Patent ID: 8589124

Claim:
A method for determining wear of a fixed curer drill bit, comprising: (a) simulating the fixed cutter drill bit drilling an earth formation; (b) determining a cutter-formation interaction force and a relative sliding velocity of a selected area on a cutting surface on a cutter of the fixed cutter drill bit during the drilling, wherein the selected area comprises an interface between the curing surface on the cutter and the earth formation; (c) calculating a wear rate of the selected area based on the cutter-formation interaction force and the relative sliding velocity; (d) converting the wear rate into a visual representation; (e) applying the calculated wear rate to at least one cutter of the simulated fixed curer drill bit; (f) continuing to simulate the fixed cutter drill bit with the at least one worn cutter drilling the earth formation; (g) ending the simulation and displaying output data; wherein the cutter-formation interaction force is determined as a function of a depth of cut; and wherein the calculating the wear rate is according to: WR=a 1×10 a2 ×d a3 ×v a4 ×T a5 where WR is the wear rate, d is the depth of cut, v is the relative sliding velocity, T is a temperature, and a1-a5 are constants.