This paper discusses a new, comprehensive cuttings-transport model designed to enable safe and improved hole-cleaning operations. Local velocity profiles are calculated for a given fluid and compared against the local critical velocity for cuttings transport. Then, the location and the magnitude of annulus blockage are numerically assessed. After an annulus becomes partially blocked with cuttings deposited in a cuttings bed, continuity and momentum equations are solved for the blocked annulus to estimate the new local velocities.
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