DCA Europe

Sponsorship HDD Technique

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Recommendation – Education – Networking

Sponsorship HDD Technique

DCA launches new Sponsorship Programme

Programme replaces the previous sponsorship award

In 2000, the DCA started to support young scientists in the field of horizontal directional drilling (HDD) technology by awarding a sponsorship. This award was endowed with € 5,000 and has been awarded several times in the past for various innovative ideas. However, since 2012, unfortunately no adequate topics have been found for which the prize could be awarded. There are various reasons for this. On the one hand, there was a lack of appropriate topics that were brought to the attention of the DCA and on the other hand, there was also a lack of a responsible person on the DCA Board to deal with the awarding of this prize. This is about to change.

The DCA Board has decided to replace the sponsorship award with a new sponsorship programme which will support student research projects, bachelor’s theses or master’s theses on interesting topics related to HDD technology. The sponsorship programme will be endowed with € 5,000 per yearand distributed or ad-justed according to the topics at hand. The contact person for the new sponsorship programme will be Jörg Himmerich, member of the DCA Board.

“We want to proactively approach universities and inform them that such a sponsorship pro-gramme for HDD technology exists through the DCA,”

Through this outreach the universities can coordinate topics for the preparation of student research projects, bachelor’s theses or master’s theses with the DCA in advance. The DCA is keen to support and reward innovative ideas with this sponsorship programme. Thanks to our broad membership across drilling companies and the supply industry, we are also able to bring practical relevance to such university projects and theses. Furthermore, direct active support of such projects and theses can be provided in the form of a second examiner from the ranks of the DCA members. As in the past, the funded work will be presented at the DCA Annual Congress in October.

With the following themes we can already make a first offer for universities that want to become active in the field of HDD technology and are looking for topics that their students that can take up for research projects and bachelor’s or master’s theses. Of course, these topics can also be adapted or modified in consultation with the DCA. The easiest way to do this is to contact Jörg Himmerich directly.

Topics

HDD construction sites, like all other construction sites, emit noise. This must be regularly assessed in the course of the approval planning. For this purpose, noise assessments must be prepared to ensure that protected assets are not damaged by the emitted noise. When preparing these noise assessments, a distinction can be made between noise sources that emit noise on a permanent basis and those that do not. At an HDD construction site, there are different components that are eligible for one or the other of these operating conditions. In the course of an investigation, it is to be examined which devices of the construction site equipment work in continuous operation or in partial operation and to what extent and which noise levels are emitted by them. The question of whether appropriate site management for HDD construction projects (e.g., different implementation concepts for day and night times) can control the emitted noise in accordance with the requirements should also be examined.

During the drilling of the pilot borehole and also during the reaming process, vibrations may occur in the ground. The currently available literature provides no reference values for such vibrations. It should be investigated in which form such vibrations occur when drilling through different geologies and to what extent they are detrimental to the surroundings of the boreholes. In addition to the current drilling activities, vibrations also occur in the area of the drilling unit surface due to mud preparation and separation. Here, too, the vibration values of different components are to be determined and an assessment is to be made as to whether these can have a damaging effect on the construction site environment.

If the pipe is pulled in with an open pulling head, drilling fluid can enter the pipeline though this head. It is to be investigated which fluid-mechanical processes take place here. Models are to be developed to ensure sufficient penetration of the drilling fluid into the pipe section to be pulled in, taking into account the thixotropic behaviour of the drilling fluid. As a rule, the drilling fluid within the pipeline to be pulled in serves to reduce buoyancy forces and also to prevent critical indentation loads due to the external overpressure of the drilling fluid on the outside of the pipe.

You are a student or employee at a European university and find one of the topics interesting?

Please contact Jörg Himmerich.

The DCA is happy to offer all drilling companies, planning offices, project developers and the supply industry the opportunity to take up these or similar topics and to act as an interface to the relevant universities. In addition to consideration in the course of this sponsorship programme, it would also be possible for the relevant issues to achieve general validity through the support of the DCA, thus facilitating adoption in the applicable technical standards. Here, too, you can contact Jörg Himmerich at any time if you know of similar questions that you think would be suitable for consideration in such a sponsorship programme.

Previous Sponsorship Awards/Sponsorship Programs

The first project for the 2022 sponsorship program on “Accuracy in HDD-drillings” was submitted by Adam Lisowski, student at TU Delft, at the beginning of June and was considered worthy of sponsoring by the board. Project processing has already started in July 2022 and is estimated to take about six months. The main questions to be investigated in the course of the master thesis are as follows:

Can the accuracy of HDD drilling be improved?

  • How does recorded borehole alignment influence the pipeline pullback force?
  • How can the borehole alignment accuracy be assessed based on pipeline pullback force models?
  • Which soil and pipe parameters impact the HDD accuracy through the pullback force, which parameters are most influential?
  • How much influence do the navigational devices entail?
  • Can the HDD procedure be adjusted with regard to the most influential parameters?

Mr Lisowski needs the support of DCA members in the course of his work! His work focuses in particular on the relationship between the course of the borehole and the occurring pull-in forces. Based on this relationship and with the help of numerical models, it may be possible to determine environmental and process parameters that influence the accuracy of the installation, which can then be used for further investigations and optimisation of the general process.

In order to better understand, investigate and describe the process, data from as many completed projects as possible is important. Sensitive data on locations, company names, information on contractors or clients are not required, or the data will of course be treated anonymously.

Excel spreadsheet

PDF instructions for filling in

Please fill in the attached Excel sheet and send it back to:

Name:

Edda Bockelmann

Training Institut:

Hochschule 21

Topic:

HDD ohne Rohrbaufläche

Name:

Marie Cebrian

Training Institut:

École Supérieure d’Ingénieurs de Poitiers, France

Topic:

“Study of ground stability during and after the passage of HDD for pipe installation and impact on existing structures”

Name:

Dipl.-Ing. Stefan Roßbach

Training Institut:

Technische Universität Clausthal-Zellerfeld

Topic:

“Erweiterte Untersuchungen zur Optimierung des Einziehvorganges von Rohrleitungen mittels HDD-Technologie unter besonderer Berücksichtigung der Übertragbarkeit in die Praxis.”

supported by: E.ON Ruhrgas AG and RWE Westfalen-Weser-Ems Netzservice GmbH

Name:

Dipl.-Ing. Stefan Roßbach

Training Institut:

Technische Universität Clausthal-Zellerfeld

Topic:

“Untersuchungen zur Optimierung des Einziehvorganges von Rohrleitungen mittels HDD-Verfahren”

Name:

Markus Lapke and Lasse Leif Elbe

Training Institut:

Fachhochschule Oldenburg

Topic:

  1. “Spülbohrlösungen im Horizontal Directional Drilling”
  2. “Bewertung des Umwelteinflusses von HDD-Bohrspülungen”

Name:

B.A.M. Keulen and R.J. Vos

Training Institut:

Delft University of Technology, Delft (Netherlands)

Topic:

  1. “Maximum pressure drilling fluid in sand soils during horizontal directional drilling”
  2. “Uncontrolled loss of bentonite during HDD”

Name:

Christine Malfoy

Training Institut:

Ecole supérieure d´ Ingenieurs de Poitiers, France

Topic:

“A better knowledge of bentonite fluids for directional drilling: physical, chemical, rheological properties to control flow conditions”