An Experimental and Numerical Simulation Study on a Three-Hydraulic-Cylinder Synchronous Steering Offset Actuator Driven by a Drilling Fluid Rotary Valve Distributor

The rotary steerable system (RSS) is the core equipment for precise wellbore trajectory control in deep oil and gas drilling, and its performance is directly determined by the coordination and adaptability of the tool’s offset actuator and control platform. To overcome the limitations of complex control architectures and low positioning accuracy of conventional offset actuators for rotary steering drilling tools, a novel three hydraulic cylinder synchronous steering offset actuator driven by a drilling fluid rotary valve distributor, along with its dedicated control strategy, is proposed. Laboratory experiments and numerical simulations are performed to analyze the piston displacement characteristics of the three hydraulic cylinder under different drilling fluid flow rates and rotary valve rotational speeds. The results demonstrate that the proposed actuator exhibits controllable piston displacement behavior. The simulated and experimental data show consistent variation tendencies with a relative error of less than 8%, thus validating the reliability of the proposed numerical model. Increasing the flow rate from 1 to 1.5 L/s increases the cycle-averaged peak-to-peak piston displacement by 14.5 mm, while raising the rotational speed from 60 rpm to 120 rpm reduces it by 25.3 mm, corresponding to a dogleg severity variation of approximately 1.9–3.1°/30 m. Piston displacement deviations are mainly attributed to valve port machining tolerance, drilling fluid compressibility, pipeline pressure loss, and internal leakage, and these discrepancies are exacerbated as the rotary valve speed or flow rate increases. Finally, optimization strategies for improving synchronization performance are proposed, thereby providing theoretical and technical support for the engineering implementation and parameter optimization of the proposed actuator.