Separation of Solids Control from Drilling Fluids

The types and quantities of solids present in drilling mud systems play major roles in the fluid’s density, viscosity, filter-cake quality/filtration control, and other chemical and mechanical properties. The type of solid and its concentration inflinfluences mud and well costs, including factors such as drilling rate, hydraulics, dilution rate, torque and drag, surge and swab pressures, differential sticking, lost circulation, hole stability, and balling of the bit and the bottom-hole assembly. For more information, you may visit our online company introduction at www.shale-shakers.com which introduces our company in detail and covers the main products we supply.

Insoluble polymers, clay's, and weighting materials are added to drilling mud to achieve various desirable properties. 20 Drilling Fluids Processing Handbook Drilled solids, consisting of rock and low-yielding clay's are incorporated into the mud continuously while drilling. To a limited extent, they can be tolerated and may even be beneficial. Dispersion of clay-bearing drilled solids creates highly charged colloidal particles that generate signficant viscosity, particularly at low shear rates, which aids in suspension of all solids. Above a concentration of a few weight percent, dispersed drilled solids can generate excessive low-shear-rate and high-shear-rate viscountcies, greatly reduced drilling rates, and excessively thick filiter cakes. As shown in Figures 2.3 and 2.4, with increasing mud density , the high-shear-rate viscosity rises continuously even as the concentration of drilled solids is reduced. For more information, you may visit our online company introduction at www.shale-shakers.com which introduces our company in detail and covers the main products we supply.

The methylene blue test is a measure of the surface activity of the solids in the drilling fluid and serves as a relative measure of the amount of active clay's in the system. It does not correspond directly to the concentration of...