COVENANT UNIVERSITY

CANAAN LAND, OTA

PETROLEUM ENGINEERING LABORATORY

RHEOLOGICAL PROPERTIES OF DRILLING FLUID

BY

ANTOINE PIUS
 ABSTRACT

In this experiment the rheological property that would be determined is

viscosity. The accurate measurement of the drilling fluid’s rhelogical
properties is essential for proper hydraulic management. Appropriate
drilling fluid properties can improve drilling efficiency and prevent
accidents. This study summarizes the real time measurement methods
of viscosity. The method used is the marsh funnel method which would
be done using the marsh funnel viscometer. This experiment the
viscosity of three mud samples would be determined (mud sample A, B
and C).

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 TABLE OF CONTENTS
ABSTRACT...................................................................................................1
CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION........................................................................3
CHAPTER 2 EXPERIMENT APPARATUS........................................................4
CHAPTER 3 PROCEDURES...........................................................................7
CHAPTER 4 RESULTS...................................................................................8
CHAPTER 5 DISCUSSION.............................................................................9
CHAPTER 6 CONCLUSION.........................................................................10
REFERENCES..............................................................................................11

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 CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

Viscosity is a measure of the internal resistance of a fluid to flow.The

greater the resistance of a fluid, the higher the viscosity of the fluid. This
is an important property of drilling mud that must be kept within the
designed limits for efficient drilling. The mechanical friction within the
drilling mud is the cause of the viscosity and this collision occurs due to
interaction between solids, the liquids and the deformation of liquid that
is under shear stress. The two instruments to be used in determining the
viscosity of the the drilling fluid are the Marsh Funnel Viscometer and
Rotary Viscometer. The rheological properties of drilling fluids are key
parameters in offshore and onshore operations especially in complex
operations found during deep water drilling. Total driiling cost depends
on several parameters like machinery cost, fluid cost, maintenance cost
and some other parameters. Several types of drilling muds are used
considering both economical and environmental consideration. When
the formation pressure is larger than the drilling mud pressure, blowout
can occur. The additives are added with the drilling mud for special
purposes like decreasing viscosity, increasing gel strength etc. The
tradition drilling fluid used in drilling operations in both onshore and
offshore is Bentonite and in this study the rheological property viscosity
would be determined.

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 CHAPTER 2

EXPERIMENTAL APPARATUS

The various apparatus used for measuring viscosity in the laboratory

include:

1. Marsh Funnel Viscometer: This apparatus is used for routine viscosity

determination. It doesn’t actually give the viscosity but it helps in
measuring the time taken to determine the viscosity. The measurement
obtained is influenced considerably by rate of gelation and by density
which varies the hydrostatic head of the column of mud in the funnel.
Because of these variations, the viscosities obtained with Marsh Funnel
cannot be correlated directly with those found using the Rotary
Viscometer. The Marsh Funnel is 6 inches in diameter at the top and 12
inches long. A 10 mesh screen fitted across one-half of the top remove
foreign matter and cuttings from the mud to be tested.

A Marsh Funnel Viscometer

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2. Measuring Cylinder: The measuring cylinder is a piece of laboratory
equipment used to measure the volume of a liquid. In this experiment it
used in measuring 400ml of water.

3. Bentonite: a material composed of clay minerals commonly used in

drilling mud. Bentonite is used to lubricate, cool the cutting tools and
help to prevent corrosion and blowouts when used in drilling mud.

4. Barite: this material is an additive that serves as a weighting agent

when added to the mud. This helps to add density to the mud sample.

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5. Electronic mud mixer: It is a device used to mix liquid with solid
particles. In the experiment it is used to mix water with bentonite and
barite to prepare the drilling mud.

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 CHAPTER 3

PROCEDURES
1. First the volume of water must be calculated then regarding to the
calculation, the amount of water should be measured.
2. As the Bentonite has calculated in the calculations, Bentonite should
measure using an electronic balance.
3. Then take off all water inside the cup of electronic mixer and carefully
turn it on.
4. Now while the mixer is working, add the Bentonite a little by little into
the water to avoid stacking of mixture.
5. After putting all Bentonite inside water while its mixing together, wait
about 3-4 min till it fully get mixed.
6. Now remove a cup from the mixer and take it to a clean beaker and
put all mud into it then clean the cup and do the same procedure about
5 more times to be sure that you get 1500 ml of drilling mud.
7. Hold the funnel in an upright position with index finger over the
outlet.
8. Mount the mesh with a tripod stand.
9. Close the bottom.
10. Pour the test sample through the screen on top of the funnel until
mud level just reaches the underside of the screen.
11. Place the receiving cup under the mesh.
12. Set the stop watch.
13. Immediately remove finger from the outlet tube and measure the
number of seconds for a quart of the sample to run out.

Maintenance

Clean and dry the apparatus after each use.

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 CHAPTER 4

RESULTS

In this experiment, three different mud samples were prepared and

the viscosity of each sample was measured. The following are the
three mud samples to be prepared and measured:

Sample A: 25g of bentonite + 400ml of water

Sample B: Sample A + 10g of barite

Sample C: Sample B + 2g of salt (NaOH)

The table below shows the time taken to fill the mud cup with 1
quart mud.
SAMPLES TIME (s)
Sample A 31.20
Sample B 32.49
Sample C 40.80

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 CHAPTER 5

DISCUSSION
During the procedure, starting the timers also made some errors about
some milliseconds to one second which can be ignored. Funnel
viscometer should also fix at a point and do not move while the mud
pouring to the cup and also should has no slops as well to avoiding any
kind of errors. The mud viscosity is directly proportional to the mud
density in other words depend on the concentration of solid particles.
However, the mud viscosity will directly have effect on the flow rate of
mud and also effect on mud pumps, in case of high viscosity mud
requires more powerful pump.The aim of experiment is finding a drilling
mud viscosity which composed of bentonite and water using a
viscometer. Theory Drilling mud is a mixture of water and mud (Clay)
addition to some other minerals and special chemical materials called
“additives” (Kate, 1998), that used with water and mixed to maintain
well stability during the process of drilling. Sometimes mud can be non-
aqueous regarding to well condition that can be Oil-Base Mud used
(Simon, 2017). A Successful drilling operation is requiring a good quality
of drilling fluid (Darley et al.,1988). The composition that required for
drilling mud is depend upon the formation stability which wells are drill
through formations with a different type of compositions that require
different types of mud composition (Simon, 2017). The liquid-based mud
which usually composed of a based fluid such as (Oil or Water) with
some weighting additives such as Bentonite and Barite. (Ofi Testing
Equipment inc.,2003). The density of drilling mud is one of the important
parameters which should be first considered. It was a definition
regarding to American Petroleum Institute is matter measured per unit
volume which expressed in pounds per gallon (ppg) (Simon, 2017). The
density is one of parameters that controls formation pressure to avoid
the blowout, and it should be accurately measured in order to provide a
sufficient hydrostatic pressure over the formation pressure to avoid lost
circulation (Geehan et al.,1989; Kruse, 1975). Another important
parameter that effects on mud efficiency is viscosity of mud. The
viscosity is defined as the resistance to flow. Viscosity is measured by a
simple device named funnel viscometer which has conical shape – 152
mm (6") in dimeter at the top and 305 mm (12in) is long with the volume

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of 1500 cc. Also, there is a mesh screen covered a half top of the funnel
which designed to remove any impurities such as drilling cuttings.

CHAPTER 6

CONCLUSION

In conclusion performing this kind of experiment makes students

engage more and gain ability to generate drilling mud as recommended
and be able to measure its viscosity by a simple technique using funnel
viscometer and an equation for finding effective viscosity. The marsh
Funnel viscosity represents the time in seconds that it takes a quart of
fluid (1500 mL) to flow out of a cone via a short cylinder into a graduated
cup. Marsh funnel viscosity is a direct indication of the overall viscosity
of drilling mud. The standard Marsh funnel viscosity of water is
approximately 26 s.

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 REFERENCES

1. Darley, H.C.H. and Gray, G.R. (1988): The composition and Properties
of Drilling and Completion Fluids. 5th Ed. Gulf Publishing Company,
Houston Texas. pp 110.
2. Geehan, T. and Mc Kee.A. (1989): Drilling Muds. Monitoring and
Managing it. Oilfield Review 1(2), pp 41-52.
3. Growcock, F. and Harvey, T. (2005) „Drilling Fluids‟ in ASME, Shale
Shaker Committee. Drilling Fluids Processing Handbook. Oxford: Gulf
Professional Publishing, pp. 15-68.
4. Herzon, S. (2017). LABORATORY PRACTICAL REPORT ON THE FACTORS
THAT AFFECTS THE PROPERTIES OF THE DRILLING MUD DURING
DRILLING PROCESS. [online]
5. Kate, V.D. (1998): Drilling Fluids, Mud Pumps and Conditioning
Equipment.
6. Kruse, C.F. (1975): Lessons in Rotary Drilling, Unit II-Lesson 2 “Drilling
Mud”. 12th Edition. Published by Petroleum Extension Service Industrial
and Business Training Bureau Division of Extension, The University of
Texas. Pp 1-47.
7. M.J. Pitt. (2000): The Marsh Funnel and Drilling Fluid Viscosity: A New
Equation for Field Use. 15th ed. Leeds: Society of Petroleum Engineers,
pp.1-4.

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