The paper proposes an improved design of a shock absorber used in drilling deep oil and gas and geothermal wells with polycrystalline diamond compact (PDC) bits. The proposed innovations successfully combat the dangerous phenomenon of self-excited vibrations, which can lead to malfunctions such as stick-slip and whirling of the drilling tool. Most conventional drill shock absorbers are designed to only absorb longitudinal vibrations, which was sufficient when using roller cutter bits for the drilling process. However, the design features of PDC bits and the phenomenon of interaction of their cutters with interlayered rocks during deep drilling impose new requirements on the properties of the drill shock absorber. To protect the downhole tool from abnormal torque values and torque oscillations, it is proposed to equip the shock absorber with a special torque transmission unit in the form of a fourteen-thread self-releasing screw pair. This unit is capable of transforming increases in external torque into increases in the force that loads the elastic element of the shock absorber. The numerical and analytical models of the mechanism of transferring external axial load and torque to the elastic element of the drill shock absorber are constructed. The distribution of contact pressures on the interacting surfaces of the screw pair and the distribution of equivalent stresses in the screw pair parts are analysed. The strength of the proposed drill shock absorber assembly was evaluated using the Huber-von Mises energy criterion. The dependence of the load transmitted to the elastic element of the shock absorber on changes in the external torque and external axial force is investigated. In general, it is determined that the external load is distributed evenly between all turns of the screw pair, and the limit state of the parts of the proposed assembly is not reached even under high-torque operating load. The obtained analytical dependencies will allow to effectively determine the required strength and stiffness of the elastic element of the drill shock absorber at the design stage. The obtained analytical results were verified using a finite element model.

The problems of protecting equipment, structures and operators from the harmful effects of vibrations are among the most painful topics of modern mechanical engineering. In this research an original design of a friction shock absorber is presented in which the principle of operation is based on the contact interaction of a package of open shells with weakly compressible deformable filler. The proposed design is simple and technologically advanced, suitable for operation under high dynamic loads and at the same time has a compact transverse dimension. Such shock absorbers are projected to be used in the mining and oil and gas industries. A finite element model of a friction shock absorber with two contact pairs has been constructed: the first contact pair is "filler - package of open shells"; the second contact pair is "inner shell of the package - outer shell". The contacting bodies were presented as separate arrays of finite elements and the conditions of frictional interaction on the contact surfaces were set in the form of Coulomb's law. We considered the behavior of such a structurally nonlinear system under the action of a monotonic and nonmonotonic load. In the course of the study, the main operational characteristics of the shock absorber including the strength, rigidity, hysteresis characteristics and natural frequencies were determined. The possibility of adjusting the rigidity and shock-absorbing characteristics of the proposed device is discussed.

This article discusses possibilities of application of widely applied and promoted abroad methods of active dampening of vibration and pressure oscillations (antinoise technology) in order to reduce vibration transfer via vibro-insulating couplings (compensators) of fluid pipelines. This is required in solution of issues of vibration insulation of equipment with regard to foundation and environment along pipelines with working mediums, for instance, in transporting of oil and gas, in energy and transport engineering. Reasonability of operation of active system in combination with means of passive dampening of these impacts is demonstrated. In terms of efficiency and minimum energy consumptions by active system it is reasonable to apply active dampening of vibration and oscillations downstream of the vibro-insulator (compensator) where their level is significantly lower than in the source. In the case of pipeline this implies dampening of vibration and oscillation downstream of compensator and damper, however, such works are nearly unavailable. This is attributed to significant coupling between vibration and pressure oscillation in compensator and pipeline itself, complicating solution of the problem. It is concluded that for efficient application of active dampening in pipeline compensators it is required to develop compensators with minimum coupling between vibration and oscillations.