Oil and Gas
Oil and Gas | Drilling and Well Engineering
Principles and Practices of Mud Motor
Format and Duration:
2 days
4 sessions
This course offers a unique and focused training experience on positive displacement motors, commonly known as mud motors. These simple yet elegant machines have become integral to the bottom hole assembly (BHA), particularly when drilling shale wells. Despite significant advancements in technology, challenges related to mud motors persist.
This course can be offered either as a one-day or a two-day training session. The one-day training covers essential concepts, performance metrics, advancements in technology, future designs, and practical guidance on when and how to effectively use mud motors in challenging situations.The two-day workshop expands on these topics with additional talks from industry technology leaders and is specifically tailored for engineers, mud motor experts, and manufacturers.
Business Impact: This course empowers participants to optimize the use of mud motors for improved drilling efficiency, reduced tool failure, and better wellbore placement—especially in challenging shale and directional drilling environments. By understanding motor design, performance, and operational dynamics, attendees will enhance BHA reliability, lower non-productive time, and drive cost-effective drilling outcomes.
As part of the training, participants will receive a copy of the "Positive Displacement Motor: Theory and Applications" color textbook (400 pages) authored by Dr. Robello Samuel.
Schedule
Duration and Training Method
This is a classroom or virtual classroom course comprising a mixture of lectures, discussions, case studies, and practical exercises. The course duration can be tailored to meet training needs and competence levels, offered as either a one-day or a two-day session.
Course Overview
Learning Outcomes
Participants will learn to:
- Describe the history and general information about hydraulic downhole motors, including turbodrills, positive displacement motors (PDM), and turbine screw motors, along with their applications.
- Explain the properties and advantages of cycloidal gearing and its role in the development of hydraulic motors.
- Analyze the design optimization of motors, including working bodies, spindle sections, rotor and output shaft connections, valves, and curvature mechanisms.
- Evaluate motor performance characteristics, including surface performance curves, downhole performance curves, and the impact of density, viscosity, and gas content on performance.
- Classify and specify different types of mud motors, including their designations and meanings, as well as specifications for the power section.
- Assess string torque and drag considerations when using motors, including force and stress analysis, stretch and buckling, and reactive torque compensation.
- Discuss operational considerations for motors, such as precession, nutation, hydraulic hammers, motor stalling, and torque reactions.
- Calculate pressure loss and optimize bit hydraulics and nozzle configurations to enhance performance in drilling operations.
- Model the dynamics of motor systems, including types of oscillations, dynamic characteristics, and critical speed calculations relevant to hydraulic downhole motors.
- Identify applications of PDM in drilling technology, including advantages, operational indicators, and specific uses in various drilling and repair technologies.
Course Content
1. INTRODUCTION
- History reference.
- General information about hydraulic downhole motors (turbodrills, PDM, turbine screw motor) and areas of their application.
- Cycloidal gearing: properties, advantages and role in the development of hydraulic motors.
- World market for PDM.
- Hands-on exercise
- Working bodies (rotor-stator pair)
- Spindle section
- The connection of the rotor and the output shaft
- Valves
- Curvature mechanisms
- Threaded connections
- Hands-on exercise
- General classification and unification of basic technical indicators and characteristics of hydromotors
- Surface performance curves
- Correction for density, viscosity and gas content
- Actual Downhole performance curves
- Mathematical description of the characteristics of PDM and recalculation methods when changing regime parameters
- Differential pressure drop and monitoring of the drilling process
- The properties of the elastic stator lining as one of the main factors determining the contact interaction and the conditions of engagement in the rotor-stator pair
- How to use the performance curves
- Examples
- Hands-on exercise
- Specification of Motor
- Motor Designation and their meanings
- Specification of Power section
- Power section designation and their meanings
- Classification of mud motor, Diameter..etc
- Hands-on exercise
- Force analysis
- Stress analysis
- Stretch and Buckling
- Drillpipe twist
- Reactive torque compensation
- Hands-on exercise
- Precession and nutation
- Motor and string rotational speed consideration
- Hydraulic hammers
- Motor Stalling
- Torque reaction
- Interaction with pipe rotation
- Hands-on exercise
- Pressure loss calculations
- Bit Hydraulics and nozzle optimization
- HMSE
- Cuttings Transport
- Rotor nozzle
- Split flow
- Stalling
- Hands-on exercise
- Motor BHA
- CoiledTubing BHA
- Casing BHA
- Various Force Analysis
- Torque reaction
- Torque compensation
- Standpipe pressure response
- Hands-on exercise
- Schematic functional diagram and types of oscillations in the system (axial, torsional, in a liquid column)
- Dynamic characteristics of the PDM as an element of the “mud pump-drill string-PDM-bit- bottom hole” system
- Inertia parameters. Reduced moment of inertia
- Features modeling of a dynamic system when drilling wells using hydraulic downhole motors
- General mathematical model of the system, disturbing factors, similarity criteria
- Manage the mode of operation of the PDM in the process of drilling a well
- Dysfunction
- Stick-Slip, Whirl
- Critical Speed Calculations
- Hands-on exercise
- Drilling
- Backreaming
- Tripping
- Drag Chart
- Vibration Chart
- Domain Chart
- Hands-on exercise
- Applications and operational advantages of PDM
- Drilling technology PDM. Differences from rotor technology
- Record indicators (by diameter of bit, by depth, by bottom hole temperature, by ROP, by penetration, by deviation from vertical, by durability)
- Features of the use of PDM in various technologies of drilling and repair of wells (for example, the experience of leading companies):
- drilling vertical wellbore
- typical directional drilling
- directional drilling with different radius
- horizontal drilling
- high-performance drilling
- wellbore expansion
- borehole drilling
- downhole pipe milling
- drilling of wells and small diameter channels
- core drilling
- depression drilling
- high pressure and temperature drilling
- Motor assisted RSS
- casing drilling
- vertical drilling with angle stabilization system
- coiled tubing drilling
- drilling with magnitolocation
- Agitators
- Hands-on exercise
- General issues of operating a PDM
- Technological schemes for assembly and disassembly of the PDM
- Check of a technical condition and preparation of the motor for work
- The main causes of failures during operation
- Typical wear and damage
- Motor repair Mud Motor Hydraulic and Mechanical Optimization (Free Software Demo).
- Hands-on exercise
Who Should Attend and Prerequisites
This course is designed for drilling engineers, well operations personnel, rig supervisors, drilling supervisors, and mud motor designers and manufacturers who seek to gain a deeper understanding of mud motor design and its applications in drilling.
Instructors
Robello Samuel
Background
With 41 years of experience, he currently serves as a Senior Technology Fellow in Halliburton’s Drilling Division, where he leads research and engineering in well engineering, cyber-physical systems, artificial intelligence, and sustainability. Since 1998, he has advanced drilling technology, leveraging a multi-disciplinary background that includes operations, consulting, software development, and education. Prior to Halliburton, he worked for nine years as a field and drilling engineer at Oil and Natural Gas Corporation, significantly contributing to domestic and international oil and gas drilling and completion operations.
He is recognized for his groundbreaking contributions to drilling technologies and engineering practices, having received multiple prestigious awards, including the Gulf Coast SPE Drilling Engineering Award, the SPE International Drilling Engineering Award, the SPE Distinguished Membership Award, and the SPE Honorary Award—one of the highest honors presented by the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE), limited to only 0.1% of the organization’s membership. An educator for over two decades, he is also an adjunct professor at the University of Houston and the University of Southern California, and has published more than 264 technical papers while holding 114 U.S. patents.
As a Commissioner for the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET) and a representative on the SPE Research and Development Advisory Board, his influence extends beyond academia. He has authored fifteen books on drilling engineering, blending extensive industry experience with academic rigor. His unique combination of practical field experience, research expertise, and educational leadership allows him to profoundly impact the industry, driving innovation and sustainable practices in drilling engineering.
Affiliations and Accreditation
PhD University of Tulsa - Petroleum Engineering
MSc University of Tulsa - Petroleum Engineering
MSc College of Engineering Guindy - Mechanical Engineering
BSc University of Madurai - Mechanical Engineering
Courses Taught
N738: Applied Drilling Engineering Optimization
N739: Horizontal Drilling & Extended Reach Drilling
N740: Introduction to HPHT Well Design
N741: Principles of Mud Motor
N742: Directional Drilling
N743: Drillstring Design Practices
N744: Well Engineering: Torque and Drag and Hydraulics
Accreditation and Certification
CEU: 1.4 Continuing Education Units
PDH: 14 Professional Development Hours
Certificate: Certificate Issued Upon Completion
RPS is accredited by the International Association for Continuing Education and Training (IACET) and is authorized to issue the IACET CEU. We comply with the ANSI/IACET Standard, which is recognised internationally as a standard of excellence in instructional practices.
We issue a Certificate of Attendance which verifies the number of training hours attended. Our courses are generally accepted by most professional licensing boards/associations towards continuing education credits. Please check with your licensing board to determine if the courses and certificate of attendance meet their specific criteria.