Casing, process of formation of casing in boreholes by additive method and device for its formation

Abstract

The invention lies in the gradual treatment of rocks vapours in a mixture of carrier and cooling gases and their gradual applying in layers which are forming a casing on walls of a borehole. The invention includes the adjustments of various quantities and types of additives in the layers and the additive method applied materials by their autonomous self-cooling without the need for external coolant by heat exchange between materials in various layers, where it forms the casing on the walls of the borehole. It describes functional parts and their interconnection: arrangement of cooling parts, separators, accelerating and mixing elements, mechanisms for their adjustments which allow forming the casing on the walls of the borehole with the possibility to influence the resulting characteristics of the casing according to demands and functional requirements in the place of the borehole.

1 . A casing designated for reinforcement and/or sealing of borehole walls characterized in that the casing comprises at least one layer of a material applied to a rock, or to a previous layer of the casing, wherein the at least one layer comprises solidified bonded added materials of rocks and additive particles, thus forming a layer of preferred strength properties. 
     
     
         2 . The casing according to  claim 1  characterized in that the additives are reinforcing elements and/or foaming additives. 
     
     
         3 . The casing according to  claim 1  characterized in that the casing is multi-layered, and layered structures of different properties are formed because of the content of the additives in each layer and layered structures thereby preferably achieve properties of composites. 
     
     
         4 . A process of formation of the casing according to  claim 1  in boreholes in additive method namely in thermal drilling in geological formations, characterized in that a vaporized rock and thermal energy inserted into said vaporized rock are used for formation of the casing so that a mixture of rock vapours is thermally and mechanically treated, wherein:
 a thermal treatment is cooling by a coolant during which a phase transition occurs and, by condensation, liquid particles of rock are formed, and, by solidification, solid particles of rock are formed in a flowing mixture of gaseous, liquid, and solid particles of rocks and cooling gases, 
 by mechanical treatments, the generated hot gas mixtures of the rock vapors and vaporized coolant are divided into at least two main streams, of which at least one stream is a stream of cold materials and at least one stream is a stream of hot materials, and at least one of these streams is further branching into further sidestreams, by which excess mixtures of rock materials and cooling gases are exhausted into the waste, wherein the stream of cold materials is cooled to the temperature at which the gaseous material of the rocks is transformed into the solid phase and solidifying particles of rocks are formed, the solidifying particles of rocks solidify before their application as a layer of the casing, and the stream of hot materials is cooled to the temperature which is above the melting temperature of rocks and the stream of hot materials, after mixing with the cold materials, forms a mixture that is cooled below the solidification point of rocks and thus it forms a solid continuous casing layer, 
 transport of the rock material from a source of generation of hot gas mixtures, namely mixtures of rock vapours and coolant vapours to an area of formation of the casing by directing and application of the treated rock material in the area of formation of the casing to the borehole wall or to the underlying layers of the casing being formed and by cooling the rock material, the layered casing is formed, wherein the formation of casing layers is continuous. 
 
     
     
         5 . The process of formation of the casing according to  claim 4  characterized in that only a part of the rock materials from which the casing will be formed remains in the stream of cold and hot materials. 
     
     
         6 . The process of formation of the casing according to  claim 4  characterized in that at least one stream of hot materials and at least one stream of cold materials are formed by heat treatments which is a multistage cooling of rock materials by controlled heat transformation. 
     
     
         7 . The process of formation of the casing according to  claim 4  characterized in that, waste gases, which are excess parts of cooling gases, are exhausted to the waste from main streams by further mechanical treatments, namely by separation, and thus the streams of solidifying rock particles formed by cooling the mixtures of hot rock vapours and cooling gases, which are at the same time the carrier gases, are concentrated. 
     
     
         8 . The process of formation of the casing according to  claim 4  characterized in that one of the heat treatment method is a cooling by expansion of mixtures of vaporized rock and cooling gases. 
     
     
         9 . The process of formation of the casing according to  claim 4  characterized in that after dividing and separating the excess mixtures and cooling gases, the streams of the mixtures of rock material and cooling gases are divided by mechanical treatment into smaller streams for the purpose of their different treatment, and each of these smaller streams is further divided into other smaller streams. 
     
     
         10 . The process of formation of the casing according to  claim 4  characterized in that the step of separation of the excess parts of cooling gases is followed by further mechanical treatment, namely increasing of speed of cold and hot rock particles before mixing them, which is performed in order to accelerate and direct them. 
     
     
         11 . The process of formation of the casing according to  claim 4  characterized in that the coolant also provides thermal protection to the device so, that the coolant is continuously added as a cooling and also protective and separating layer between all contact areas of the device and the mixture of hot flowing gases. 
     
     
         12 . The process of formation of the casing according to  claim 4  characterized in that by further mechanical treatment, namely by mixing of cold rock particles and hot rock particles, a mixture of rock material is formed, which is applied to the borehole wall, wherein it forms the first casing layer, and then the further casing layers are aimed so that the mixture of rock material is applied onto the underlying layers of the formed casing. 
     
     
         13 . The process of formation of the casing according to  claim 4  characterized in that the formed casing layer solidifies during further heat treatment, which is self-cooling, wherein internal heat transfer occurs in the applied layer, namely by heat exchange between applied hot and cold particles of the rock material in the casing layer. 
     
     
         14 . The process of formation of the casing according to  claim 4  characterized in that in the area of casing formation, a moulding device is embedded, by sliding of which an aperture is formed in the solidifying casing, which forms pipe channels in the layered casing along the borehole, where a medium supply such as a coolant pipeline, an electricity conductor, a signal conductor and others, is conveyed to the slid moulding device. 
     
     
         15 . The process of formation of the casing according to  claim 4  characterized in that mixing of cold and hot rock particles is performed by action of opposing centrifugal streams of mixtures, which empty into a common area in a channel of formation of the casing layers leading into the area of application of casing layers. 
     
     
         16 . The process of formation of the casing according to  claim 4  characterized in that cooling of the casing is controlled by further heat treatment, in which hot waste gases are used, which are controlled by mixing with the coolant so that they temper and/or cool the formed casing. 
     
     
         17 . The process of formation of the casing according to  claim 4  characterized in that cooling and condensation of discharged waste rock material provide cooling of cooling gases and excess rock material to the temperature in the range of 100-250° C. 
     
     
         18 . The process of formation of the casing according to  claim 14  characterized in that by sliding the moulding device, also connected supplies of media are slid in the formed apertures, in particular of media such as coolant pipelines, conductors of electricity, signal conductors, and others, which are led by a generated aperture to the surface of the borehole. 
     
     
         19 . The process of formation of the casing according to  claim 4  characterized in that specialized additives are added, which comprise:
 a. an increased supply of coolant for controlling the cooling of the mixture of rock vapours and cooling gases in order to form expansion joints in the casing using controlled cooling of applied material; and/or 
 b. reinforcement elements in order to improve the mechanical properties of the casing; and/or 
 c. a foaming additive in order to adjust thermal-insulating and mechanical properties of the walls of the casing. 
 
     
     
         20 . The process of formation of the casing according to  claim 4  characterized in that addition of particular additives is performed before mechanical treatment for increasing the speed of cold and hot parts, and especially before mixing them in the process of acceleration of particles. 
     
     
         21 . The process of formation of the casing according to  claim 4 , characterized in that by different treatment of streams by addition of additives into the groups of channels, different materials are formed, which are further divided and after application they form one or more coaxial structures with the same or different characteristics, and thereby a sandwich and composite structure is formed in the casing. 
     
     
         22 . A device for performing the process of formation of the casing in additive method, namely in thermal drilling of boreholes in geological formations according to  claim 4  characterized in that it comprises the following technological parts:
 a hot rock vapours mixture formation module, 
 mechanical treatments modules, 
 heat treatments modules, 
 
       wherein:
 the hot rock vapours mixture formation module contains a high-temperature energy flow generator ( 1 ), which produces the vaporized rock and forms hot rock vapours being mixed with cooling gases entering into the casing formation; 
 mechanical treatments modules comprises:
 a mechanical division and separation block ( 2 ) for mechanical division of hot rock vapours and cooling gases and separation of hot rock vapours, which contains a separator of solid and gas rock vapours and a flow regulator of hot vapours, and consists of a group of inlet and outlet channels of the mechanical division block ( 2 ), 
 particles division and acceleration blocks ( 6 ) for division and acceleration of hot gas vapours and additive particles, which contain a system of branching channels and separators separating volumes of the mixture of rock materials and carrier gases and each separated branch contains an accelerator at the outlet of the division and separation block ( 6 ), 
 a system ( 7 ) for mixing the particles of hot and cold streams before application of hot gas vapours, additive particles, and cooling gases, which is formed by a system of inlet and mixing channels and directing outlet nozzles, 
 a separator ( 10 ) of outlet streams of non-applied hot gas vapours, additive particles and carrier cooling gases, which consists of a collector of a liquid and solid parts of rocks and channels of cooled gases of rock vapours and cooling gases, which empty into a block ( 11 ) for controlled cooling of the casing; 
 
 heat treatments modules contain a cooling block ( 3 ) for cooling of hot mixture of rock vapours and cooling gases and said cooling block for cooling of the hot mixture of gases contains a channel grouping of the cooling block ( 3 ), in which the hot mixture of gas vapours is cooled by a coolant in order to achieve a phase transition, wherein, by cooling, liquid parts of the rock are formed in a flowing mixture of carrier cooling gas and rock vapours. 
 
     
     
         23 . The device for performing the process of formation of the casing according to  claim 22  characterized in that the cooling block ( 3 ) is a grouping of channels which forms also a system for protection of walls of active and exposed parts of the device. 
     
     
         24 . The device for performing the process of formation of the casing according to  claim 22  characterized in that it further contains mechanisms ( 4 ) of additional functions, by which dispensers for adding the additives are controlled and these dispensers may be at least:
 a dispenser of coolant for cooling the hot and cold material for separations/disruptions of the formed casing by the expansion joint, and/or 
 dispensers of additive reinforcing materials for improving the mechanical properties, and/or 
 dispensers of foaming additives for improving and treatment of thermal-insulation and mechanical properties of the casing walls. 
 
     
     
         25 . The device for performing the process of formation of the casing according to  claim 22  characterized in that it further comprises group of channels for additives dosage control in a particles division and acceleration block ( 6 ), where it generates differently treated streams of materials, which form coaxial sandwich and composite structures of the casing, not only along the layers which are layered in the casing, but also in radial direction relative to the axis of the borehole. 
     
     
         26 . The device for performing the process of formation of the casing according to  claim 22  characterized in that the mechanical treatments module further comprises a separation and concentration of the mixtures of rock particles and gases block ( 5 ), and it is a group of separators, by which division, separation and discharge of the cooling gases is performed in the channels, where the cooling gases are separated and the mixtures of rock particles and gases are concentrated to the desired concentrations. 
     
     
         27 . The device for performing the process of formation of the casing according to  claim 22  characterized in that the particles acceleration blocks ( 6 ) are accelerating centrifugal devices increasing the kinetic energy of particles. 
     
     
         28 . The device for performing the process of formation of the casing according to  claim 22  characterized in that the system ( 7 ) for mixing the parts of the hot and cold streams from directing and accelerating part is a mixer of streams of flowing hot and cold materials into the casing formation channel, wherein the particles are in the step of directing and acceleration directed and applied in the casing layer in the casing formation channel. 
     
     
         29 . The device for performing the process of formation of the casing according to  claim 22  characterized in that it further comprises a block ( 8 ) of sliding forms of pipelines in the casing, which is a system of moulding members, which are designed for formation of the pipe channel in the layered part of the casing along the borehole. 
     
     
         30 . The device for performing the process of formation of the casing according to  claim 22  characterized in that the output streams separator ( 10 ) is a separator at the outlet of the casing formation channel, which separates excess materials discharged out of the casing formation channel and parts of the hot gases for tempering the casing by controlled cooling. 
     
     
         31 . The device for performing the process of formation of the casing according to  claim 22  characterized in that the heat treatments modules further contain a block ( 11 ) for controlled cooling of the casing, which is a tempering and cooling system at interface of the layered casing and the device. 
     
     
         32 . The device for performing the process of formation of the casing according to  claim 22  characterized in that it further comprises an outlet ( 12 ) for waste products, which contains a system of outlet channels by which the collecting and cooling device discharges all excess rocks and cooling gases materials, which are cooled to the temperature below the temperature of the device resistance. 
     
     
         33 . The device for performing the process of formation of the casing according to  claim 22  characterized in that the system ( 7 ) for mixing the particles consists of two systems of centrifugal channels, which are orientated against each other and lead into the channel of formation of casing layers application. 
     
     
         34 . The device for performing the process of formation of the casing according to  claim 22  characterized in that the hot mixture formation generator ( 1 ) has an annular shape of cross-section similar to the casing being formed and thereby it allows to perform standard mechanical drilling ( 17 ) or core drilling in the central area of the annular casing formation.