Fatigue is the major limitation to the life of coiled tubing. In 2005 the CT Times published a 3 part series of articles which discussed the fatigue life in detail. This article summarizes the most important concepts of fatigue life and how to manage it. A CT fatigue tracking system, including the data acquisition system and modeling software, saves significant amounts of money for 2 reasons:

1.      Often this system allows the CT to be used longer than it would have been used previously using the total meters run method.

2.      Intelligent decisions can be made about how to improve the fatigue life such as when to remove a portion of the string or when to turn the string around so the bottom becomes the top.