Composite Fracture Plug and Associated Methods

摘要

A plug is engageable with a ball for seating in a tubular having an internal profile. The plug has a body with a bore with a seat. One or more blocks disposed on the body are temporarily held in a retracted condition, but the one or more blocks are biased outward to an expanded condition for engaging inside the tubular. A seal is disposed on the body for sealing inside the tubular. The plug sets in the tubular with the one or more blocks released from the retracted condition to the expanded condition. With the ball dropped downhole, the seat engages the ball so that fluid pressure is sealed from uphole to downhole through the bore. With applied fluid pressure against the seated ball, the plug can move through the tubular until the blocks seat in the internal profile of the tubing, sliding sleeve, or other component. The seal on the plug can then seal inside the tubular while the blocks seat in the profile and applied pressure pushes on the seated ball on the plug's mandrel.

主权项

1. A downhole apparatus for a wellbore tubular having a shoulder, the apparatus comprising:
a plug having a body, a setting element, and a packing element, the body having an exterior surface and having first and second ends, the setting element disposed on the body toward the first end, the setting element at least temporarily held in a retracted condition against the exterior surface and being biased to an expanded condition away from the exterior surface toward the wellbore tubular, the setting element in the extended condition being engageable in a first direction with the shoulder in the wellbore tubular and being movable with the engagement in a second, opposite direction toward the second end, the packing element disposed on the body toward the second end and adjacent the setting element, the packing element being compressible from an unsealed condition to a sealed condition between the body and the setting element, the uncompressed packing element in the unsealed condition being unsealed with the wellbore tubular, the compressed packing element in the sealed condition being sealed with the wellbore tubular and isolating an annulus between the body and the wellbore tubular.