SPE 164320

Advanced Signal Analysis of an Electrical Submersible Pump Failure Due to

Scaling
M. N. Noui Mehidi, A. Y. Bukhamseen, Saudi Aramco

Copyright 2013, Society of Petroleum Engineers

This paper was prepared for presentation at the SPE Middle East Oil and Gas Show and Conference held in Manama, Bahrain, 1013 March 2013.
This paper was selected for presentation by an SPE program committee following review of information contained in an abstract submitted by the author(s). Contents of the paper have not been reviewed
by the Society of Petroleum Engineers and are subject to correction by the author(s). The material does not necessarily reflect any position of the Society of Petroleum Engineers, its officers, or
members. Electronic reproduction, distribution, or storage of any part of this paper without the written consent of the Society of Petroleum Engineers is prohibited. Permission to reproduce in print is
restricted to an abstract of not more than 300 words; illustrations may not be copied. The abstract must contain conspicuous acknowledgment of SPE copyright.

Abstract
The present paper is concerned with a study of electrical submersible pump failure due to scale build-up. From motor current
signals recorded several weeks before the failure, weak fluctuations were recorded, indicating a change in the motor load. The
advanced signal analysis of the motor current data revealed the presence of a dynamical character of the electrical submersible
pump signal when scale started rapidly building up in the pump stages. Based on the raw data from the motor current draw a
dynamical cascade was identified from the current marked with the superimposition of several characteristic frequencies added in
time and developing a chaotic trend. The analysis is conducted with different signal analysis recognition tools such as Fourier
transform, wavelet transform and chaotic attractors, which describe the nature of the scale signature in the current logs clearly.
This analysis can be the first step towards developing real time diagnostic tools to predict ESP failures and acting accordingly.

Introduction
Well production can be optimized by artificial means, known as artificial lift. This practice is usually applied when the wellbore
pressure drop is larger than the bottom hole flowing pressure, and therefore to overcome the pressure difference several artificial
lift techniques are used or used to boost production rates. There are several practical artificial lift methods that have shown
substantial production recovery such as gas lift to lower the pressure gradient in the production tubing and pumps to lower the
bottom-hole flowing pressure. For several years surface pumps were used at the early stages of artificial lift operations such as
positive displacement pumps (like the sucker rod pumps) to achieve the required lift. In recent years thrust pumps such as
electrical submersible pumps (ESP) become the ultimate solution to lift production fluids especially for deep wells. The ESP
technology has seen many advances which helped operators to deploy this type of pumps deeper in the well and therefore
extracting larger production rates (Sachdeva, et al., 1994, Macary, et al., 2003, Qahtani, 2007, Bennet et al, 2009 and Zhou &
Sachdeva, 2010). An ESP design involves taking into consideration several factors both on the economics and technical issues.
These factors were discussed in the literature by many authors who summarized the effect of each of these factors (Lea and
Bearden, 1999 and Naguib, et al., 2000). Still, the industry faces challenges in understanding the reasons and causes of ESP system
failure due to the complexity of the environment and the harsh media that these systems are designed for. The run life of ESP
system is shorter in some cases than expected design life time.
The causes and reasons of ESP failure are usually analysed though a detailed DIFA (Dismantle Inspection & Failure Analysis)
process where each component of the ESP assembly is carefully analysis for failure understanding. More than 20% of failure
causes are attributed to motor failure. The failure of electric motors is related to several reasons. An increase in the motor torque
beyond designed values will lead to overwhelming the required power. One of the common failure reasons in ESP assemblies was
resulting from scale build-up in the pump stages, where scale formed around the impeller vanes and therefore blocked the flow
leading to a gradual decrease of the pump efficiency until it completely fails. In recent years there has been a growing interest in
better analysing the signals recorded from an ESP system for operational optimization (Haapanen & Gagner, 2010). Close
monitoring on signal logs allow to pro-actively control the ESP performance.

SPE 164320

In the present paper, an advanced signal analysis of a motor failure due to scale build-up is performed by investigating the
dynamical behaviour of the motor current draw.
Pump failure due to scale build-up
Several technical works were devoted to understand all failure reasons of electrical submersible pumps. Scale build-up in the pump
stages was noticed in several DIFA processes, where scale was clogging almost all stages in the pump assembly as shown in
Figure 1, where a clogged stage is shown next to a new stage of the same series. It was noticed that scale usually forms in the
region behind the vanes of the pumping impeller. This phenomenon is mainly due to the presence of recirculations behind the
impeller vanes resulting in a low pressure zone, which could be an ideal situation for scale formation. Recirculations or vortex
formation behind impeller vanes have been investigated by several authors both experimentally and numerically.

Figure 1: A scale built on a pump stage compared to the original stage.

It has been shown that in the re-circulations or vortices region there is a substantial pressure decrease compared to other fluid flow
areas (Warmoeskerken and Smith (1989) and by Nienow (1996)). On the other hand, scale deposition in down-hole pump and
tubing, casing flow-lines, heater treaters, tanks and other production equipment and facilities was found to depend on the supersaturation conditions met in-situ. This super-saturation can be met in single water when changing the pressure and temperature
conditions or by mixing two incompatible waters. Common oilfield scale deposition known are calcium carbonates, calcium
sulfates, strontium sulfates and barium sulfates. Sulphate scale, in particular, could result from changes in temperature and/or
pressure while fluids including water flow from one location to another (Bin Merdhah & Yassin; 2007, 2009). These work results
are the logical explanation to the scale observed in the ESP impellers where it is clearly observed in the region behind the vanes. In
some occasions scale can occupy almost the entire space volume behind the impeller vane as shown in Figure 1.

Signal analysis
All ESP installations are equipped with monitoring systems that continuously record different parameters to ensure the good
functionality of both pumping system and associated sensors. In the ESP case we are interested in, where DIFA showed failure due
to scale build-up, the motor current was continuously recorded as part of the electric submersible pump control protocols along
with the fluid rates, the pump speed, intake and discharge pressures. An example of these logs is shown in Figure 2. It can be
noticed from Figure 2 that several days before failure, all records have shown a substantial variation trends. In the following
investigation, the variations recorded in the motor current signals are used to follow dynamically the pump failure. Time series
collected at the electrode were analyzed by Fourier transform, wavelet transform and reconstruction of attractors in phase space.

SPE 164320

Figure 2: A sample of the motor current draw before failure.

The signal analysis was performed on the normalized fluctuating component of each recorded motor current time series following
the equation:

s( t )

S ( t ) S mean
SD

(1)

where S(t) is the total signal recorded, Smean is the mean component of the signal and SD is the conventional standard deviation.
The power spectra obtained by a Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) algorithm permitted the determination the range of frequencies
present in the system up to failure. However, since FFT is only an indication of signal properties in a defined time window,
wavelet analysis was used to determine signal characteristic variations in time. Wavelet analysis has been recently introduced as an
alternative to Fourier transform. While Fourier analysis yields the energy density in individual frequency ranges without
estimation with time, wavelet analysis permits the tracking of the spatio-temporal evolution of the signal in various time scales.
The wavelet transform of continuous signal s(t) is given by:

C ( ,a )

t s t dt

a
a

(2)

where is the mother wavelet, which is an absolutely integrable function. Wavelet analysis is performed by the dilatation and
translation of the mother wavelet.
The parameter a is related to the dilatation and is the time-shift parameter. In the present study, the Mexican hat function given

SPE 164320

by:

t2

( t ) 1 t 2 exp

(3)

was chosen as the mother wavelet. Zheng et al. (2001) showed that this mother wavelet was suitable for detecting unsteady local
fluctuations. Park et al. (2001) noted that the scaling in the wavelet analysis represents performing stretching and compressing
operations on the mother wavelet to detect the frequency information contained in the signal. The compression operation permits
the analysis of high frequency components, while stretching is related to low frequency components. In the present study the
wavelet transforms are plotted in time-scale graphs where the wavelet coefficients are normalized by dividing them by the
maximal wavelet coefficient value. The iso-correlations are plotted in contour lines representing contour levels from 0 to 1. All
chaotic system show particular tendencies in the phase space. Phase space analysis reveals the nature of the dynamical system and
whether particular attractor tendencies exist through signal embedding. Embedding time series of the normalized fluctuation s(t)
corresponding to a certain flow regime allowed the identification of the associated attractor in the phase space. The process of
embedding a signal s(t) corresponds to the construction of a set of signals s(t+), s(t+2), s(t+3),, s(t+(n-1)) shifted from the
original signal s(t). Although the definition of the time delay is arbitrary, some methods have been proposed for the evaluation of
The method of mutual information proposed by Fraser and Swinney (1986) has been used in the present work to estimate the
time delay of each time series recorded to construct the associated attractor. In this method, the appropriate time delay is the one
which corresponds to the first minimum value of the mutual information function I(t) defined by Fraser and Swinney (1986)
calculated from the time series.

Dynamical transition
Several signal samples were analyzed to understand the dynamical behavior of the system before the ESP failure. The signal
analysis has shown that the fluctuations recorded had very low frequencies that translated the gradual build-up of the scale in the
different pump stages. In Figure 3, a typical Fourier transform of the collected signals is shown. The plot has been normalized by
identifying the main frequency component and its magnitude in order to identify possible harmonics. Figure 3 shows that there are
several odd harmonics of the main frequency fc but with clearly noticed frequency modulation. This frequency modulation results
from the chaotic character of the signal in the period before failure.

Figure 3: A sample of the Fourier transform of the signal recorded.

SPE 164320

The existence of both organized structure and chaotic behavior of the system can be better understood from the wavelet transform
shown in Figure 4 where iso-correlation of the wavelet coefficients are shown. Red color corresponds to maximum normalized
values (peaks) and blue color to the minimum values. The frequency modulation noticed previously on the Fourier transform can
be clearly seen on the wavelet plot. As noticed, the periodic event recorded around a/t of 50 seen through a succession of
maximum and minimum values gradually shifts to values of a/t around 100. On the other hand, it is clearly seen that the
magnitude of the peak values increases as they occupy larger areas in the last part of the time interval indicating the growth of a
dynamical process in the system.

Figure 4: Wavelet analysis of the motpr current draw.

Figure 5: Dynamical attractor of the signal recorded.

SPE 164320

It can be also noticed in the whole time interval represented in Figure 4 that peaks values exist at very low values of a/t indicating
an additional chaotic behavior of the system. The phase space study in bifurcation problems gives important information on the
type of bifurcation that occurs in a dynamical system when one or more dominant parameters are changed (Fraser & Swinney,
1986). The phase portraits constructed from the normalized fluctuating component of the recorded signals allows the identification
of the type of bifurcation leading to the succession of the different observed flow regimes. The phase space representation in
Figure 5 constructed from the signal recorded indicates a clearly typical chaotic tendency of the current logs before failure. It can
be seen that the system evolves towards a chaotic type of attractor showing the complexity in the gradual evolution before failure.
The present observations from the signal analysis performed in this work reveal a particular character of the motor current
recorded before the ESP failure, which indicates the possibility to develop real time diagnostic tool that can predict the failure of
an ESP system several days or weeks before, leading to a better control of the production protocol. For instance, if failure due to
scale build-up is predicted through these diagnostic tools, reducing the motor speed could potentially increase the production
periods even at lower volumes while a work-over rig is being scheduled for the ESP replacement.

Conclusions
The dynamical character of the signal recorded from the motor current of an ESP subject to failure due to scale build-up has been
studied. It was revealed that the ESP system before failure exhibits a gradual evolution towards a chaotic behavior that can be
clearly identified through the signal analysis of the recorded data from the motor current. These results open the door on the
possibility of developing a new real time diagnostics tool that could predict the failure of the ESP system due to scale build-up and
allow better management of the production protocols.

Nomenclature
a

wavelet transform dilatation parameter

t s t dt )

a
a

wavelet transform (=

f2

wavy motion fundamental frequency

s(t)

normalized fluctuation component of the signal (=

S(t)
Smean
SD
t
t
T

total recorded signal

mean component of the signal
standard deviation of the signal
time
sampling time
embedding time delay

S ( t ) S mean
)
SD

Greek symbols

wavelet transform time shift

t
2
mother wavelet Mexican hat (= 1 t exp

2
)
2

References

Bennet, J.T., Yong, S.K., Chio, S. and Zhu D.: A Conceptual Study of Dual Lift Design in Ultra Deep Wells, paper SPE 120825
presented at the 2009 SPE Production and Operations Symposiuem, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, 4-8 April.

SPE 164320

Bin Merdhah, A.B. & Yassin, A.M.: Study of Scale Formation in Oil Reservoir During Water injection-A review, Marine
Science & Technology Seminar 2007.
Bin Merdhah, A.B. & Yassin, A.M.: Scale Formation Due to Water Injection in Malaysian Sandstone Cores, American Journal
of Applied Sciences 6 (8): 1534-1542, 2009.
Fraser, A.M., Swinney, H.L.: Independent coordinates for strange attractors from mutual information, Physical Review A 33,
11341140, 1986.
Haapanen, B.E., Gagner, M.G.: Remote Monitoring and Optimization of Electrical Submersible Pumps Utilizing Control
Algorithms, paper CSUG/SPE 134109 presented at the 2010 Canadian Unconventional Resources & International
Petroleum Conference, Calgary, Alberta, Canada, 19-21 October.
Lea, J.F. and Bearden, J.L.: ESPs: On and Offshore Problems and Solutions, paper SPE 52159 presented at the 1999 SPE midContinent Operations Symposium, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, 28-31 March.
Macary, S., Mohamed, I., Rashad, R., El-Noby, M., A-Latif, M., Awni, I. and A-Khaled, M.: Downhole Permament Monitoring
Tackles Problematic Electrical Submsersible Pumping Wells, paper SPE 84138 presented at the 2003 SPE Annual Technical
Conference and Exhibition, Denver, Colorado, 5-8 October.
Nguib, M.A., Shahen, S.E., Bayoumi, A.E., and El-Emam, N.A.: Review of Artificial Lift in Egypt, paper SPE 64508 presented
at the 2000 SPE Asia Pacific Oil and Gas Conference, Brisbane, Australia, 16-18 October.
Nienow, A.W.: Gasliquid mixing studies: a comparison of Rushton turbines with some modern impellers, Trans IChemE, Pt A,
Chem Eng Res Des, 74(A): 417423,1996.
Park, S.H., Kang, Y., Cho, Y.J., Fan, L.T., Kim, S.D.: Characterization of pressure signals in a bubble column by wavelet
transform, Journal of Chemical Engineering of Japan 34, 158165, 2001.
Qahtani, A.M.: Electric Submersible Pump (ESP) Selection Optimization: A Reservoir Engineering Outlook, paper presented at
the 2007 Middle East Artificial Lift Forum held in Muskat, Oman 17-19 February.
Sachdeva, R., Doty, D.R., Schmidt Z.: Performance of Electric Submsersible Pumps in Gassy Wells, SPE paper 22767,
Production & Facilities, February 1994, pp.55-60.
Warmoeskerken, M.M.C.G. and Smith, J.M.: The hollowvane agitator for dispersion and mass transfer, Chem Eng Res Des, 67:
193198, 1989.
Zheng, J., Kishimoto, S., Ochi, T., Yoshimura, T., Ohmura, N., Kataoka, K.: Flow mechanism of a submerged jet impinging on a
free interface. Journal of Chemical Engineering of Japan, 34, 912918, 2001.
Zhou. D. and Sachdeva, R.: Simple model of electric submersible pump in gassy well, Journal of Petroleum Science and
Engineering 70, 204213, 2010.