Workflow to build a continuous static elastic moduli profile from the drilling data using artificial intelligence techniques

Abstract

AbstractRock mechanical properties play a crucial role in fracturing design, wellbore stability and in situ stresses estimation. Conventionally, there are two ways to estimate Young’s modulus, either by conducting compressional tests on core plug samples or by calculating it from well log parameters. The first method is costly, time-consuming and does not provide a continuous profile. In contrast, the second method provides a continuous profile, however, it requires the availability of acoustic velocities and usually gives estimations that differ from the experimental ones. In this paper, a different approach is proposed based on the drilling operational data such as weight on bit and penetration rate. To investigate this approach, two machine learning techniques were used, artificial neural network (ANN) and support vector machine (SVM). A total of 2288 data points were employed to develop the model, while another 1667 hidden data points were used later to validate the built models. These data cover different types of formations carbonate, sandstone and shale. The two methods used yielded a good match between the measured and predicted Young’s modulus with correlation coefficients above 0.90, and average absolute percentage errors were less than 15%. For instance, the correlation coefficients for ANN ranged between 0.92 and 0.97 for the training and testing data, respectively. A new empirical correlation was developed based on the optimized ANN model that can be used with different datasets. According to these results, the estimation of elastic moduli from drilling parameters is promising and this approach could be investigated for other rock mechanical parameters.