Virtual Drilling Leverages Rapid Design to Put Bit Advances in the Field Faster

Modeling how the bit drills before it ever touches the rock is putting bespoke drilling solutions in the field faster and with better results. Working hand-in-hand with advanced-cutting-structure design tools, virtual drilling software is helping compress long iterative development cycles to make customizing the bit for the application a much more practical process. Using computer simulations to rapidly analyze and inform bit design in context with formation characteristics and drilling parameters expedite the creation and study of multiple design iterations before the bit is manufactured. The virtual drilling capability is leapfrogging traditional design constraints to provide a more efficient drilling solution that keeps pace with changing rock conditions. Using virtual drilling simulations to analyze cutting-structures design significantly improves the iterative process. A standard development process might take upward of 50 hours to produce one design--with only a single cycle of analysis and design--before it is field-tested.