Abstract
The paper shows that a downhole bending moment measurement combined with a simple mathematical model can provide a good estimate of the wellbore curvature, matching the results obtained from survey data analysis quite well. In addition, the bending moment measurement delivers wellbore curvature information at a much higher resolution than the standard Minimum Curvature method, which assumes a constant curvature between the survey stations.
The paper presents numerous examples of downhole bending moment data measured in deployments with both rotary steerable and steerable motor BHAs and compares the dogleg severity estimates from the bending moment data with the dogleg severity derived from the survey measurements. Accuracy and limitations of the measurement and the model predictions are discussed. The paper also introduces a new method of analyzing cyclic hole effects applying FFT techniques to the depth-based bending data.
