Frangible and disintegrable tool and method of removing a tool

Abstract

A frangible and disintegrable tool includes, a body made of a disintegrable material having a plurality of stress risers, the disintegrable material and the plurality of stress risers are configured such that when physically loaded to failure the body will break into a plurality of pieces and a plurality of the plurality of pieces will be substantially similar in size.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A frangible and disintegrable tool comprising:
 a body being made of a disintegrable material having a plurality of stress risers, the disintegrable material and the plurality of stress risers being configured such that when physically loaded to failure the body will break into a plurality of pieces and a plurality of the plurality of pieces will be substantially similar in size.   
     
     
         2 . The frangible and disintegrable tool of  claim 1 , wherein the plurality of stress risers are oriented in a repeating pattern on the body. 
     
     
         3 . The frangible and disintegrable tool of  claim 2 , wherein the repeating pattern includes protrusions or recesses from a surface of the body that have at least one repeating cross sectional shape thereof. 
     
     
         4 . The frangible and disintegrable tool of  claim 3 , wherein the at least one repeating cross sectional shape is selected from the group consisting of triangles, parallelograms, ellipses and combinations of these shapes. 
     
     
         5 . The frangible and disintegrable tool of  claim 1 , wherein the plurality of stress risers include surfaces that intersect at sharp corners. 
     
     
         6 . The frangible and disintegrable tool of  claim 5 , wherein the sharp corners include right angles. 
     
     
         7 . The frangible and disintegrable tool of  claim 1 , wherein the plurality of stress risers facilitate formation of multiple cracks prior to breakage of the body. 
     
     
         8 . The frangible and disintegrable tool of  claim 1 , wherein the physical loading includes at least one of mechanical and hydraulic loading. 
     
     
         9 . The frangible and disintegrable tool of  claim 1 , wherein the disintegrable material will break before plastically deforming. 
     
     
         10 . The frangible and disintegrable tool of  claim 1 , wherein the disintegrable material stores elastic energy therewithin before breaking that promotes breakage into the plurality of pieces. 
     
     
         11 . The frangible and disintegrable tool of  claim 1 , wherein the disintegrable material includes grains that are surrounded by a hard intermetallic layer. 
     
     
         12 . The frangible and disintegrable tool of  claim 1 , wherein the body is configured to disintegrate in a target downhole environment. 
     
     
         13 . The frangible and disintegrable tool of  claim 1 , wherein the body is a portion of a downhole tool selected from the group consisting of seals, high pressure beaded frac screen plugs, screen basepipe plugs, coatings for balls and seats, compression packing elements, expandable packing elements, O-rings, bonded seals, bullet seals, sub-surface safety valve seals, sub-surface safety valve flapper seal, dynamic seals, V-rings, back up rings, drill bit seals, liner port plugs, atmospheric discs, atmospheric chamber discs, debris barriers, drill in stim liner plugs, inflow control device plugs, flappers, seats, ball seats, direct connect disks, drill-in linear disks, gas lift valve plug, fluid loss control flappers, electric submersible pump seals, shear out plugs, flapper valves, gaslift valves, sleeves. 
     
     
         14 . The downhole tool of  claim 1 , wherein the downhole tool inhibits flow. 
     
     
         15 . The downhole tool of  claim 14 , wherein the downhole tool is pumpable within a downhole environment and is selected from the group consisting of plugs, direct connect plugs, bridge plugs, wiper plugs, frac plugs, components of frac plugs, drill in sand control beaded screen plugs, inflow control device plugs, polymeric plugs, disappearing wiper plugs, cementing plugs, balls, diverter balls, shifting and setting balls, swabbing element protectors, buoyant recorders, pumpable collets, float shoes, and darts. 
     
     
         16 . The downhole tool of  claim 14 , wherein the downhole tool is selected from the group consisting of seals, high pressure beaded frac screen plugs, screen basepipe plugs, coatings for balls and seats, compression packing elements, expandable packing elements, O-rings, bonded seals, bullet seals, sub-surface safety valve seals, sub-surface safety valve flapper seal, dynamic seals, V-rings, back up rings, drill bit seals, liner port plugs, atmospheric discs, atmospheric chamber discs, debris barriers, drill in stim liner plugs, inflow control device plugs, flappers, seats, ball seats, direct connect disks, drill-in linear disks, gas lift valve plug, fluid loss control flappers, electric submersible pump seals, shear out plugs, flapper valves, gaslift valves, sleeves. 
     
     
         17 . The downhole tool of  claim 1 , wherein the body is made of two portions. 
     
     
         18 . The downhole tool of  claim 1 , wherein the stress risers are substantially hidden from view when the body is viewed externally. 
     
     
         19 . A method of removing a tool, comprising:
 loading the tool;   forming a plurality of cracks at stress risers in the tool storing elastic energy in the material of the tool; and   breaking the tool into a plurality of pieces, a plurality of which are similarly sized.   
     
     
         20 . The method of removing a tool of  claim 14 , further comprising disintegrating the plurality of pieces. 
     
     
         21 . The method of removing a tool of  claim 15 , wherein the disintegrating includes dissolving. 
     
     
         22 . The method of removing a tool of  claim 14 , further comprising simultaneously forming the plurality of cracks. 
     
     
         23 . The method of removing a tool of  claim 14 , further comprising forming the plurality of cracks at substantially equal distances from one another. 
     
     
         24 . The method of removing a tool of  claim 14 , further comprising loading the tool hydraulically or mechanically.