Patent ID: 8352221

Claim:
A method of optimizing drilling parameters for a portion of a wellbore using a rotary drill bit, the method comprising: inputting wellbore data and formation data corresponding with the portion of the wellbore; inputting drilling equipment data, including rotary drill bit parameters and bottom hole assembly parameters; simulating drilling the portion of the wellbore multiple times with various combinations of drilling parameters using the drilling equipment data, the wellbore data, and the formation data; the drilling parameters including at least bit rotational speed and either weight on bit or rate of penetration; calculating a set of bit forces resulting from each of the various combinations of drilling parameters, the set of bit forces including at least one force selected from the group consisting of steer force, walk force, axial force, lateral imbalance force, and torque; calculating a drilling difficulty based on the resulting bit forces; and identifying the combination of drilling parameters with the lowest drilling difficulty.