Real-Time Determination of Rheological Properties of Spud Drilling Fluids Using a Hybrid Artificial Intelligence Technique

2019 ◽  
Vol 141 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Khaled Abdelgawad ◽  
Salaheldin Elkatatny ◽  
Tamer Moussa ◽  
Mohamed Mahmoud ◽  
Shirish Patil

The rheological properties of the drilling fluid play a key role in controlling the drilling operation. Knowledge of drilling fluid rheological properties is very crucial for drilling hydraulic calculations required for hole cleaning optimization. Measuring the rheological properties during drilling sometimes is a time-consuming process. Wrong estimation of these properties may lead to many problems, such as pipe sticking, loss of circulation, and/or well control issues. The aforementioned problems increase the non-productive time and the overall cost of the drilling operations. In this paper, the frequent drilling fluid measurements (mud density, Marsh funnel viscosity (MFV), and solid percent) are used to estimate the rheological properties of bentonite spud mud. Artificial neural network (ANN) technique was combined with the self-adaptive differential evolution algorithm (SaDe) to develop an optimum ANN model for each rheological property using 1029 data points. The SaDe helped to optimize the best combination of parameters for the ANN models. For the first time, based on the developed ANN models, empirical equations are extracted for each rheological parameter. The ANN models predicted the rheological properties from the mud density, MFV, and solid percent with high accuracy (average absolute percentage error (AAPE) less than 5% and correlation coefficient higher than 95%). The developed apparent viscosity model was compared with the available models in the literature using the unseen dataset. The SaDe-ANN model outperformed the other models which overestimated the apparent viscosity of the spud drilling fluid. The developed models will help drilling engineers to predict the rheological properties every 15–20 min. This will help to optimize hole cleaning and avoid pipe sticking and loss of circulation where bentonite spud mud is used. No additional equipment or special software is required for applying the new method.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mehrdad Gharib Shirangi ◽  
Roger Aragall ◽  
Reza Ettehadi ◽  
Roland May ◽  
Edward Furlong ◽  
...  

Abstract In this work, we present our advances to develop and apply digital twins for drilling fluids and associated wellbore phenomena during drilling operations. A drilling fluid digital twin is a series of interconnected models that incorporate the learning from the past historical data in a wide range of operational settings to determine the fluids properties in realtime operations. From several drilling fluid functionalities and operational parameters, we describe advancements to improve hole cleaning predictions and high-pressure high-temperature (HPHT) rheological properties monitoring. In the hole cleaning application, we consider the Clark and Bickham (1994) approach which requires the prediction of the local fluid velocity above the cuttings bed as a function of operating conditions. We develop accurate computational fluid dynamics (CFD) models to capture the effects of rotation, eccentricity and bed height on local fluid velocities above cuttings bed. We then run 55,000 CFD simulations for a wide range of operational settings to generate training data for machine learning. For rheology monitoring, thousands of lab experiment records are collected as training data for machine learning. In this case, the HPHT rheological properties are determined based on rheological measurement in the American Petroleum Institute (API) condition together with the fluid type and composition data. We compare the results of application of several machine learning algorithms to represent CFD simulations (for hole cleaning application) and lab experiments (for monitoring HPHT rheological properties). Rotating cross-validation method is applied to ensure accurate and robust results. In both cases, models from the Gradient Boosting and the Artificial Neural Network algorithms provided the highest accuracy (about 0.95 in terms of R-squared) for test datasets. With developments presented in this paper, the hole cleaning calculations can be performed more accurately in real-time, and the HPHT rheological properties of drilling fluids can be estimated at the rigsite before performing the lab experiments. These contributions advance digital transformation of drilling operations.


2021 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jinliang Liu ◽  
Fengshan Zhou ◽  
Fengyi Deng ◽  
Hongxing Zhao ◽  
Zhongjin Wei ◽  
...  

Abstract Most of bentonite used in modern drilling engineering is physically and chemically modified calcium bentonite. However, with the increase of drilling depth, the bottom hole temperature may reach 180 °C, thus a large amount of calcium bentonite used in the drilling fluid will be unstable. This paper covers three kinds of calcium bentonite with poor rheological properties at high temperature, such as apparent viscosity is greater than 45 mPa·s or less than 10 mPa·s, API filtration loss is greater than 25 mL/30 min, which are diluted type, shear thickening type and low-shear type, these defects will make the rheological properties of drilling fluid worse. The difference is attributed to bentonite mineral composition, such as montmorillonite with good hydration expansion performance. By adding three kinds of heat-resistant water-soluble copolymers Na-HPAN (hydrolyzed polyacrylonitrile sodium), PAS (polycarboxylate salt) and SMP (sulfomethyl phenolic resin), the rheological properties of calcium bentonite drilling fluids can be significantly improved. For example, the addition of 0.1 wt% Na-HPAN and 0.1 wt% PAS increased the apparent viscosity of the XZJ calcium bentonite suspension from 4.5 to 19.5 mPa·s at 180 °C, and the filtration loss also decreased from 20.2 to 17.8 mL.


Sensors ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (10) ◽  
pp. 2787
Author(s):  
Ahmed Gowida ◽  
Salaheldin Elkatatny ◽  
Khaled Abdelgawad ◽  
Rahul Gajbhiye

High-bentonite mud (HBM) is a water-based drilling fluid characterized by its remarkable improvement in cutting removal and hole cleaning efficiency. Periodic monitoring of the rheological properties of HBM is mandatory for optimizing the drilling operation. The objective of this study is to develop new sets of correlations using artificial neural network (ANN) to predict the rheological parameters of HBM while drilling using the frequent measurements, every 15 to 20 min, of mud density (MD) and Marsh funnel viscosity (FV). The ANN models were developed using 200 field data points. The dataset was divided into 70:30 ratios for training and testing the ANN models respectively. The optimized ANN models showed a significant match between the predicted and the measured rheological properties with a high correlation coefficient (R) higher than 0.90 and a maximum average absolute percentage error (AAPE) of 6%. New empirical correlations were extracted from the ANN models to estimate plastic viscosity (PV), yield point (YP), and apparent viscosity (AV) directly without running the models for easier and practical application. The results obtained from AV empirical correlation outperformed the previously published correlations in terms of R and AAPE.


Energies ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (10) ◽  
pp. 1880 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ahmed Gowida ◽  
Salaheldin Elkatatny ◽  
Emad Ramadan ◽  
Abdulazeez Abdulraheem

Calcium chloride brine-based drill-in fluid is commonly used within the reservoir section, as it is specially formulated to maximize drilling experience, and to protect the reservoir from being damaged. Monitoring the drilling fluid rheology including plastic viscosity, P V , apparent viscosity, A V , yield point, Y p , flow behavior index, n , and flow consistency index, k , has great importance in evaluating hole cleaning and optimizing drilling hydraulics. Therefore, it is very crucial for the mud rheology to be checked periodically during drilling, in order to control its persistent change. Such properties are often measured in the field twice a day, and in practice, this takes a long time (2–3 h for taking measurements and cleaning the instruments). However, mud weight, M W , and Marsh funnel viscosity, M F , are periodically measured every 15–20 min. The objective of this study is to develop new models using artificial neural network, ANN, to predict the rheological properties of calcium chloride brine-based mud using M W and M F measurements then extract empirical correlations in a white-box mode to predict these properties based on M W and M F . Field measurements, 515 points, representing actual mud samples, were collected to build the proposed ANN models. The optimized parameters of these models resulted in highly accurate results indicated by a high correlation coefficient, R, between the predicted and measured values, which exceeded 0.97, with an average absolute percentage error, AAPE, that did not exceed 6.1%. Accordingly, the developed models are very useful for monitoring the mud rheology to optimize the drilling operation and avoid many problems such as hole cleaning issues, pipe sticking and loss of circulation.


2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 18
Author(s):  
Bayan Qadir Sofy Hussein ◽  
Khalid Mahmood Ismael Sharbazheri ◽  
Nabil Adiel Tayeb Ubaid

The rheological properties of drilling fluids have an important role in providing a stable wellbore and eliminating the borehole problems. Several materials including polymers (xanthan gum) can be used to improve these properties. In this study, the effect of the local Katira, as a new polymer, on the rheological properties of the drilling fluids prepared as the bentonite-water-based mud has been investigated in comparison with the conventional xanthan gum. Experimental work was done to study of rheological properties of several gums such as, local katira gum, and xanthan gum bentonite drilling mud. Different samples of drilling fluids are prepared adding the xanthan gum and local katira to the base drilling fluid at different concentrations using Hamilton Beach mixer. The prepared samples are passed through rheological property tests including the apparent viscosity, plastic viscosity, and yield point (YP) under different temperature conditions. The obtained results show that the viscosity is increased from 5 to 8.5 cp and YP is increased from 18.5 to 30.5 lb/100 ft2, with increasing the concentration of the xanthan gum from 0.1 to 0.4. However, the effect of the local katira in increasing the viscosity and YP is lower compared with the xanthan gum, which are ranged between 5–6 cp and 18.5–20.5 cp.


Author(s):  
Qian Ding ◽  
Baojiang Sun ◽  
Zhiyuan Wang ◽  
Yonghai Gao ◽  
Yu Gao ◽  
...  

Abstract In deep-water drilling, the drilling fluid is affected by the alternating temperature field derived from the low temperature of the seawater and the high temperature of the formation. The complicated wellbore temperature and pressure environments make the prediction of rheological properties of the drilling fluid difficult. In this study, the rheological properties of water-based drilling fluid in full temperature and pressure range of deep-water conditions were tested from 2 to 150 °C (35.6 to 302 °F) and 0.1 to 70 MPa (14.5 to 10000psi). The experiment was carried out by the OFI130-77 high temperature and high pressure rheometer. The experimental data were processed by multiple regression analysis method, and the mathematical model for predicting the apparent viscosity, plastic viscosity and yield point of water-based drilling fluid under high temperature and high pressure conditions was established. The experimental results show that when the temperature is lower than 65 °C (149 °F), the apparent viscosity and plastic viscosity of the water-based drilling fluid decrease significantly with increasing temperature. When the temperature is higher than 65 °C (149 °F), the apparent viscosity and plastic viscosity decrease slowly. Under low temperature conditions, the effect of pressure on the apparent viscosity and plastic viscosity of water-based drilling fluids is relatively significant. The calculated values of the prediction model have a good agreement with the experimental measurements. Compared with the traditional model, this prediction model has a significant improvement in the prediction accuracy in the low temperature section, which can provide a calculation basis for on-site application of deepwater drilling fluid.


Author(s):  
Benjamin Werner ◽  
Velaug Myrseth ◽  
Bjørnar Lund ◽  
Arild Saasen ◽  
Zalpato Ibragimova ◽  
...  

Drilling fluids play an important role in safe and efficient drilling operations. Wellbore stability, formation integrity, drill string lubrication, and cuttings transport are among their main requirements. The removal of a cuttings bed is one of the major difficulties while trying to keep up a steady drilling progress. Deviated and long horizontal wellbore sections provide challenges not only to the drilling equipment in use, but also to the fluids. Cuttings accumulate easily on the bottom of a wellbore section due to gravity and can therefore reduce hole cleaning efficiency. Cuttings transport is highly dependent on the properties of the drilling fluid. Viscosity, density and gel strength are among the key parameters. Drilling fluids have in general a complex composition with either water or oil as a base substance. Demanding operating conditions, for example high temperature difference from topside to the deep downhole sections or varying shear rates throughout the wellbore, also influence the properties of the fluids during operation. Drilling fluids have to be adapted to all these different drilling situations. The aim of the full project is to compare different water- and oil-based drilling fluids regarding their hole cleaning abilities. As part of the experimental study where drilling fluids are circulated in a 10 m long flow-loop test section with a free-whirling rotating inner drill string, rheological characterization with an Anton Paar MCR rheometer is performed. These measurements include determination of flow properties, yield stress and viscosity-temperature dependence. The results are correlated with the industry standard procedures for the testing of drilling-fluid properties with Fann 35 viscometers (API/ ISO standards). Measurements performed on viscometers at the oil rigs are done to receive fast results in order to control the drilling operation. In contrast, rheometer measurements provide the possibility of a deeper comprehension of the rheological properties of the drilling fluids due to the advanced measurement system. This work presents rheological properties for a typical oil-based drilling fluid commonly used on the Norwegian Continental Shelf, and includes a comparison with two other oil-based drilling fluids based on previously published work. The rheometer results are analyzed in relation to the flow loop experiments and to the viscosity data measured in accordance with the API/ISO specifications. The results from the rheological comparison together with the results from the flow-loop experiments are expected to make an influencing contribution to the question of why various drilling fluids perform so differently in terms of cuttings transport.


2014 ◽  
Vol 136 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Arild Saasen

Controlling the annular frictional pressure losses is important in order to drill safely with overpressure without fracturing the formation. To predict these pressure losses, however, is not straightforward. First of all, the pressure losses depend on the annulus eccentricity. Moving the drillstring to the wall generates a wider flow channel in part of the annulus which reduces the frictional pressure losses significantly. The drillstring motion itself also affects the pressure loss significantly. The drillstring rotation, even for fairly small rotation rates, creates unstable flow and sometimes turbulence in the annulus even without axial flow. Transversal motion of the drillstring creates vortices that destabilize the flow. Consequently, the annular frictional pressure loss is increased even though the drilling fluid becomes thinner because of added shear rate. Naturally, the rheological properties of the drilling fluid play an important role. These rheological properties include more properties than the viscosity as measured by API procedures. It is impossible to use the same frictional pressure loss model for water based and oil based drilling fluids even if their viscosity profile is equal because of the different ways these fluids build viscosity. Water based drilling fluids are normally constructed as a polymer solution while the oil based are combinations of emulsions and dispersions. Furthermore, within both water based and oil based drilling fluids there are functional differences. These differences may be sufficiently large to require different models for two water based drilling fluids built with different types of polymers. In addition to these phenomena washouts and tool joints will create localised pressure losses. These localised pressure losses will again be coupled with the rheological properties of the drilling fluids. In this paper, all the above mentioned phenomena and their consequences for annular pressure losses will be discussed in detail. North Sea field data is used as an example. It is not straightforward to build general annular pressure loss models. This argument is based on flow stability analysis and the consequences of using drilling fluids with different rheological properties. These different rheological properties include shear dependent viscosity, elongational viscosity and other viscoelastic properties.


Author(s):  
Jan David Ytrehus ◽  
Ali Taghipour ◽  
Sneha Sayindla ◽  
Bjørnar Lund ◽  
Benjamin Werner ◽  
...  

One important requirement for a drilling fluid is the ability to transport the cuttings out of the borehole. Improved hole cleaning is a key to solve several challenges in the drilling industry and will allow both longer wells and improved quality of well construction. It has been observed, however, that drilling fluids with similar properties according to the API standard can have significantly different behavior with respect to hole cleaning performance. The reasons for this are not fully understood. This paper presents results from flow loop laboratory tests without and with injected cuttings size particles using a base oil and a commercial oil based drilling fluid. The results demonstrate the importance of the rheological properties of the fluids for the hole cleaning performance. A thorough investigation of the viscoelastic properties of the fluids was performed with a Fann viscometer and a Paar-Physica rheometer, and was used to interpret the results from the flow loop experiments. Improved understanding of the fluid properties relevant to hole cleaning performance will help develop better models of wellbore hydraulics used in planning of well operations. Eventually this may lead to higher ROP with water based drilling fluids as obtained with oil based drilling fluids. This may ease cuttings handling in many operations and thereby significantly reduce the drilling cost using (normally) more environmentally friendly fluids. The experiments have been conducted as part of an industry-sponsored research project where understanding the hole cleaning performance of various oil and water based drilling fluids is the aim. The experiments have been performed under realistic conditions. The flow loop includes a 10 meter long test section with 2″ OD freely rotating drillstring inside a 4″ ID wellbore made of concrete. Sand particles were injected while circulating the drilling fluid through the test section in horizontal position.


2012 ◽  
Vol 490-495 ◽  
pp. 3114-3118
Author(s):  
Xiao Ling Jiang ◽  
Zong Ming Lei ◽  
Kai Wei

With six-speed rotary viscometer measuring the rheology of drilling fluid at low temperature, during the high-speed process, the drilling fluid temperature is not constant at low temperature, which leads to the inaccuracy in rheological measurement. When R/S rheometer is used cooperating with constant low-temperature box , the temperature remains stable during the process of determining the drilling fluid rheology under low temperature. The R/S rheometer and the six-speed rotational viscometer are both coaxial rotational viscometers, but they work in different ways and the two cylindrical clearance between them are different.How to make two viscometer determination result can maintain consistent?The experimental results show that, The use of R/S rheometer, with the shear rate for 900s-1 shear stress values instead of six speed rotary viscometer shear rate for 1022s-1 shear stress values.Then use two-point formula to calculate rheological parameters.The R/S rheometer rheological parameter variation with temperature has a good linear relationship,Can better reflect the rheological properties of drilling fluids with low temperature changerule


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document