The Use Of Rupture Discs For Hydraulic Fracturing

Operations throughout the spectrum of the oil and gas industry often utilize pressure activation technology, including rupture discs, during all stages of an oil or natural gas well.

As previously reported on Oil And Gas Online, these tools are instrumental. But in few areas is this process more vital than in hydraulic fracturing. Hydraulic fracturing, also known as “fracking,” is a method that stimulates wells by fracturing bedrock with pressurized liquid. By creating cracks in underground rock formations, natural gas and petroleum can flow freely and be easily collected.

This process creates large amounts of pressure, which can pose potential threats to an operation. Rupture discs and other pressure relief devices are incremental to keeping things safe.

“Montana, North Dakota and Wyoming have ... updated their casing requirements to require pressure tests or the use of a pressure relief valves ‘on the treating lines between pumps and wellhead,’” according to Fracking: Risks and Rewards.

Fracturing systems rely on rupture discs for overpressure protection. Though systems may utilize the rupture disc technology in different ways, its purpose of keeping dangerous amounts of pressure from mounting remains the same.

“The hydraulic fracturing system includes a pump and a delivery line that receives pressurized fracturing fluid from the pump and delivers it to a well,” according to a patent by inventors David Wayne Banks, Robert Frank Evans, and Doyle G. Stockstill. “A pressure relief device is installed along the delivery line. A sensor detects fluid flow downstream of the pressure relief device which allows the pump to be shut down when the downstream fluid flow is detected.”

When it comes to fracturing tools, a critical pressure relief solution can be found in pressure activation devices (PADs).

These devices have pressure ranges from 1,000 to 22,000 psi and are designed to burst from inside of the tubing or drill string, keeping an operation safe when the pressure mounts. With a maximum operating ratio of 90 percent, a maximum temperature of 450 degrees, and a burst tolerance of plus or minus 2 percent, PADs are relied upon regularly in the hydraulic fracturing field.