What is solid control equipment?

What is solid control equipment?

Solids control is a process used in drilling rigs which use drilling fluid. It involves separating the “cuttings” (drilled material) from the fluid, allowing it to be recirculated or discharged to the environment.

What is the objective of solids control in weighted mud systems?

Reduction of differential pressure sticking. Reduction of cementing problems. More positive control of mud rheology. Reduction of total waste volume.

How do shale shakers work?

Shale shakers are components of drilling equipment used in many industries, such as coal cleaning, mining, oil and gas drilling. Once processed by the shale shakers the drilling fluid is deposited into the mud tanks where other solid control equipment begin to remove the finer solids from it.

What size contaminants do shale shaker remove?

A desilter uses smaller hydrocyclones (usually 4″ or 5″ I.D.) than a desander and therefore, generally removes smaller particles. The smaller cones enable a desilter to make the finest particle size separation of any full flow solids control equipment—removing solids in the range of 15 μm and larger.

What is G Force in shale shaker?

Most shaker baskets are vibrated with a 5-hp or smaller motor and produce 2–7 g’s of thrust to the vibrating basket. Conventional shale shakers usually produce a g factor of less than 3; fine-screen shale shakers usually provide a g factor of between 4 and 6. Some shale shakers can provide as much as 8 g’s.

What equipment is commonly used to treat mud?

Desander and desilter are solid control equipment with a set of hydrocyclones that separate sand and silt from the drilling fluids in drilling rigs. Desanders are installed on top of the mud tank following the shale shaker and the degasser, but before the desilter.

Why is barite used as drilling mud?

Barite increases the hydrostatic pressure of the drilling mud allowing it to compensate for high-pressure zones experienced during drilling. The softness of the mineral also prevents it from damaging drilling tools during drilling and enables it to serve as a lubricant.

Which type of clay is used as a drilling mud?

bentonite clay

What are the types of drilling mud?

There are three main types of drilling mud: water-based, oil-based and synthetic-based.

What is the difference between drilling fluid and drilling mud?

Both liquid and mud are used to drill boreholes but the composition is different. One term is often used for the other, but strictly speaking gaseous drilling fluid, using an array of gases, is a fluid. But fluids that are water or oil based are called mud.

What are the types of drilling waste?

There are three options of drilling waste disposal, which are offshore disposal, onshore disposal and drill cutting re-injections. Offshore disposal is limited by the regulations while onshore disposal can give additional liability at the disposal site.

What controls the size of particles removed during drilling?

It is possible to determine the amount of particles in each size range being removed by using the flow rates and the percentage of solids in each stream that fall in a particular category. The solids in each stream must be analyzed to determine the percentage of that solids size range in each stream.

Are drill cuttings hazardous?

At the same time, oil-based drill cuttings are regarded as hazardous waste by many countries. Not only are they difficult to handle, but improper treatments of them will pose a serious problem to the environment and human health [2].

Is drilling mud hazardous?

Drilling fluids perform various functions. They lubricate drill bits, remove cuttings, and provide a barrier for well control. Inhalation of vapours or skin contact can cause serious health issues, though. Drilling fluids can contain any mix of hundreds of chemicals.

What is the pH of drilling mud?

Drilling fluid additives were developed to be mixed with water with a pH level from 8.5 to 10 in order for the required chemical reaction to occur and to provide a proper yield. Most water sources range from 5.5 to 7.5 which is too low.

What happens to drilling mud?

Most water-based muds are simply disposed of after the drilling job is completed, but many oil- and synthetic-based muds can be recycled. Drill cuttings can also be recycled and reused, after the hydrocarbons are removed.

What is the function of drilling mud?

The function of drilling muds conduct cuttings away from the drill face, provide a hydrostatic head that counters the pressure of gas or oil, and provide a physical and chemical means of stabilizing and protecting the rock formation that is being drilled.

How mud plays an important role in well control system?

volume of mud in the mud pit increases when no additional drilling fluids are added to the mud system (primary indicator of a kick): For the same reasons as mentioned above, if the volume of mud in the mud pits increases when no additional fluids have intentionally added, then the increased volume is caused by …

What is invert drilling mud?

Invert mud is an oil-based drilling fluid that generally consists of diesel oil with brine carried as the internal phase in a stable emulsion. Organophilic clays are often used for additional viscosity and fluid loss control, and barite is the common weighting material.

What are the three major roles of drilling fluid?

Drilling fluids serve many functions: controlling formation pressures, removing cuttings from the wellbore, sealing permeable formations encoun-tered while drilling, cooling and lubricating the bit, transmitting hydraulic energy to downhole tools and the bit and, perhaps most important, maintaining wellbore stability …

What are the five key functions of drilling fluid?

Functions of drilling fluid

  • Transport cuttings to surface.
  • Prevent well-control issues.
  • Preserve wellbore stability.
  • Minimize formation damage.
  • Cool and lubricate the drillstring.
  • Provide information about the wellbore.
  • Minimize risk to personnel, the environment, and drilling equipment.

What is a drilling process?

Drilling is a cutting process that uses a drill bit to cut a hole of circular cross-section in solid materials. Instead, the hole is usually made by hammering a drill bit into the hole with quickly repeated short movements.

What is the difference between yield point and gel strength?

Difference between Gel Strength. Gel strength measurements denote the thixotropic properties of the mud. They are a measure of the attractive forces under static or-non-flow conditions whereas on the other hand Yield point is a measurement of attractive forces under flowing conditions.

How is gel strength measured?

Gel strengths may be measured after allowing the mud to stand quiescent for any time interval of interest, but they are routinely measured after 10 seconds (initial gel strength) and 10 minutes. The dial reading gives the gel strength directly in pounds per hundred square feet.

What is gel strength of drilling mud?

The gel strength is the shear stress of drilling mud that is measured at a low shear rate after the drilling mud has been static for a certain period of time.

What is yield point in drilling mud?

Yield Point (YP) is resistance of initial flow of fluid or the stress required in order to move the fluid. It can be simply stated that the Yield Point (YP) is the attractive force among colloidal particles in drilling fluid.

What is yield stress formula?

The most common engineering approximation for yield stress is the 0.2 percent offset rule. To apply this rule, assume that yield strain is 0.2 percent, and multiply by Young’s Modulus for your material: σ = 0.002 × E \sigma = 0.002\times E σ=0.

How do you calculate yield point?

The yield point is defined by the corresponding yield stress and yield strain. In engineering terms, the work-to-yield is approximately determined by ½ (yield stress × yield strain) because of the rough triangular shape of the stress–strain curve up to the yield point.

What is Tau 0 in drilling fluids?

The parameter to (or tau zero) is the fluid’s yield stress at zero shear rate (O rpm). The YPL model “works well for water-based and oil-based drilling fluids because both exhibit shear-thinning behavior and have a shear stress at zero shear rate.