A finite-element method for analysing solid expansion process and supervising material selection

Abstract

Abstract Solid expansion technology is regarded as one of the revolutionary technologies that will change the future development of petroleum and gas industry. However, in the process of material selection of expandable tubular, there is always a contradiction between excessive expansion force and insufficient strength of expansion tube, which restricts the application and development of this technology to a great extent. In order to analyze the expansion performance of expansion tubes made of different materials, and the expansion conditions with different friction coefficients, different materials, different expansion cones and rates, finite element models were established by ABAQUS software in this paper to simulate the expansion tubes of several specifications. By comparing the experimental and simulation results, the reliability of the model analysis is demonstrated by the small error range. The influence of material mechanical properties, friction coefficient on expansive force after expansion were analyzed. Moreover, the material selection principle of expandable tubular is also discussed.