Wireless wear detection for sealing elements

Abstract

A drilling system is provided that includes a wellbore device. The wellbore device includes a housing including a bore and a seal element composed of an elastomeric material, positioned within the housing, and configured to seal the bore. The wellbore device includes a bearing assembly supported within the housing and configured to enable the seal element to rotate relative to the housing. The drilling system includes a wireless seal wear monitoring system that includes an RFID tag embedded within the seal element and an RFID transceiver and an RFID antenna disposed within a recess of the housing at an axial location adjacent the RFID tag. The RFID transceiver and RFID antenna are configured to communicate with the RFID tag and a control system. The control system is configured to determine a presence of wear in the seal element based on information provided by the RFID tag.

1 . A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing instructions that, when executed by one or more processors of a computing system, cause the computing system to perform operations, the operations comprising:
 continuously querying a plurality of radio frequency identification (RFID) tags embedded within a seal element at a plurality of radial positions and a plurality of circumferential positions relative to an axial axis of the seal element;   collecting data comprising an indication of one or more non-responsive RFID tags of the plurality of RFID tags with lost communication caused by damage of the one or more non-responsive RFID tags;   associating the one or more non-responsive RFID tags with a depth of wear and a type of wear pattern of the seal element; and   displaying the depth of wear and the type of wear pattern of the seal element along with an alarm level or confidence level associated with the depth of wear and the type of wear pattern of the seal element.   
     
     
         2 . The non-transitory computer-readable medium of  claim 1 ,
 wherein the type of wear pattern is one of a plurality of types of wear patterns, and   wherein the plurality of types of wear patterns comprises a normal wear pattern, a localized wear pattern, and an eccentric wear pattern.   
     
     
         3 . The non-transitory computer-readable medium of  claim 1 ,
 wherein each respective RFID tag of the plurality of RFID tags utilizes a uniform code, the operations further comprising:
 receiving a unique identifier from the uniform code that identifies a given position and depth of the respective RFID tag within the seal element, and wherein each lost communication with each respective RFID tag of the plurality of RFID tags indicates damage caused by wear at the given position and depth of the respective RFID tag. 
   
     
     
         4 . The non-transitory computer-readable medium of  claim 3 , wherein the uniform code comprises at least one of: a part number, a serial number, a manufacturing date, an array code, and a tag code. 
     
     
         5 . The non-transitory computer-readable medium of  claim 4 , wherein the uniform code comprises the array code, the operations further comprising:
 associating the array code to a unique permutation that identifies an RFID total tag count, tag depth distribution, and array shape of the seal element.   
     
     
         6 . The non-transitory computer-readable medium of  claim 3 , wherein the uniform code comprises at least one of: a part number, a serial number, a manufacturing date, an array code, and a tag code. 
     
     
         7 . The non-transitory computer-readable medium of  claim 6 , the operations further comprising:
 associating the array code to a unique permutation that identifies an RFID total tag count, tag depth distribution, and array shape of the seal element.   
     
     
         8 . The non-transitory computer-readable medium of  claim 1 , wherein the continuously querying step is executed for each revolution of the seal element relative to a communication device configured to wirelessly communicate with the plurality of RFID tags. 
     
     
         9 . The non-transitory computer-readable medium of  claim 8 , wherein the communication device comprises at least one RFID transceiver. 
     
     
         10 . The non-transitory computer-readable medium of  claim 8 , wherein the seal element is a component of a rotating control device system, and wherein the communication device is disposed on and/or within a component of the rotating control device system. 
     
     
         11 . The non-transitory computer-readable medium of  claim 1 , wherein the seal element is a component of a rotating control device system. 
     
     
         12 . The non-transitory computer-readable medium of  claim 1 ,
 wherein each RFID tag of the plurality of RFID tags is pre-programmed with data that adheres to a uniform code structure, the operations further comprising:
 collecting initialization data from the plurality of RFID tags based on the uniform code structure before the continuously querying step. 
   
     
     
         13 . The non-transitory computer-readable medium of  claim 12 , wherein the continuously querying step is executed for each revolution of the seal element relative to a first communication device configured to wirelessly communicate with the plurality of RFID tags. 
     
     
         14 . The non-transitory computer-readable medium of  claim 13 , wherein the seal element is a component of a rotating control device system, and wherein the first communication device is disposed on and/or within a component of the rotating control device system. 
     
     
         15 . The non-transitory computer-readable medium of  claim 14 , the operations further comprising:
 transmitting the initialization data from the first communication device to a second communication device of a control system associated with the rotating control device system; and   using the control system to create a starting point for detecting wear of the seal element based on the initialization data.