Well Tubing

Introduction
Most oil wells produce reservoir fluids through
tubing strings. This is mainly because tubing strings
provide good sealing performance and allow the use
of gas expansion to lift oil. Gas wells produce gas
through tubing strings to reduce liquid loading
problems.
Tubing strings are designed considering tension,
collapse, and burst loads under various well
operating conditions to prevent loss of tubing string
integrity
including
mechanical
failure
and
deformation due to excessive stresses and buckling.
This chapter presents properties of the American

Strength of Tubing
The API defines tubing size using nominal
diameter and weight (per foot). The nominal
diameter is based on the internal diameter of tubing
body. The weight of tubing determines the tubing
outer diameter.
Steel grades of tubing are designated to H-40, J-55,
C-75, L-80, N-80, C-90, and P-105, where the digits
represent the minimum yield strength in 1,000 psi.
Table 9.1 gives the tensile requirements of API
tubing.
The minimum performance properties of API tubing
are listed in Appendix B of this book.
The tubing collapse strength data listed in Appendix
B do not reflect the effect of biaxial stress. The

Consider a simple uniaxial test of a metal

specimen as shown in Fig. 9.1, Hookes Law
applies to the elastic portion before yield
point:

where , , and E are stress, strain, and

Youngs modulus, respectively. The energy in
the elastic portion of the test is

where P, A, L, V, and l are force, area, length,

volume, and length change, respectively.
However, using Hookes Law, we have

To assess whether a material is going to fail,

we use various material failure criteria. One of
the most important is the Distortion Energy
Criteria. This is for 3D and is

For our case of the uniaxial test, we would

have

Then from Eq. (9.4), we would get

If the failure of a material is taken to be when

the material is at the yield point, then Eq. (9.6)
is written

where y is yield stress. The definition of an

equivalent stress is the energy level in 3D,
which is equivalent to the criteria energy level.

where e is the equivalent stress. The collapse

pressure is expressed as

where D is the tubing outer diameter (OD) and t

is wall thickness. For the 3D case, we can
consider

where e is the equivalent stress for the 3D case

of

Consider the case in which we have only tensile

axial loads, and compressive pressure on the
outside of the tubing, then Eq. (9.12) reduces to

Further, we can define

Tubing Design
Tubing design should consider tubing failure due
to tension, collapse, and burst loads under
various well operating conditions. Forces
affecting tubing strings include the following:
1. Axial tension due to weight of tubing and
compression due to buoyancy
2. External pressure (completion fluids, oil,
gas, formation water)
3. Internal pressure (oil, gas, formation
water)
4. Bending forces in deviated portion of well
5. Forces due to lateral rock pressure
6. Other forces due to thermal gradient or
dynamics

Tension, Collapse, and Burst Design

The last three columns of the tables in Appendix B
present tubing collapse resistance, internal yield
pressure, and joint yield strength.
These are the limiting strengths for a given tubing
joint without considering the biaxial effect shown in
Fig. 9.2.
At any point should the net external pressure, net
internal pressure, and buoyant tensile load not be
allowed to exceed tubings axial load-corrected
collapse resistance, internal yield pressure, and joint
yield strength, respectively.
Tubing strings should be designed to have strengths

In addition, bending stress should be

considered in tension design for deviated and
horizontal wells.
The tensile stress due to bending is expressed
as

Because of the great variations in well operating

conditions, it is difficult to adopt a universal
tubing design criterion for all well situations.
Probably the best design practice is to consider
the worst loading cases for collapse, burst, and
tension loads that are possible for the well to
experience during the life of the well.
It is vitally important to check the remaining
strengths of tubing in a subject well before any
unexpected well treatment is carried out.
Some special considerations in well operations
that affect tubing string integrity are addressed
in the sections that follow.

Buckling Prevention during Production

A completion fluid is in place in the annular space
between the tubing and the casing before a well is
put into production.
The temperature at depth is T = Tsf + GTD, where GT is
geothermal gradient. When the oil is produced, the
temperature in the tubing will rise.
This will expand (thermal) the tubing length, and if
there is not sufficient landing tension, the tubing will
buckle.
The temperature distribution in the tubing can be
predicted on the basis of the work of Ramey (1962),
Hasan and Kabir (2002), and Guo et al. (2005). The
latter is described in Chapter 11.
A conservative approach to temperature calculations

Example Problem 9.2 Consider a 278 in. API,

6.40 lb/ft Grade P-105 non-upset tubing
anchored with a packer set at 10,000 ft.
The crude oil production through the tubing
from the bottom of the hole is 1,000 stb/day (no
gas or water production).
A completion fluid is in place in the annular
space between the tubing and the casing (9.8
lb/ gal KCl water).
Assuming surface temperature is 60 0F and
geothermal gradient of 0.01 0F/ft, determine the
landing tension to avoid buckling.

Solution The temperature of the fluid at the

bottom of the hole is estimated to be

The average temperature of the tubing before oil

production is

The maximum possible average temperature of

the tubing after oil production has started is

This means that the approximate

expansion of the tubing in length will be

thermal

where is the coefficient of thermal expansion

(for steel, this is s = 0:0000065 per 0F). Thus,

To counter the above thermal expansion, a

landing tension must be placed on the tubing
string that is equivalent to the above.

Assuming the
element, then

tubing

is

simple

uniaxial

Thus, an additional tension of 17,667 lbf at the

surfacemust be placed on the tubing string to
counter the thermal expansion.
It can be shown that turbulent flow will transfer
heat efficiently to the steel wall and then to the

While laminar flow will not transfer heat very

efficiently to the steel then out to the formation.
Thus, the laminar flow situations are the most likely
to have higher temperature oil at the exit.
Therefore, it is most likely the tubing will be hotter
via simple conduction. This effect has been
considered in the work of Hasan and Kabir (2002).
Obviously, in the case of laminar flow, landing
tension beyond the buoyancy weight of the tubing
may not be required, but in the case of turbulent
flow, the landing tension beyond the buoyancy
weight of the tubing is usually required to prevent
buckling of tubing string. In general, it is good
practice to calculate the buoyant force of the tubing
and add approximately 4,000-5,000 lb of additional

Considerations
Stimulation

for

Well

Treatment

and

Tubing strings are designed to withstand the

harsh conditions during wellbore treatment and
stimulation operations such as hole cleaning,
cement squeezing, gravel packing, fracpacking,
acidizing, and hydraulic fracturing.
Precautionary measures to take depend on
tubingpacker relation. If the tubing string is set
through a non-restraining packer, the tubing is
free to move.
Then string buckling and tubingpacker integrity
will be major concerns. If the tubing string is set
on a restraining packer, the string is not free to

The factors to be considered in tubing design

include the following:
Tubing size, weight, and grade
Well conditions
o Pressure effect
o Temperature effect
Completion method
o Cased hole
o Open hole
o Multitubing
o Packer type (restraining, non-

Temperature Effect
As discussed in Example Problem 9.2, if the
tubing string is free to move, its thermal
expansion is expressed as

If the tubing string is not free to move, its

thermal expansion will generate force. Since
Hooks Law gives

substitution of Eq. (9.22) into Eq. (9.21) yields

Pressure Effect
Pressures affect tubing string in different ways
including piston effect, ballooning effect, and
buckling effect.
Consider the tubingpack relation shown in Fig.
9.3. The total upward force acting on the tubing
string from internal and external pressures is
expressed as

The total downward force acting on the tubing

string is expressed as

where Ai is the inner area of tubing. The net

upward force is then

During a well treatment operation, the change

(increase) in the net upward force is expressed
as

If the tubing string is anchored to a restraining

packer, this force will be transmitted to the
packer, which may cause packer failure.
If the tubing string is free to move, this force will
cause the tubing string to shorten by

which represents tubing string shrinkage due to

piston effect.
As shown in Fig. 9.4a, the ballooning effect is due
to the internal pressure being higher than the
external pressure during a well treatment.

The change in tensile force can be expressed

as

If the tubing string is set through a restraining

packer, this force will be transmitted to the
packer, which may cause packer failure.
If the tubing string is free to move, this force
will cause the tubing string to shorten by

As illustrated in Fig. 9.4b, the buckling effect is

caused by the internal pressure being higher than
the external pressure during a well treatment.

The tubing string buckles when FBK = Ap(pi - po) >

0.
If the tubing end is set through a restraining
packer, this force will be transmitted to the
packer, which may cause packer failure.
If the tubing string is not restrained at bottom,
this force will cause the tubing string to shorten
by

which holds true only if FBK is greater than 0,

and

Total Effect of Temperature and Pressure

The combination of Eqs. (9.22), (9.28), (9.30),
and (9.31) gives

which represents the tubing shortening with a

nonrestraining
packer.
If a restraining packer is used, the total tubing
force acting on the packer is expressed as