CROSS REFERENCE

This application claims the benefit of the filing date of United States Patent

Application Serial Number 12/535,364 filed August 4, 2009, for "TUBULAR SYSTEM WITH SELECTIVELY ENGAGABLE SLEEVES AND METHOD."

BACKGROUND

[0001] The ability to selectively open ports along a tubular has applications in various industries. For example, in industries involving boreholes into earth formations, tubulars positioned within the borehole may have ports therealong that are originally closed but are desired to be opened individually and selectively. Systems have been developed that allow an operator to pump a ball to a ball seat sized to sealably engage the ball. Once engaged, pressure can be applied to move the ball seat and a sleeve attached thereto until the sleeve uncovers a previously covered port through the tubular. Such systems, however, have inherent dimensional restrictions due to the variously sized ball seats needed to engage the variously sized balls. Additionally, these systems can only open the ports in an ever upstream moving sequence due the fact that larger balls cannot pass through a smaller dimensioned seat. Systems that overcome the foregoing drawbacks are desirable in the art.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION

[0002] Disclosed herein is a tubular system with selectively engagable sleeves. The system includes, a tubular, a plurality of sleeves disposed at the tubular, and a plurality of engagable members being movable through the tubular with each of the plurality of engagable members being configurable to selectively engage with at least one of the plurality of sleeves and such engagement at least temporarily preventing passage of an engaged engagable member by an engaged sleeve.

[0003] Further disclosed herein is a method of selectively engaging sleeves within a tubular. The method includes, moving an engagable member within a tubular, contacting one of a plurality of sleeves disposed at the tubular with the engagable member, rotationally orienting the engagable member relative to the one of a plurality of sleeves, and selectively engaging a stop on one of the engagable member and the one of the plurality of sleeves with an engaging detail on the other of the engagable member and the one of the plurality of sleeves.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0004] The following descriptions should not be considered limiting in any way. With reference to the accompanying drawings, like elements are numbered alike:

[0005] FIG. 1 depicts a partial quarter cross sectional view of a tubular system with selectively engagable sleeves disclosed herein;

[0006] FIG. 2 depicts a partial cross sectional view of slots on an inner surface of the sleeve of FIG. 1 with the sleeve illustrated in an unrolled configuration, pins of an engagable member are shown engaged within the slots;

[0007] FIG. 3 depicts an alternate embodiment of a sleeve disclosed herein in an unrolled configuration similar to that of FIG 2;

[0008] FIG. 4 depicts a top cross sectional view of the tubular system of FIG. 3 taken at arrows 4-4;

[0009] FIG. 5 depicts a partial cross sectional view of the tubular system of FIG. 4 taken at arrows 5-5;

[0010] FIG. 6 depicts a sleeve disclosed herein in an unrolled configuration similar to that of FIG. 2 of an alternate embodiment of tubular system with selectively engagable sleeves;

[0011] FIG. 7 depicts a top cross sectional view of the tubular system of FIG. 6 taken at arrows 7-7;

[0012] FIG. 8 depicts a partial cross sectional view of the tubular system of FIG. 6 taken at arrows 8-8; and

[0013] FIG. 9 depicts a partial cross sectional view similar to the view of FIG. 8 of an alternate embodiment of a tubular system with selectively engagable sleeves.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0014] A detailed description of one or more embodiments of the disclosed apparatus and method are presented herein by way of exemplification and not limitation with reference to the Figures.

[0015] Referring to FIG. 1, an embodiment of a tubular system with selectively engagable sleeves is generally illustrated at 10. The tubular system 10 includes, a tubular 14, having a plurality of ports 18, a plurality of sleeves 22 disposed at the tubular 14, with one of the sleeves 22 being illustrated herein, and a plurality of engagable members 26, disclosed herein as plugs, movable within the tubular 14. The plugs 26 can be moved within tubular 14, by such methods as dropping or pumping, for example, causing them to move therethrough and to sequentially encounter the sleeves 22 in the process. Details on the sleeves 22 and plugs 26, as will be described below, allow each plug 26 to either, selectively pass through each sleeve 22 encountered or, to engage the sleeve 22 and become, at least temporarily, attached thereto. Attachable engagement between the plug 26 and the sleeve 22 allow an operator to perform an operation such as, to move the sleeve 22 thereby opening at least one of the ports 18 to allow fluid communication from an inside 30 of the tubular 14 to an outside 34 of the tubular 14, for example. The plugs 26 and the sleeves 22 can be configured so that the plug 26 can movably engage any one of the particular sleeves 22 regardless of the location of the sleeve 22 along the tubular 14.

[0016] In this embodiment, each of the sleeves 22 has multiple slots 38, 40, with two being illustrated herein, formed in a radially inwardly facing surface 42 thereof. Each of the plugs 26 has a generally cylindrical shape and multiple pins 46, 48, protruding from a radially outwardly facing surface 50 thereof. The surfaces 42 and 50 are sized to allow the plug 26 to slidably move within the sleeve 22. The pins 46, 48 protrude from the surface 50 and are routed through the slots 38, 40. Angled surfaces 54 at the entry to each slot 38, 40, as best seen in FIG. 2, cause the plugs 26 to rotate relative to the sleeves 22 as the pins 46, 48 are funneled along the surfaces 54 until they engage with the slots 38, 40, thereby rotationally orienting the plug 26 relative to the sleeve 22. Alternate embodiments could have these features reversed, for example, and have the pins 46, 48 located on the radially inwardly facing surface 42 of the sleeve 22 while the slots 38, 40 are formed in the radially outwardly facing surface 50 of the plugs 26.

[0017] Referring to FIG. 2, the radially inwardly facing surface 42 is shown as if the sleeve 22 has been unrolled to illustrate the interaction between the pins 46, 48 and the slots 38, 40. Only the pins 46, 48 of the plug 26 are shown and not the body of the plug 26 so as to not obstruct or complicate the view. A number of pins 46, 48 is selected to be equal to or fewer than a number of slots 38, 40 with specifically two pins 46, 48 and two slots 38, 40 being illustrated herein. An angular spacing of the pins 46, 48 about a perimeter of the plug 26 is set to correspond with an angular spacing of an entry way 58 of each of the slots 38, 40 about a perimeter of the sleeve 22 to assure that each pin 46, 48 enters one of the slots 38, 40. [0018] Each of the slots 40 has a helical portion 62A-62C that defines a key for selective engagement with at least one of the plugs 26. Complementarily, each of the plugs 26 has a longitudinal offset 66A or 66B between at least the two pins 46 and 48A, or between the two pins 46 and 48B, respectively that define a key for selective engagement with at least one of the sleeves 22. This keying between one of the plugs 26 and one of the sleeves 22 is based on the longitudinal relationship between the helical portions 62A-62C and the longitudinal offsets 66 A, 66B, respectively. For example, a plug 26 having the longitudinal offset 66A, 66B, or no offset at all can pass through a sleeve 22 having the helical portion 62A. This is easily observable by visualizing rotation of the plug 26 caused by the helical portions 62A-62C as the plug 26 passes through the sleeve 22. As the pin 48A, 48B or 48C contacts helical portion 62A it will cause the plug 26 to rotate relative to the sleeve 22 thereby resulting in the pin 46 also rotating relative to the slot 38. Since the slot 38 has a wide portion 70 in longitudinal alignment with the helical portions 62A-62C, the pin 38 is free to rotate into the wide portion 70 thereby allowing the plug 26 to pass through the sleeve 22.

[0019] Similarly, the plug 26 having pins 46 and 48B or 48C will pass through the sleeve 22 having the helical portion 62B, however, the plug having pins 46 and 48 A will not pass through the sleeve 22 with the helical portion 62B. The plug 26 is prevented from passing by contact of the pin 46 with a wall 74 of the slot 38 that results when the plug 26 attempts to rotate in response to contact of the pin 48 A with a wall 78 of the helical portion 62B. The foregoing construction allows for a near limitless number of keys to control passage or blockage of the plugs 26 by the sleeves 22 by, for example, adding more pins 48 and more helical portions 62 through increases in a longitudinal length of the plugs 26 and the sleeves 22. Also, a plurality of the slots 40 can be positioned around the perimeter of the sleeve 22 to increase the number of selectable keys that are possible for a given longitudinal length.

[0020] Additionally, the pins 46 or 48 can be made to release at selected load levels, by shearing, for example. Doing so can allow for an actuation to be undertaken at a first load and then release of the plug 26 at a second load. For example, seals 82 can sealingly engage with the sleeve 22 thereby allowing pressure thereabove to build producing a load on the plug 26 and the sleeve 22 to move the sleeve 22. Such a movement could open ports 18 by moving seals 86 on the sleeve 22 that straddle ports 90 to also straddle the ports 18 thereby allowing fluid communication between the inside 30 of the tubular 14 and the outside 34. Movement of the sleeve 22 relative to the tubular 14 can be prevented until a threshold force is achieved, such a threshold force can be set by a releasable member 92, such as a shear screw, that fixedly attaches the sleeve 22 to the tubular 14. This system can also allow high pressure to be used in a fracturing operation.

[0021] Referring to Figures 3, 4 and 5, an alternate embodiment of a tubular system with selectively engagable sleeves is illustrated at 110. The tubular system 110 includes, a tubular 114, a plurality of sleeves 122 disposed at the tubular 114, with just one of the sleeves 122 being illustrated herein, and a plurality of engagable members 126, illustrated herein as plugs, selectively engagable with the sleeves 122. As in the tubular system 10 the tubular system 110 has slots 138, 140 on the sleeves 122 receptive of pins 146, 148 on the plugs 126 that rotationally align the plug 126 with the sleeve 122. Unlike the system 10 however, the system 110 does not have the helical portions 62 to cause a rotation of the plug 126. Instead a keying arrangement of the system 110 includes stops 152, on an inner surface 156 of the sleeves 122, that when rotationally aligned with an engaging detail 160, shown herein as a tab on an outer surface 164 of the plugs 126 prevent passage of the plug 126 through the sleeve 122. Since the plugs 126 are rotationally aligned with the sleeves 122, by the pins 146, 148 engaging within the slots 138, 140, a plurality of rotational positions 168A-168L, with twelve being illustrated in this embodiment, can be used to allow or prevent passage of a plug 126 through a particular sleeve 122. The keying arrangement is simply controlled by selective inclusion of the stops 152 and the engaging detail 160 within a common rotational position 168A-168L.

[0022] Referring to Figures 6-8, an alternate embodiment of a tubular system with selectively engagable sleeves is illustrated at 210. The tubular system 210 is similar to the tubular system 110 and as such only the primary differences will be described herein in detail. The tubular system 210 includes, the tubular 114, a plurality of sleeves 222 disposed at the tubular 114, with just one of the sleeves 222 being illustrated herein, and a plurality of engagable members 226, disclosed herein as plugs, movable within the tubular 114 and selectively engagable with the sleeves 222. The plugs 226 are rotationally aligned with the sleeves 222 by pins 146, 148 that engage within slots 138, 140. A deformable portion 228 of the plug 226, as best illustrated in Figure 8, has a protrusion 232 that extends radially outwardly from leg 236 that is engagable within a recess 240 formed in an inner radial surface 244 of the sleeve 222. As such, the keying arrangement herein is defined by selective rotational alignment of the protrusion 232 on the plug 226 with the recess 240 of the sleeve 222, which prevents passage of the plug 226 by the sleeve 222. It should be noted that in alternate embodiments the location of the protrusion 232 and the recess 240 could be reversed in that the protrusion 232 could be located on the sleeve 222 and the recess 240 located on the plug 226.

[0023] Referring to Figure 9, an alternate embodiment of an engagable member 326 is disclosed herein. The engagable member 326, as illustrated herein is a plug. The plug 326 is engagable with the sleeve 222 in a similar manner as the plug 226 is engagable with the sleeve 222. The primary difference between the plug 326 and the plug 226 is that the plug 326 has protrusions 332 that are positioned on dogs 336 that are biased radially outwardly of the plug 326 by biasing members 340, illustrated herein as compression springs. The protrusions 332 are engagable within the recess 240 to prevent passage of the plug 326 through the sleeve 222. As such, the keying is defined by selective rotational alignment of the protrusion 332 on the plug 326 with the recess 240 on the sleeve 222.

[0024] While the invention has been described with reference to an exemplary embodiment or embodiments, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that various changes may be made and equivalents may be substituted for elements thereof without departing from the scope of the invention. In addition, many modifications may be made to adapt a particular situation or material to the teachings of the invention without departing from the essential scope thereof. Therefore, it is intended that the invention not be limited to the particular embodiment disclosed as the best mode contemplated for carrying out this invention, but that the invention will include all embodiments falling within the scope of the claims. Also, in the drawings and the description, there have been disclosed exemplary embodiments of the invention and, although specific terms may have been employed, they are unless otherwise stated used in a generic and descriptive sense only and not for purposes of limitation, the scope of the invention therefore not being so limited. Moreover, the use of the terms first, second, etc. do not denote any order or importance, but rather the terms first, second, etc. are used to distinguish one element from another. Furthermore, the use of the terms a, an, etc. do not denote a limitation of quantity, but rather denote the presence of at least one of the referenced item.