Steerable rotary drilling system

摘要

A system for controlling the rotation of a roll stabilisable control unit in a steerable rotary drilling assembly comprises an instrument carrier (24) rotatably mounted on a support (23) connected to the drill string. A first rotatable impeller (28) is mounted for rotation by a flow of drilling fluid over the impeller and is coupled to the instrument carrier (24) so as to transmit a torque to it. Sensors (27) carried by the instrument carrier sense the rotational orientation of the instrument carrier and produce a control signal indicative of its rotational orientation, and the torque applied to the instrument carrier by the impeller (28) is controlled, at least partly in response to said signal, so that the instrument carrier can, for example, be roll stabilised if required. A second rotatable impeller (38) is coupled to the instrument carrier for transmitting to it a second torque, which may also be controlled, in the opposite direction to the torque transmitted by the first impeller (28). The provision of two opposed impellers allows the rotation of the control unit to be controlled over a greater range than is possible with a single impeller. <IMAGE>