Faculty of Engineering

Petroleum Engineering Department

Drilling Engineering I
Third Stage

Lecture # 8
Circulation System

Pshtiwan Jaf 1
[email protected]
 Circulation System
Overview
• Circulation System Equipment
• Mud Circulation Process
• Mud Pumps
• Solids Control Equipment

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 Circulation System
Circulating System
Circulating equipment includes:
• Mud tanks
• Suction line
• Mud pump
• Discharge line
• Stand pipe
• Rotary hose
• Swivel (or top drive)
• Kelly (on rigs with a rotary-table system)
• Drill pipes, drill collars and Bit
• Annulus
• Mud return line
• Shale shaker, desilter and desander
• Others… 3
 Circulation System
Mud Circulation Process
• The mud pump takes mud from the mud tanks through the suction line and sends it out
a discharge line to a standpipe.

• The standpipe is a steel pipe mounted vertically on one leg of the mast or derrick.

• Mud flows out of the standpipe and into the rotary hose, which is connected to the
swivel on rotary-table system rigs or to the top drive.

• Mud goes down the kelly on rigs with a rotary table; on rigs with a top drive, mud goes
through passageways inside it.

• Once it leaves the kelly or the top drive, mud flows down the drill stem, out the bit.

• It does a sharp U turn and heads back up the hole in the annulus.

• As it flows up the annulus, the mud carries the cuttings made by the bit. 4
 Circulation System
Mud Circulation Process, cont.
• Finally, the mud leaves the hole through a steel pipe called the "mud return line" and
falls over a vibrating, screen like device called the "shale shaker".
• The shale shaker is appropriately named, for it rapidly vibrates or shakes as the mud
returning from the hole falls over it. The shale shaker acts like a sifter and screens out
the cuttings.
• Except in environmentally sensitive areas on land, the cuttings fall into the reserve pit,
the earthen pit excavated when the site was being prepared.
• In areas where the contractor cannot use a reserve pit because of environmental
reasons, the shaker dumps the cuttings into a special receptacle.
• Later, the cuttings are properly disposed off.
• Then the mud drains back into the mud tanks where the mud pump recycles it
downhole.
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 Circulation System
Mud Circulation Process, cont.
• The circulating system is essentially a closed system. The system circulates the mud over
and over throughout the drilling of the well.
• From time to time, however, crew members may add water, clay, or other chemicals to
make up for losses or to adjust the mud's properties as the hole drills into new and
different formations.
• Several pieces of auxiliary equipment keep the mud in good shape. The shale shaker
sifts out the normal-sized cuttings.
• Sometimes, though, the bit creates particles so small that they fall through the shaker
with the mud.
• So, after the mud passes through the shale shaker, the system sends the mud through
desanders, desilters, degaser, and mud centrifuges. These pieces of equipment
remove fine particles, or small solids, to keep them from contaminating the drilling
mud.
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 Circulation System
Mud Circulation Process, cont.
• A degasser removes small amounts of gas that enter the drilling mud as it
circulates past a formation that contains gas.

• A degasser is used when the amount of gas is not enough to make the well a
producer; instead, it is just enough to contaminate the mud.

• The driller cannot recirculate this gas-cut mud back into the hole because the gas
makes the mud lighter, or less dense.

• If the mud gets too light, the well can kick (formation fluids under pressure can
enter the hole). If not handled properly, a kick can lead to a blowout.

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 Circulation System
Mud Circulation Process, cont.
• To add non-corrosive and non-caustic powdered components to the drilling mud,
the derrickman often uses a mud hopper.

• The derrickman opens the sack of material, places it at the top of the hopper's
large funnel, and gradually adds the powder to the funnel.

• At the bottom of the hopper, a high-speed stream of mud picks up the powdered
material, thoroughly mixes it, and puts it into the mud tanks.

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Circulation System
Circulation System

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 Circulation System
Mud Pumps
• There are two types of pumps used in the oil
industry: Duplex (Two cylinders) and Triplex (Three
cylinders).
• The duplex pumps generally are double-acting
pumps that pump on both forward and backward
piston strokes.
• The triplex pumps generally are single-acting pumps
that pump only on forward piston strokes.
• Triplex pumps are lighter and more compact than
duplex pumps, their output pressure pulsations are
not as great and they are cheaper to operate.
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 Circulation System
Mud Pumps, cont.

• Duplex

• Triplex
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 Circulation System
Pumps Efficiency
• The overall efficiency of a mud circulating pump is the product of the mechanical
and the volumetric efficiency.
• Mechanical efficiency is related to the efficiency of the prime mover itself and the
linkage to the pump drive shaft.
• Volumetric efficiency of a pump whose suction is adequately charged can be as
high as 100%.
• Most manufacturers’ tables rate pumps using a mechanical efficiency (Em) of 90%
and a volumetric efficiency (Ev) of 100%.

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 Circulation System
Pumps Arrangements
• There will be at least two pumps on the rig and these will be connected by a mud
manifold.
• At shallow depths they are usually connected in parallel to deliver high flow rates.
As the well goes deeper the pumps may act in series to provide high pressure and
lower flow rates.

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 Circulation System
Pump Displacement (Pump Factor)
• The volumetric displacement from a double-acting pump is the function of the
piston rod diameter (dr), the liner diameter (dL), and the stroke length (Ls).

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 Circulation System
Pump Displacement (Pump Factor), cont.
• On the forward stroke of each piston, the volume displaced is given by:
𝜋
𝑑𝐿 2 𝐿𝑠
4
• Similarly, on the backward stroke of each piston, the volume displaced is given by:
𝜋
(𝑑𝐿 2 − 𝑑𝑟 2 ) 𝐿𝑠
4
• Thus, the total volume displaced by a pump having two cylinders is given by:
𝜋
𝐹𝑝 = 𝐿𝑠 (2 𝑑𝐿 2 − 𝑑𝑟 2 )𝐸𝑣
2
• Where Fp is the pump displacement per cycle, which is commonly called pump factor.
• For a single-acting (triplex) pump, the pump factor is given by:
3𝜋
𝐹𝑝 = 𝐿𝑠 𝑑𝐿 2 𝐸𝑣
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 Circulation System
Pump Horsepower
• The flow rate (Q) of the pump is obtained by multiplying the pump factor by N
(number of cycles or strokes per unit time).
• The Power output of a mud pump is measured in Hydraulic Horsepower. The
horsepower delivered by a pump can be calculated from the following:

𝑃𝑄
𝐻𝐻𝑃 =
1714
• Where:
HHP: horsepower
Q: flow rate (gpm)
P: discharge pressure (psi) 16
 Circulation System
Example 1:
Calculate the power requirement for the following pump:
Flow rate = 800 gpm
Pressure = 1500 psi
Mechanical Efficiency = 0.9

Solution:
𝑃𝑄 1500 × 800
𝐻𝐻𝑃 = = = 700.12 ℎ𝑝
1714 1714
The requirement power = 700.12/0.9 = 777.91 hp.
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 Circulation System
Example 2:
Compute the pump factor in barrels per stroke for a duplex pump having 6.5''
liners, 2.5'' rod, 18'' strokes and a volumetric efficiency of 90%.
Solution:
𝜋 2 2
𝐹𝑝 = 𝐿𝑠 (2 𝑑𝐿 − 𝑑𝑟 )𝐸𝑣
2
𝜋 2 2 𝑖𝑛 3
𝐹𝑝 = 18 2 × 6.5 − 2.5 0.9 = 1991.22 ൗ𝑠𝑡𝑟𝑜𝑘𝑒
2
= 0.205 𝑏𝑏𝑙 Τ𝑠𝑡𝑟𝑜𝑘𝑒

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 Circulation System
Example 3:
A 6 x 18-in. (liner size x stroke length) duplex double acting pump has volumetric
efficiency of 87%. The rod size is 2 in. The pump rate is 48 spm. The 10000 ft, 4 ½
-in. drillstring has a capacity of 0.01422 bbl/ft. the 4 ½ x 8 ½ in. annulus (10000 ft)
has a capacity of 0.05 bbl/ft. (neglect the drill collars). Determine:
1) The volumetric output per stroke. 1) 0.172 bbl/strok.
2) The output per minute. 2) 8.256 bbl/min.
3) The strokes and minutes to displace the drillsting. 3) 827 strokes & 17.2 min.
4) The strokes and minute to displace the annulus. 4) 2907 strokes & 60.6 min.

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 Circulation System
H.W.:
A drillstring is composed of 9400 ft of 5₺ OD by 4.276₺ ID, 19.5 Ib/ft drillpipe and
600 ft of 8₺ OD by 2.75₺ ID drill collars when drilling a 10₺ borehole. Compute the
number of pump cycles required to circulate mud from the surface to the bit and
from the bottom of the hole to the surface if the pump factor is 0.18 bbl/cycle.
Assume that the capacity of the surface tubular is 8.3 bbl.

Solution:
???????????

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