Stick-slip, a term for the spontaneous torsional vibrations occurring on a drill bit, is a critical problem in offshore drilling because of the damage it causes to the drill bits. Moreover, it leads to crushing or grinding of the sediment layer, which is a critical problem especially in scientific drilling where the purpose is to recover core samples from the layers.

To detect the occurrence of stick-slip and its fundamental characteristics onboard in real-time, we developed an analytical model is developed to express the torsional motions at the drill bit, leading to the stick-slip phenomenon. The analytical model includes the unknown frictional torque at the drill bit, which depends on the properties of the drilling layers and is a dominant factor for demonstrating the stick-slip phenomenon. This study proposes a method to determine the frictional torque by integrating the analytical model with the surface drilling data. It would be advantageous to identify the characteristics of stick-slip from the surface drilling data. The method is validated with the results of small-scale model experiments in a water tank to observe the stick-slip phenomenon.

Furthermore, we acquired the actual drilling data, which are surface drilling data and downhole data, during the drilling operation of the scientific drilling vessel Chikyu.

This study focuses on attempts to estimate the stick-slip characteristics by the simulation based on the established analytical model with actual surface drilling data acquired during the drilling operation of the scientific drilling vessel Chikyu, and a comparison with the downhole data including the bit motions.

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