS software

With well trajectories becoming very complex and challenging, associated drillstring composition being unconventional and the material being used to its operating limit, it is essential to have a tool that can realistically predict forces, stress, bending moment and contact loads along the wellbore.

Although the 3D mechanical behaviour of drillstring is generally solved by using finite element analysis (FEA), the 3D BHA-Drillstring/Hole interaction model of the BHA Management® software is based on a new numerical methodology (ABIS computer program) that allows it to greatly reduce computational time, and remain as accurate and robust as FEA.

This is the first software than can simultaneously perform torque, drag and buckling, taking into account in the friction analysis the increased contact force generated by the buckling.

Thanks to this numerical breakthrough, the software can fully simulate the mechanical behaviour of very long drillstring in a 3D well trajectory within a few minutes (instead of hours with FEA), making a real-time monitoring while drilling possible.

Since no assumption is made as to the points of contact between the drillstring and the borehole, the model more realistically predicts the side forces along the drillstring. This 3D stiff-string model takes into account tubular stiffness, friction, rotation, temperature, hole size and clearance effects, and can handle the micro and macro tortuosity of actual well paths.