Outline

Mud properties and measurements

Density
Rheology
Hydraulics,

Drilling Fluids Square

MUD PROPERTIES
AND MEASUREMENTS

MUD PROPERTIES AND MEASUREMENTS

Basic Properties and Measurements

The main properties of a drilling fluid are:
Density
Rheology
Fluid loss

Inhibition
Solids Content
These must be achieved in a safe and cost effective way.

MUD PROPERTIES AND MEASUREMENTS

Density
By convention the density is called
the mud weight
The units are ppg or g/cc (SG)
Occasionally lbs/ft3 or psi/ft are
used
Correct and frequent measurement
is essential
Keep balance clean
Check calibration daily
There are two types of balance
Pressurized
Non Pressurized
Derrickman (mud engineer) will
record density every half hour

CALIBRATE
BY ADDING/
REMOVING
LEAD SHOT

KEEP HOLE FREE

TO EXPEL MUD

SIGHT GLASS

SCALE BAR

SLIDING WEIGHT

MUD PROPERTIES AND MEASUREMENTS

Mud Balance

The mud balance is

accurate to within +/- 0.1 lb/gal (or 0.5 lb/cu.ft, 0.01 g/ml, 10 g/l).

MUD PROPERTIES AND MEASUREMENTS

Viscosity - Hole Cleaning

Viscosity is the resistance of the fluid to flow. It demonstrates the
capablity of mud to lift drilling cuttings.
Viscosity is required in addition to flow rate to clean the hole
Several models have been developed to help understand the behavior of
different fluids in laminar flow (Bourgoyne textbook pgs: 131 - 135)
Newtonian model - e.g. Water, gas, high gravity oil
Bingham Plastic Model - Cement, Flocculated fluids : high solids muds
Power Law Model
Low solids
polymer
muds, Oil based muds
shear- stress
(flow
pressure)
shear rate (flow rate)

Viscosity =
The units can be dyne-s/cm2 (1 g/cm.s), Pascal S, Centipoise or lbs/100 ft2

Newtonian Fluid Model

F
Final velocity
distribution in
steady flow

F
V

A
L

Large t

Shear stress = viscosity * shear rate

Newtonian Fluid Model

In a Newtonian fluid the shear stress is directly

proportional to the shear rate (in laminar flow):

dyne
1

2
cm
sec

i.e.,
The constant of proportionality, is the viscosity of
the fluid and is independent of shear rate.

Newtonian Fluid Model

dyne sec
cm 2

Viscosity may be expressed in poise or centipoise.

dyne - s
g
1 poise 1
1
2
cm
cm s
1 centipoise 0.01 poise

Shear Stress vs. Shear Rate for a Newtonian Fluid

Slope of line

Example 4.16
Final velocity
distribution in
steady flow

Area of upper plate = 20 cm2

Large t

Distance between plates = 1 cm

Force reqd to move upper plate at 10 cm/s =
100 dynes.
What is fluid viscosity?

Example 4.16

Large t

shear stress F / A 100 / 20 dynes/cm

-1
shear rate V / L
10/1 sec

5
dyne s

0.5
0.5 poise
2
10
cm

50 cp

Bingham Plastic Model

Power-Law Model

Rheological Models

1. Newtonian Fluid:

shear stress
absolute viscosity
shear rate

2. Bingham Plastic Fluid:

y ( p ) *
What if

0?

y yield point
p plastic viscosity

Rheological Models

3. Power Law Fluid:

K
log log K n log
n

K = consistency index
n = flow behavior index

When n = 1, fluid is Newtonian and K =

We shall use power-law model(s) to
calculate pressure losses (mostly).

Typical Drilling Fluid Vs. Newtonian, Bingham and Power

Law Fluids

(Plotted on linear paper)

Rheological Properties
Determine viscometer readings to calculate the following for a drilling or
completion/ work over fluid: Plastic Viscosity (PV, cp); Yield Point (YP,
lbf/100 ft^2); Gel Strength - Max. dial reading at 3 rpm- (Tau, lbf/100 ft^2);
Apparent viscosity (AV, cp); Consistency index (K, lbf/sec^n/cm^2); Yield
stress (YS, lbf/100 ft^2); Flow index (n, unitless)

PV

= q600 - q300 =

YP

= q600 PV =

AV

= q600 / 2

= 3.32 log (q600 / q300)

q 600 p

510 q 300
n
511

Gel strength = Max. dial reading at 3 rpm

Rheological Properties
Example:
Given the following well data, determine PV, YP, AV, n and K.
q600 = 36 ; q300 = 24
Solution:

PV

= 36 -24 = 12 cp

YP

= 24 12 = 12 lbf/100 ft^2

AV

= q600 / 2 = 36 / 2 = 18 cp

= 3.32 log (q600 / q300) = 3.32 log (36/24) = 0.5846

= 510*q300 / (511^n) = 24 / 5110.5846 = 0.626

Rotational
Viscometer
We
determine
rheological
properties
of drilling
fluids in
this device

Figure 3.6

Rheometer

Infinite
parallel
plates

Rheometer (Rotational Viscometer)

sleeve
BOB

fluid

f ( )
Shear Stress = f (Dial Reading)
Shear Rate = f (Sleeve RPM)
Shear Stress = f (Shear Rate)

(TAU ), the Shear Stress depends on the

value of (GAMMA), the Shear Rate

Rheometer - base case

RPM
3
6
100
200
300
600

sec-1
5.11
10.22
170
340
511
1022
RPM * 1.703 = sec-1

Example
A rotational viscometer containing a Bingham plastic fluid gives a dial reading of
12 at a rotor speed of 300 RPM and a dial reading of 20 at a rotor speed of 600
RPM

Compute plastic viscosity and yield point

p q 600 q 300

q600 = 20
q300 = 12

20 - 12

p 8 cp

See Appendix A

q600 = 20
q300 = 12

Example

y q 300 p
12 - 8
y 4 lbf/100 ft

MUD PROPERTIES AND MEASUREMENTS

Instruments Used to Measure Viscosity

Marsh Funnel
Results are very temperature
dependent
Used to give trends
Derrick man records results every
1/2 hour

Fill mud to mark

Measure time required

to fill one quart in seconds

Torsion Spring

Fann Viscometer
Can measure different shear
stresses for different shear rates
Should be used with a heated cup
to give readings at a given
temperature
Also used to measure gel strengths

Bob
Variable speed
rotation sleeve

MUD PROPERTIES AND MEASUREMENTS

Marsh Funnel

MUD PROPERTIES AND MEASUREMENTS

Viscometer

600 rpm - 1022.0 sec1

300 rpm - 511.0 sec1
200 rpm - 340.7 sec1
100 rpm - 170.3 sec1
6 rpm - 10.22 sec1
3 rpm - 5.11 sec1

6-speed FANN viscometer

MUD PROPERTIES AND MEASUREMENTS

Gel Strengths

The Gel strengths refers to the increase in viscosity at zero

shear rate
It is the measure of the attractive forces under static conditions.
It demonstrates the capability of mud to suspend weight-up
materials (barite) or heavy drilling cuttings.
Initial and then subsequent
3 rpm viscometer dial readings,
i.e. 10sec, 10min, 30min
= gel strengths

Gel Strength

= shear stress when fluid movement begins

Actual
readings of y

y
0

300

RPM

600

The yield strength, extrapolated from the

300 and 600 RPM readings is not a good
representation of the gel strength of the
fluid

Gel strength may be measured by turning

the rotor at a low speed and noting the dial
reading at which the gel structure is broken
(usually at 3 RPM)

Gel Strength

The gel strength is the maximum dial reading when the

viscometer is started at 3 rpm.

In field units,

g 1.06 q

lbf / 100 ft 2

In practice, this is often approximated to

g = qmax,3

lbf / 100 ft

MUD PROPERTIES AND MEASUREMENTS

Effects of Excessive Viscosity

Increased pump pressure
Increased risk of swabbing / surging the hole
Loss of mud at the shakers

Poor efficiency of the solids control equipment

Increased risk of fracturing the formation, especially with high
gel strengths
Poor mud removal for cementing operations

MUD PROPERTIES AND MEASUREMENTS

Effects of Insufficient Viscosities

Poor hole cleaning

Cuttings bed
Hole fill
Stuck pipe
Cuttings degradation

Overloading of the annulus increasing the hydrostatic

Increased erosion if the fluid is in turbulent flow

Barite sag or settlement

MUD PROPERTIES
AND MEASUREMENTS
Standard
API Filtration
Test

The flow of mud filtrate through a mud cake is described by Darcys law. Thus, the rate of
filtration is given by

Combining with the continuity equation gives

Vf

Vf - the volume of the filtrate, cm3 ; t time, s ; k permeability of the mud cake, darcies
A the area of the filter paper, cm2 ; Dp the pressure drop across the mud cake, atm.
According to API standard, Dp = 100 psig
the viscosity of the mud filtrate, cp ; hmc filter cake thickness
fsm, fsc the volume fraction of solids in the mud and the volume fraction of solids in the cake

The standard API filter press has A = 45 cm2; operated at a DP = 100 psig (6.8 atm).

The filtrate volume collected in a 30-min time period is reported as the standard water loss.

When the 30-min exceeds the capacity of the filtrate receiver, the 7.5-min measurements
should be used.

MUD PROPERTIES AND MEASUREMENTS

API Filter Press

MUD PROPERTIES AND MEASUREMENTS

Standard API Filtration Test

Example: Using the following data obtained using and
HTHP filter press, determine the spurt loss and API water
loss.
Time, min

Filtrate Volume, cm3

1.0

6.5

7.5

14.2

MUD PROPERTIES AND MEASUREMENTS

Standard API Filtration Test

Time, min

Filtrate Volume, cm3

1.0

6.5

7.5

14.2

The spurt loss = 2.07 cm3

The API water loss:

Volume of drilling mud

mb
V 2 = V1 + Vb = V 1 +
b

2 V 2 = 1 V 1 + m b

V 2 = V1

b - 1
b - 2

New mudweight (V2) from an original

mud (V1) with added weight material
(Vb)
mb is mass of weight material b is
density of weight material

2 is density of V2 and 1 is density of

V1
Density of mud when final volume
is not limited

m b = (V2 -V1) b

V 1 = V2

b - 2
b - 1

m b = (V2 -V1) b

Density of mud when final volume

is limited

Volume of drilling mud

Addition of API barite can cause the drilling fluid to
become quite viscous.
Need to add minimum
required water to wet surface of weight material

1 gal / 100 lbm of API barite

Including required water volume per unit mass of
barite, V , in previous mixture equations leads to:
wB

1 w V wB

2
B

1 B V wB

V1 V2

1 w V wB
B
1

1 B V wB

B
V2 V1
mB
1 B V wB

V1 : vol. of old mud.

V2 : vol. of new mud
mB : mass of weight material to be
added.
B : density of weight material to
be added.
2 : density of V2
1 : density of V1

EXAMPLE
GIVEN
V2 = 800 bbl
B = 35 lbm/gal (Table 2.7)
2 = 14 lbm/gal
1 = 12 lbm/gal

VwB = 0.01 gal/lbm

FIND
V1 = old mud vol. to be
discarded

m B = mass of API barite to be

added