Patent ID: 8600679

Claim:
A method of locating and quantifying friction between a drillstring and a wellbore, comprising: generating a model of at least one of drillstring weight and torque for at least one predetermined depth for an idealized system with known geometries and earth formation properties; positioning a plurality of sensors within a wellbore; communicatively coupling the plurality of sensors; monitoring signals from the plurality of sensors; logging the sensed signals versus time versus depth of each of the plurality of sensors to generate a measured parameter log to generate a multi-dimensional log space; adjusting the model based on the multi-dimensional log space by calculating apparent depths based on at least one of sensed mechanical loads and temperatures fed back into the model, the at least one of the sensed mechanical loads and temperatures sensed by the plutality of sensors within the wellbore; and locating at least one friction zone along the drillstring within the wellbore based on detecting changes in the adjustments to the model over time.