2026 · Tools
Drilling fundamentals simulator
An interactive way to keep going deeper into drilling fundamentals, well beyond the content covered at IWCF Level 1.
These tools were built with desktop in mind and may not work well on mobile.
Overview
An interactive drilling fundamentals simulator I built to go deeper into the subject than the IWCF Level 1 curriculum took me. Live instruments, formation-by-formation geology, a pressure window with safe zones and kick/loss limits, and the controls a driller actually works with: WOB, RPM, pump rate, BOP.
I built it to turn dense technical content into something I could see, touch and play with. I drill through formations, watch pore pressure rise, adjust mud weight to stay in the safe window, handle connections, and see what happens when I don't. Guided tutorials walk through the fundamentals, and I'm always tweaking the sim to go further.
What it taught me
Reading about pit gain, mud weight and pump pressure is one thing. Watching them move, and controlling what moves them, is another. This tool has taught me a lot, from building it to using it. I'm always tweaking it to make it more realistic, and the more I build, the more the subject pulls me in.