Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 139 (2016) 264275

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/petrol

The novel approach for the enhancement of rheological properties

of water-based drilling uids by using multi-walled carbon nanotube,
nanosilica and glass beads
A.R. Ismail a,n, A. Aftab b, Z.H. Ibupoto c, N. Zolkile d
a

Faculty of Chemical and Energy Engineering, Universiti Teknologi, Malaysia

Petroleum and Natural Gas Engineering Department, Mehran UETSZAB, Pakistan
c
Department of Chemistry, Sindh University, Pakistan
d
Scomi Oiltools, Malaysia
b

art ic l e i nf o

a b s t r a c t

Article history:
Received 20 November 2015
Received in revised form
14 January 2016
Accepted 29 January 2016
Available online 9 February 2016

Nano and micron materials are investigated in water-based drilling uid (WBDF) to improve its rheological behaviour. Due to the environmental and certain operational concerns, the use of oil-based
drilling uid (OBDF) and synthetic based drilling uid (SBDF) is restricted that caused the industry
seeking for new ways to enhance rheological properties of WBDF. This study was based on investigating
the applicability of multi-walled carbon nanotube (MWCNT), nanosilica and glass beads (GBs) as primary
additives for enhancing the ltrate volume, lubricity and other rheological properties of WBDF. This
study focused on the effect of different concentrations such as 0.001 ppb, 0.002 ppb, 0.01 ppb, 0.02 ppb,
0.1 ppb, and 0.2 ppb of each MWCNT and nanosilica over the rheological performance of WBDF. Effect of
GBs of different sizes such as (90150 m) and (250425 m) was investigated at different concentrations of 2 ppb, 4 ppb, 6 ppb, 8 ppb, 10 ppb, and 12 ppb over rheological performance of WBDF. Results
revealed that coefcient of friction (CoF) for drilling uid without nanoparticles and GBs was 0.238.
0.01 ppb of MWCNT and nanosilica provided 44% and 38% CoF reduction. 4 ppb of GBs (90150 m)
provided 28% CoF reduction. MWCNT showed 4.5 ml of ltrate volume and 2/32 inch of mud cake
thickness. Thus, MWCNT can be a better choice as a drilling uids additive for WBDF.
& 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Keywords:
Lubricity
Coefcient of friction
Filtrate volume
Nanoparticles
Micronmaterials

1. Introduction
Enhanced formulation and engineering design of drilling uids
system are key to reach target depth of hydrocarbon reservoir.
Drilling uids showed complex behaviour of rheological properties
under various drilling conditions (Livescu, 2012; Majidi et al.,
2010; Baba Hamed and Belhadri, 2009). Mainly three types of
drilling uids such as OBDF, SBDF and WBDF are used to drill oil
and gas wells. Among these drilling uids WBDF is widely used
and considered inexpensive and environmentally friendly (Christiansen, 1991; Mao et al., 2015; Rodrigues et al., 2006; Sadeghalvaad and Sabbaghi, 2015; Tehrani et al., 2009). But it has been
also reported that macro, micro and polymer additives based
WBDF can raise the problems of unstable rheological properties at
high pressure, high temperature (HPHT) down hole conditions
(Abdo and Haneef, 2013; Abdo et al., 2014; Mao et al., 2015). WBDF
n

Corresponding author.
E-mail address: razak@utm.my (A.R. Ismail).

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.petrol.2016.01.036
0920-4105/& 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

is typically a combination of fresh water and drilling uids additives such as water activity salts, viscosiers, ltrate reducers
and hydrate resistant polymers.
Addition of potassium chloride (KCl) in WBDF is frequently well
accepted and commonly adopted by oil and gas industry to control
rheological properties and better hydration-resistance particularly
in shale (Khodja et al., 2010). During drilling through water sensitive clays, KCl muds hold drill cuttings together. But a great deal
of research has been conducted by Brien apos and Chenevert
(1973), Chang and Leong (2014), and Clark et al. (1976) that high
concentration of KCl in WBDF caused the problems of accretion.
Moreover, it has been also identied that high concentration of KCl
raised occulation in rheological properties of drilling uid and
increased the cutting disposal cost (Chesser, 1987). Therefore,
lower concentration of KCl has been recommended with polymers
to achieve desired rheological properties.
Polymers are used to improve the rheological performance of
the drilling uids. Various polymers such as poly anionic cellulose (Fritz and Jarrett, 2012; Joel et al., 2012; Van Oort, 2003),

A.R. Ismail et al. / Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 139 (2016) 264275

Nomenclature

Units

API
AV
FW
CMC
FL
GBs
GS
HPHT
KCl
PV
MWCNT
NaOH
OBDF
PAC
PHPA
RPM
SBDF
WBDF
YP

cc
cp
ft
g
mPa s
nm
ppb
ppg
Pa s

American Petroleum Institute

apparent viscosity
fresh water
carboxy methyl cellulose
uid loss
glass beads
gel strength
high pressure high temperature
potassium chloride
plastic viscosity
multi-walled carbon nanotube
sodium hydroxide or caustic soda
oil-based drilling uid
poly anionic cellulose
poly hydrolytic polyacrylamide
rotation per minute
synthetic-based drilling uid
water-based drilling uid
yield point

Xanthan gum (Van Oort, 2003), and carboxy methyl cellulose

(CMC) (Sehly et al., 2015) have been reported to improve the
rheological properties of drilling uids. Polymers are heat insulators in nature and cannot be applied at extreme downhole
conditions (Jeon and Baek, 2010; Mao et al., 2015). Moreover,
these macro-size polymers cannot seal the nanopore throats of
the wellbore. Therefore, oil and gas researchers are focusing to
use physical small and enhanced heat transfer drilling uids
additives for better progress of drilling uids rheology (Amanullah et al., 2011; Amanullah and Al-Tahini, 2009; Hoelscher
et al., 2012; Zakaria et al., 2012).
Nanoparticles have enhanced the performance drilling uids
because of its distinctive type such as highly enhanced physicochemical, electrical, thermal, and hydrodynamic properties
(Amanullah et al., 2011). Multifunctional applications of nanoparticles attract a variety of industries for instance biomedical
technology, electronics, coating industry and material composite
(Saidur et al., 2011). Similarly, successive efforts are also taken by
the petroleum institutions to develop advanced material for nano
sensing or nanorobots to collect the underground reservoir valuable data for the investigation of reservoir performance and deliverability (Hoelscher et al., 2012). Materials added in drilling uids
ranging in size between 1 and 100 nm are called nanoparticles
(Amanullah and Al-Tahini, 2009; Hoelscher et al., 2012; Zakaria
et al., 2012). Nanoparticles compared to their bulk phase materials
offer many potential applications to oil and gas industry (Amanullah et al., 2011). Various applications of nanoparticles in drilling
uids have been reported in the literature such as controlling the
mud ltrate volume (Contreras et al., 2014; Srivatsa and Ziaja,
2011; Barry et al., 2015), minimizing differential pipe sticking
(Javeri et al., 2011), drilling and production at HPHT conditions
(Nguyen et al., 2012; Singh et al., 2010; William et al., 2014) and
enhancing shale stability (Hoelscher et al., 2012; Li et al., 2012;
Riley et al., 2012).
More recently nanocomposites have been introduced as an
alternative to polymers and clays to improve rheological properties of the drilling uids (Jain and Mahto, 2015; Mao et al., 2015;

265

cubic centimeter
centipoise
feet
gram
milli Pascal's second
nanometer
pound per barrel
pound per gallon
Pascal's second
dial reading
micrometer

Units conversion
1lb
100 ft2

= 0.4788 Pa s

1 cp 1 mPa s
1g
1 ppb = 350 cc

Sadeghalvaad and Sabbaghi, 2015). It has been identied that the

applicability of the nanocomposites is novel in drilling uids with
better effects over rheological performance of drilling uids. In
this study, nanoparticles such as MWCNT, nanosilica and micronmaterial such as GBs (90150 m) and GBs (250425 m) are
used in WBDF to examine their effects over the rheological
performance.

2. Methodology
The methodology discussed in this paper was based on the
laboratory work. All the drilling uid testing work was carried out
as per recommended practice API RP 13B-1 for investigating WBDF.
The experimental design is given in Fig. 1.
2.1. Material selection
MWCNT (21 nm), nanosilica (12 nm), GBs (90150 m), GBs
(250425 m) and Tween 80 surfactant were purchased. Drilling
uids additives potassium chloride (KCl), owzan, caustics soda
(NaOH), poly anionic cellulose (PAC), partial hydrolytic polyacrylamide (PHPA) and barite were provided by a drilling uid
service company.
2.2. Formulation of basic water-based drilling uid
350 cc of basic WBDF was prepared by adding fresh water (FW),
KCl, NaOH, owzan, PAC, PHPA and barite. The formulation was
designed to achieve mud weight of 12 ppg. 290 ml of freshwater
was added with 39 g of KCl and stirred for 3 min. After 3 min,
0.13 g of NaOH was added into the solution and stirred for another
2 min. Then, 0.43 g of owzan was added into the solution and
stirred for 5 min. 1.3 g of PAC was added into the solution and
stirred for another 5 min. Later, PHPA with 3.9 g was added into
the solution and stirred for 10 min. Lastly, 180 g of barite was added and stirred for another 30 min.

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A.R. Ismail et al. / Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 139 (2016) 264275

Start

Formulating drilling fluid

Addition of MWCNTs and nanosilica with different concentration ( 0.001,

0.002, 0.01, 0.02, 0.1 and 0.2 ppb) into base mud

Addition of glass beads with different size (90-150 m and 250-425 m) and
different concentration (2, 4, 6, 8, 10 and 12 ppb) into base mud

Determination of rheological properties such as yield point, plastic

viscosity, API filtrate volume, and Lubricity

No
Proceed
Yes

Result analysis

End
Fig. 1. Experimental design.

2.3. Preparation of homogeneous colloidal dispersion of

nanoparticles
MWCNT was dispersed into 40 ml of distilled water and 5 ml of
Tween 80. The mixture was placed in ultrasonication machine for
25 min. Then, dispersed mixture was added in WBDF after barite.
Mixture of drilling uids was mixed for 10 min. However, nanosilica was dispersed in distilled water without Tween 80 and added in WBDF after barite.
2.4. Rheological properties
Flow properties of drilling uids such as plastic viscosity (PV),
yield point (YP), 10-seconds gel strength (10 s GS), and 10-min gel
strength (10 min GS) were determined by using rheometer as
shown in Fig. 2(b). Filtrate volume was determined by low pressure ltrate volume tester as shown in Fig. 2(a). Total 26 drilling
uids were investigated for rheological performance. Experimental work was repeated three times over 26 drilling uids for

certainty. Experimental condition for the measurement of rheological properties, lubricity and API ltrate volume is given in Table 1. PV and YP were calculated by the following equation:

PV = 600 300

(1)

YP = 300 PV

(2)

whereas 600 = Dial reading at 600 RPM, and 300 = Dial reading
at 300 RPM.
2.4.1. Lubricity
The lubricity test was conducted by measuring the CoF using
extreme pressure/ lubricity tester model 212 as shown in Fig. 3.
This test is based on metal to metal study which is a similar case
between drill string and wellbore. Lubricity was calculated by
using Eqs. (3)(6):

CoF =

Torque reading
100

(3)

A.R. Ismail et al. / Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 139 (2016) 264275

267

Fig. 2. (a) API lter press and (b) rheometer.

Fig. 3. Lubricity tester.

Table 1
Experimental conditions for the measurement of rheological properties, lubricity
and API ltrate volume.
Drilling uid systems

Operating conditions

(a) WBDF MWCNT at

Rheological properties and lubricity were

determined at ambient conditions

CoF =

0.001 ppb, 0.002 ppb, 0.01 ppb,

0.02 ppb, 0.1 ppb, and 0.2 ppb
(b) WBDF Nanosilica at
Filtrate loss volume was determined at API
conditions (100 psi and ambient temperature)
0.001 ppb, 0.002 ppb, 0.01 ppb,
0.02 ppb, 0.1 ppb, and 0.2 ppb
(c) WBDF GBs (90150 m)
at 2 ppb, 4 ppb, 6 ppb, 8 ppb,
10 ppb, 12 ppb, and 14 ppb
(d) WBDF GBs (250425 m)
at 2 ppb, 4 ppb, 6 ppb, 8 ppb,
10 ppb, 12 ppb, and 14 ppb

with instrument set at 60 RPM and pressure of 100 lbs, which are

100 =

CF =

150 inch lbs torque wrench reading

1.5 inch torque shaft lever arm

Meter reading for water (standard)

meter reading obtained in water calibration

(4)

(5)

(Meter reading for water )(CF )

100

(6)

whereas, CoF coefcient of friction, and CF coefcient factor.

3. Results and discussion

3.1. Effect of particle concentration on plastic viscosity
PV was enhanced by using MWCNT and nanosilica. It was
maintained between operating values 2029 cp (2029 mPa s)
(Guo et al., 2006; Jain et al., 2015). Fig. 4(a) showed the effects of
nanoparticles at different concentrations in WBDF to the PV. There
was a decrease in PV value when a small concentration of nanoparticles which is 0.001 ppb is added into the drilling uid.
However after 0.01 ppb concentration of nanoparticles, the PV
provides the increasing trend. MWCNT and nanosilica exhibited
the same trend after 0.1 ppb. MWCNT decreased the PV because it
may improve volume of suspended material in the drilling uid.
Moreover, the presence of nanoparticles gives less effect to the
water based drilling uid by increasing the friction between the
suspended particles in the drilling uid. It may be that the concentration of nanoparticles such as MWCNT and nanosilica is so
small compared to the basic drilling uid's additives to give

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A.R. Ismail et al. / Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 139 (2016) 264275

Fig. 4. (a) Plastic viscosity at different concentrations of nanoparticle and

(b) plastic viscosity at different concentrations of glass beads.
Fig. 5. (a) Effect on yield point at different concentrations of MWCNT and nanosilica and (b) effect on yield point at different concentrations of glass beads.

signicant impact over the PV. Low PV helps in drilling rapidly

because of low viscosity of drilling uid exiting at the bit. Behaviour of micron GBs was different than that of nanoparticles. PV of
micron GBs based drilling uids increases with the increase of its
concentration (Fig. 4(b)). Recently, Jain et al. (2015) and Mao et al.
(2015) used nanocomposite in WBDF and found that targeted PV
was achieved after 0.3 ppb of the nanocomposite. However, the
present study attained target PV of 21 cp and 20 cp (21 mPa s and
20 mPa s) at lower concentration of 0.01 ppb of nanosilica and
MWCNT.
3.2. Effect of particle concentration on yield point
YP is the ability of a drilling uid to lift the cuttings from
downhole towards surface. Normally, high YP is required to conduct better ow of drilling uids throughout the circulation system such as from downhole towards surface. Inappropriate YP can
affect the equivalent circulation transition point between laminar
and turbulent ows, and efciency of cutting transport. YP improved with addition of the nanoparticle. It increases after
0.01 ppb of nanoparticles as shown in Fig. 5(a). It may be that
solids start to accumulate when increasing the concentration of
nanoparticle. Moreover, YP increased after 8 ppb of GBs (Fig. 5(b)).
However, high concentration of GBs in drilling uids can destabilize the PV. More recently, Jain et al. (2015) and Mao et al. (2015)
found acceptable YP after adding 0.3 ppb of the nanocomposite.

Nonetheless, the present results showed

39 lb
100 ft2

or (16 Pa s) of YP at

lower concentration 0.1 ppb of MWCNT and nanosilca.

3.3. Effect of particle concentration on API Filtration Loss
Low ltrate volume by enhancing the composition, thickness
and deposition of the mud cake is the requirement of quality
drilling uids. Conventional mud ltrate additives such as PAC,
CMC and PHPA are in macrosizes and cannot plug the nanopore
throat of wall of the wellbore (Al-Bazali et al., 2005; Mao et al.,
2015). Filtrate volume was controlled by using nano-based drilling
uids. MWCTNs and nanosilica showed minimum ltrate volume
as shown in Fig. 6(a) and (b). However, 5 ml was found at 4 ppb of
90150 m GBs as shown in Fig. 7(a) and 5.2 ml at 4 ppb of 250
425 m GBs as shown in Fig. 7(b). Among primary drilling uids
additives, MWCNT found better material for prevention of ltrate
loss; it may be due to its high surface area and nanotube structure.
These nanoparticles attached to the drilling uid material and
formed thin and impermeable mud cake. Sadeghalvaad and Sabbaghi (2015) found 19 ml of ltrate volume by using 14 ppb of
TiO2/clay composite. Mao et al. (2015) reported 14 ml of ltrate
volume at 0.1 ppb of hydrophobic silica nanoparticles composite.
However, the present study reported 4.8 ml of ltrate volume by
adding 0.01 ppb of nanosilica (Fig. 6(a)). Moreover, ltrate volume

A.R. Ismail et al. / Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 139 (2016) 264275

Fig. 6. (a) Effect of nanosilica on FL of WBDF and (b) effect of MWCNT on FL of

WBDF.

269

Fig. 7. (a) Effect of glass beads (90150 m) on FL of WBDF and (b) effect of glass
beads (250425 m) on FL of WBDF.

was obtained as 4.5 ml by using 0.01 ppb of MWCNT (Fig. 6(b)).

Error bar chart representing nanosilica and MWCNT based drilling
uids showed that measurements are precise for the ltrate volume of the drilling uids at different concentrations of nanoparticles as shown in Fig. 8.
3.4. Effect of particle concentration on mud cake thickness
Mud cake thickness was less affected by adding nanoparticles
(Fig. 9(a)). As proved the presence of MWCNT reduced the mud
ltrate volume because it may disperse in the drilling uid and the
nanotube structure may prevent the movement of barite particles
from passing through the ltrate paper. The mud cake has thin and
smooth surface texture because nanoparticles have good strength
and dispersion property. It may form a bridge within the particle
and gives a homogeneous system which further reduces the porosity of mud cake. Low porosity of the mud cake prevents mud
inltration thus giving lower uid loss volume. It proves that nanoparticles act as the lter between the drilling uid particles and
help to make bridging faster. Fig. 9(b) showed the mud cake
thickness for the different concentrations of GBs. The trend
showed that the mud cake thickness increased when the GBs

Fig. 8. Error bar chart for ltrate volume of MWCNT and nanosilica based drilling
uids.

concentration was increased. For small size of GBs (90150 m),

the mud cake thickness was increased slowly after addition of
concentration of GBs. But the size of the mud cake slightly increased for bigger size of GBs (250425 m). The value of mud

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A.R. Ismail et al. / Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 139 (2016) 264275

Fig. 9. (a) Effect of nanosilica and MWCNT on thickness of mud cake and (b) effect
of coarse and ne glass beads on thickness of mud cake.

cake for both size of GBs was higher than controlled sample but
still within the acceptable range. Moreover, the larger size of GBs
has resulted in forming a very thick mud cake.
3.5. Effect of particle concentration on gel strength
Small amount of nanoparticles provided better effect to the GS.
Fig. 10(a) showed the effect of different concentrations of nanoparticles to the 10-s GS. For nanosilica, the trend was at within its
0.0010.2 ppb concentration. This phenomenon was in contrast
for MWCNT because the trend shows the increasing behaviour of
GS. Fig. 10(b) showed the effect of different concentrations of nanoparticles to the 10-min GS. Flat type pattern was obtained; it
may be that 10 min GS does not show much effect at higher
concentration of nanoparticles. Basic drilling uid without nanoparticles provided high value which was 8 lb 2 or (3.8 Pa s). 10 s GS
100 ft

was increased after 0.001 ppb of MWCNT and showed similar

trend until 0.2 ppb of MWCNT. It may be increased in the attractive forces between particles thus resulting in higher GS. Better GS
provided lower circulation pressure to restart the drilling operation. The effect of different concentrations of GBs to the 10-s and
10-min GS is given in Fig. 11(a) and (b), respectively. As shown in
Fig. 11(a), the 10-s GS for both sizes of GBs gradually decreased
with addition of 2 ppb of GBs until 6 ppb. However, after 6 ppb it
slightly increased until 12 ppb. The trends were investigated for
10 min GS of GBs drilling uids with addition of different concentrations. 10-min GS was increased with addition of 4 ppb GBs

Fig. 10. (a) 10-s gel strength for nano silica and MWCNT and (b) 10-min gel
strength for nano silica and MWCNT.

(Fig. 11(b)). However, it was still in the range of typical value of 10min GS for WBDF which is 6 8 lb2 or (34 Pa s) (Guo et al., 2006).
100 ft

This may occur due to increase in solids content and the suspension capacity of drilling uid that could not afford the higher
concentration of GBs. Moreover, 10-s GS lay within typical range of
GS that is 1.8 6.22lb or (0.93 Pa s) (Jain et al., 2015).
100 ft

3.6. Effect of particle concentration on lubricity

Lubricating medium for the drill string while drilling the
wellbore is one of functions of drilling uid (Aston et al., 1998). CoF
describes the ratio of the force of friction between two bodies and
the force pressing them together. Fig. 12(a) shows that CoF slightly
decreased after small concentration of nanoparticles was added
into the drilling uid. The MWCNT yielded the lower CoF compared to nanosilica. It may be MWCNT has a cylindrical shape and
porous nanotubes that make the surface area higher compared to
nanosilica. Nanosilica has amorphous nature. Torque reduction
reached 38% and 44% with the addition of nanosilica and MWCNT
to the WBDF. Torque reduction was achieved about 28% by using
ner GBs. Coarse GBs tend to crush during rotation and give the
angular shapes and resulted in higher values of CoF compared to
ner GBs Fig. 12(b). Finer GBs develop an optimum standoff distance and form a slippery layer between the borehole and drill

A.R. Ismail et al. / Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 139 (2016) 264275

Fig. 11. (a) 10-s gel strength for ne and coarse glass beads at different concentration and (b) 10-min gel strength for ne and coarse glass beads at different
concentration.

string and reduce the CoF. Absolute and relative CoF reduction at
different concentrations of ne and coarse GBs are provided in
Table 3. CoF of the MWCNT was between 0.1 and 0.18. It was between 0.1 and 0.2 for nanosilica. Chemistry of reported uids,
operating conditions, surface roughness, absolute and relative CoF
reduction values at different concentrations of nanosilica and
MWCNT in drilling are given in Table 2. However, developed formulations provided high lubricity than basic drilling uid but
showed lower lubricity than nanocomposite based muds reported
by Mao et al. (2015) and Jain et al. (2015). It may be that the use of
barite (50%) in the reported drilling uids increased the surface
roughness. Hence lubricity was reduced. This study presented the
effects of four different primary additives such as MWCNT, nanosilica, GBs (90150 m) and GBs (250425 m) over CoFs at ambient conditions, constant basic drilling uid chemistry and surface roughness of 1 m. However, downhole temperature, surface
roughness, and chemistry of drilling uids could have very signicant impact over the behaviour of CoF found at laboratory scale
(Livescu and Craig, 2014). Mao et al. (2015) found that lubricity of
WBDF improved at HPHT conditions after adding nanosilica/
polyacrylamide nanocomposite. Ettefaghi et al. (2013) found that
thermal conductivity of base uid improved by adding MWCNT,
thus lubricity of the base uid was also increased. Therefore, it is
expected that enhanced heat transfer quality of nanomaterials

271

Fig. 12. (a) Effect of nanoparticles concentration on CoF and (b) effect of ne and
coarse glass beads on CoF.

Table 2
Absolute and relative CoF reductions for nanoparticle based drilling were determined at ambient pressure and temperature. Surface nish and roughness were
metal-to-metal and 1 m. Chemistry of each drilling uids was FW 81%, KCl 11%,
NaOH 0.03%, Flowzan 0.12%, PAC 0.36%, PHPA 0.84%, and Barite 50% with different
types of nanoparticle.
Concentration of
nanoparticles, ppb

0
0.001
0.002
0.01
0.02
0.1
0.2

Nanosilica drilling uids

MWCNT drilling uids

Absolute
CoF
reduction

Relative Cof
Absolute
reduction (%) CoF
reduction

Relative CoF
reduction (%)

0.238
0.187
0.153
0.146
0.169
0.185
0.201

0
21
35
38
29
22
15

0
25
38
44
34
28
22

0.238
0.177
0.146
0.132
0.156
0.171
0.185

such as MWCNT and nanosilica can improve the rheological

properties in particular lubricity at high temperature conditions.
More recently, studies primarily focused on effect of nano-

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A.R. Ismail et al. / Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 139 (2016) 264275

Table 3
Absolute and relative CoF reduction for micron glass beads based drilling were
determined at ambient pressure and temperature. Surface nish and roughness
were metal-to-metal and 1 m. Chemistry of each drilling uids was FW 81%, KCl
11%, NaOH 0.03%, Flowzan 0.12%, PAC 0.36%, PHPA 0.84%, and Barite 50% with
different types of GBs.
Concentration of
glass beads, ppb

0
2
4
6
8
10
12

Glass beads (90150 m)

drilling uids

Glass beads (250425 m)

drilling uids

3.7. Relationship of rheological properties of drilling uids and

coefcient of friction
Relationship of rheological properties of drilling uids and their
CoF was determined by using Pearson's correlation. It is explained
in the correlation that positive coefcient is between 0 and 1.0; if x
increases so does y. Negative coefcient is between 0 and  1.0; if
x increases, y decreases (Hall, 2012). Behaviour of rheological
properties of reported drilling uids showed weak, medium,
strong, and none in relation with their CoFs. Drilling uids formulations showed positive relationship between most of the
rheological properties and their CoFs. Rheological properties of
reported drilling uids were stable at ambient conditions. More
recently, Abduo et al. and Ismail et al. (2014) found that rheological performance of WBDF could improve at HPHT conditions by
adding small concentration of nanomaterial in particular MWCNT.
Behaviour of rheological properties such as PV, YP , FL and CoF was
found stable at HPHT conditions by using nanosilica/polyacrylamide nanocomposite based drilling uids (Mao et al., 2015).
Therefore, it is expected that rheological performance will be
stable at HPHT conditions by using reported nanoparticles such as
MWCNT and nanosilica based drilling uids. It was found that
increase in the rheological properties does increase the CoF.
However, negative relationship was found between both PV and
CoF of GBs (90150 m) and GBs (250425 m) drilling uids as
shown in Table 4. Relationship between rheological properties of
the prepared drilling uids and their CoF is reported in Table 4.
Pearson's correlation condition applied for better understanding
the strength of the relationship between CoF and rheological
properties is provided in Table 5. Moreover, results of present
study were compared with most recent studies. It was found in the
current study that small concentration of nanoparticles has better
effect over rheological performance of WBDF compared to the
most recent studies as shown in Table 6.

Absolute
CoF
reduction

Relative CoF
reduction
(%)

Absolute CoF Relative CoF

reduction
reduction (%)

0.238
0.211
0.169
0.180
0.206
0.208
0.215

0
11
28
24
13
12
9

0.238
0.235
0.206
0.227
0.230
0.234
0.236

0
1
13
4
3
1
0.8

particle and nanocomposite based drilling uids over lubricity at

low temperature conditions (Kania et al., 2015). Little attention has

Table 4
Relationship between rheological properties and CoFs of reported drilling uids.
Drilling uids system

Relationship between
rheological properties
and CoF

MWCNT

PV and CoF
YP and CoF
GS-10 s and CoF
GS-10 min and CoF
API FL and CoF
Nanosilica
PV and CoF
YP and CoF
GS-10 s and CoF
GS-10 min and CoF
API FL and CoF
Glass beads (90150 m)
PV and CoF
YP and CoF
GS-10 s and CoF
GS-10 min and CoF
API FL and CoF
Glass beads (250425 m) PV and CoF
YP and CoF
GS-10 s and CoF
GS-10 min and CoF
API FL and CoF

Correlation Strength of
coefcient relationship

0.77928
0.426466
 0.06234
0.207181
0.610553
0.379583
0.374732
0.781852
0.203438
0.452964
 0.42121
0.432124
0.497869
0.869752
0.038329
 0.07865
0.452392
0.362994
0.6843
0.329358

Strong
Medium
None
Weak
Strong
Medium
Medium
Strong
Weak
Medium
Medium
Medium
Medium
Strong
None
None
Medium
Medium
Strong
Medium

been paid to the effect of lubricants in drilling uids at high

temperature. However, some scientists (Livescu and Craig, 2014;
Table 5
Commonly used scale to identify the strength of correlation coefcient (Hall, 2012).
Negative values

Positive values

Strength of relationship

 0.3 to
 0.5 to
 1.0 to
0 to

0.10.3
0.30.5
0.51.0
00.1

Weak
Medium
Strong
No correlation

 0.1
 0.3
 0.5
 0.1

drilling uids was improved to 4060% at variable eld conditions

such as high temperatures, chemistry of base uids, and surface
roughnesses by using novel lubricants (Livescu and Craig, 2014;
Livescu et al., 2014; Castro et al., 2015).

Livescu et al., 2014; Castro et al., 2015) investigated novel drilling

uids lubricants (currently in eld) with the linear friction tester
at high temperature conditions. Researchers found that lubricity of

4. Conclusion
Experimental work was conducted in conventional WBDF. Nanosilica and MWCNT can be used as rheological modiers for
WBDF. Rheological properties such as PV, YP, GS, API FL and mud
cake thickness were improved by adding the nanoparticles. Only
small concentration of MWCNT and nanosilica was required in
order to improve the drilling uid performance which is about
0.01 g because of the superior behaviour of particles. However, in
case of GBs the better performance of drilling uids was gained by
using 4 ppb concentration of glass beads. Mud cake thickness of
MWCNT and nanosilica was slightly changed from the default
values. However, mud cake thickness of glass beads based drilling
uids showed large values compared to nanoparticle based drilling uids. CoF was minimized by using MWCNT and nanosilica.
However, GBs showed less effect over CoF reduction. Moreover, the
present nanoparticle and micron material based drilling uids
could be investigated at high temperature or bottom hole temperature to insight effects of these conditions over its rheology.
Ongoing work with some novel nanoparticles or nano-micron
composite with improving results will be presented in future.

Table 6
Comparison of present study data with the most recent literature on water-based drilling uids containing nanoparticles.
Rheological
properties

Mao et al. (2015), nanoparticle WBDF

Jain et al. (2015), nanoparticle WBDF

Jain et al. (2015), nanoparticle WBDF

Sadeghalvaad and Sabbaghi (2015),

nanoparticle WBDF

Present study results, nanoparticle WBDF,

Micronmaterial WBDF

PV

16 mPa s at 0.3 g of polymer based silica nanoparticles

composite

20 mPa s at 0.3 g of the

nanocomposite

20 mPa s at 0.3 g of polyacrylamide/

clay composite

22 mPa s at 7 g of TiO2/clay
composite

22 mPa s at 0.2 g of nanosilica

22 mPa s at 0.2 g of MWCNT
30 mPa s at 12 g of GBs (90150 m)
29 mPa s at 12 g of GBs (250425 m)

5.5 mPa s at 0.3 g of the composite

9 Pa s at 0.3 g of the composite

13.5 Pa s at 0.3 g of the composite

Not reported

18.9 mPa s at 0.2 g of nanosilica

18.6 Pa s at 0.2 g of MWCNT
18.9 Pa s at 12 g of GBs (90150 m)
18.9 Pa s at 12 g of GBs (250425 m)

10 s GS

Not reported

3.5 Pa s at 0.3 g of the composite

3 Pa s at 0.3 g of the composite

Not reported

3.3 Pa s
3.8 Pa s
3.3 Pa s
3.3 Pa s

and at 0.2 g of nanosilica

at 0.2 g of MWCNT
at 12 g of GBs (90150 m)
at 12 g of GBs (250450 m)

10 min GS

Not reported

5.5 Pa s at 0.3 g of the composite

5 Pa s at 0.3 g of the composite

Not reported

2.8 Pa s
3.3 Pa s
2.8 Pa s
2.3 Pa s

and at 0.2 g of nanosilica

at 0.2 g of MWCNT
at 12 g of GBs (90150 m)
at 12 g of GBs (250425 m)

API FL

11.6 ml was found at 0.3 g of the composite

7.8 ml of API FL was found at 0.3 g of

the composite

11 ml of API FL was found at 0.3 g of

the composite

19 ml at 14 g of the composite

4.8 ml of API FL was found at 0.01 g of

nanosilica
4.6 ml of API FL was found at 0.01 g of
MWCNT
5.1 ml was found at 4 g of GBs (90150 m)
5.2 ml was found at 4 g of GBs (250425 m)

CoF

CoF was not reported at 0.3 g but it was found 0.057 at

0.5 g of the composite

Not reported

Not reported

Not reported

CoF reduction was 38% at 0.01 g of nanosilica

CoF reduction was 44% at 0.01 g of MWCNT
CoF reduction was 28% at 4 g of GBs (90
150 m)
CoF reduction was 13% at 4 g of GBs (250
425 m)

A.R. Ismail et al. / Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 139 (2016) 264275

YP

273

274

A.R. Ismail et al. / Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 139 (2016) 264275

Acknowledgements
The authors wish to thank the Ministry of Higher Education, Malaysia and Universiti Teknologi Malaysia for funding this project under
Fundamental Research Grant Scheme (vote R.J130000.7842.4F437 and
vote R.J130000.7842.4F551) and Research University Grant (vote Q.
J130000.2542.08H72). We are also grateful to Higher Education
Commission (HEC), Islamabad, Pakistan and Mehran UET SZAB,
Khairpur Mir's Campus, Sindh Pakistan, for providing opportunity to
explore new area of research in the eld of petroleum engineering. We
thank Nusrat Kamal and Radzuan for their guidance. We wish to thank
Jannah and Hasanah who helped in experimental work.

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Further reading
Darley, H.C., Gray, G.R., 1991. Composition and Properties of Drilling and Completion Fluids, fth ed. Gulf Publishing Co, Houston 401-5. https://www.elsevier.
com/books/composition-and-properties-of-drilling-and-completion-uids/un
known/978-0-12-383858-2.
Dzlalowski, A., Hale, A., Mahajan, S., 1993. Lubricity and wear of shale: effects of
drilling uids and mechanical parameters. Paper SPE/IADC 25730, Presented at
the 1993 SPE/IADC Drilling Conference in Amsterdam, February 2325. http://
dx.doi.org/10.2118/25730-MS.