A Method for Field Calibration of MPD Simulators and Pre-Deployment Testing of Performance and Stability in Choke Control Systems
Abstract
Managed Pressure Drilling (MPD) increasingly relies on automated choke control software to safely manage narrow pressure windows. Verifying the performance, robustness, and stability of these control systems across diverse operational scenarios is vital to ensure well integrity. Flow-loop testing confirms hardware integration but fails to replicate realistic well dynamics, while cased-hole commissioning or testing on full scale test rigs is cost-prohibitive and limited in scope. Consequently, testing on a realistic high-fidelity simulator remains the only practical alternative for exhaustive pre-deployment software qualification. Despite this, the industry lacks a standardized method to quantitatively evaluate control systems on simulators explicitly validated against field data. This paper presents a practical two-stage method to qualify MPD choke control software in a realistic simulation environment. First, a hydraulic simulator is calibrated against field data using a rapid, non-intrusive rig experiment. This method, recently deployed for the first time on Transocean's Deepwater Invictus, employs low amplitude multisines to measure the well's dynamics and match them to the simulator's frequency response. Second, the simulator serves as the foundation for a framework that subjects the control software to a suite of realistic operational scenarios on representative test wells. The scenarios are evaluated using Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) that quantify performance, robustness and stability under varying conditions. This approach enables exhaustive software qualification, performance optimization, and proof of dynamic stability before rig deployment, thereby mitigating operational risk.
