Laser Casing Cutting for Well Plug & Abandonment, Thermal FE Modeling and Fast Parameter Prediction

Project overview

This 6-month PFE project builds a simulation and prediction pipeline for laser cutting of a steel casing backed by cement during well plug and abandonment (P&A). Lasers provide a contactless alternative to mechanical milling, but engineers need a rapid way to estimate cutting time and the heat reaching the cement behind the casing.

The project will develop a 2D axisymmetric finite-element thermal model of a laser heating a casing-cement section, remove material once it reaches melting temperature, add a basic thermal-stress check and use a set of simulations to train a regression model predicting cutting time and cement heating in seconds instead of running new simulations.

Project goals

1. Build a 2D axisymmetric transient thermal model in Ansys of a Gaussian laser heat source applied to a steel casing with a cement layer behind it, using constant material properties and element removal at melting temperature.
2. Validate the model against published laser-cutting data, then study the effects of laser power, beam radius and casing thickness on cutting time and cement temperature. Add a one-way thermal-stress check on the casing and cement.
3. Run approximately 150–200 simulations and generate a database for a regression model predicting cutting time and peak cement temperature from laser settings.

Required skills

Must-have

• Finite-element analysis and heat-transfer basics.
• Hands-on experience with Ansys.
• Python for scripting and data analysis.

Nice-to-have

• Laser processing or well-construction/P&A knowledge.
• Basic machine learning, including scikit-learn.

Deliverables

• FE thermal model of the casing-cement section with documented material properties and assumptions.
• Parameter-study report showing how laser settings affect cutting time and cement heating.
• Trained prediction model with accuracy checked against held-out simulations.
• Final report and repository with instructions to rerun and extend the model.

Suggested phased plan

• Month 1: Literature review, material properties, model geometry and mesh.
• Month 2: Transient thermal model with laser heat source and element removal.
• Month 3: Validation against published data and thermal-stress check.
• Month 4: Parameter study and simulation sweep.
• Month 5: Prediction-model training and testing.
• Month 6: Final report and handover.

Conditions

• Recommended period: 6 months, full-time PFE.
• Monthly stipend with potential end-of-internship performance bonus.
• Potential paper-publication co-authorship.