7th BALKANMINE CONGRESS – Proceedings, Prijedor 2017

DOI: 10.7251/BMC170701159P

MUD MOBILITY TROUGH THE ANNULUS

Mihajlo PEJIĆ1
1
University in Banja Luka Faculty of Mining Prijedor, e-mail: mihalopejic93@gmail.com

ABSTRACT

This paper presents mud mobility, as displacing of mud during casing operation of cementation and
influence of misaligment casing on displacing process. In the process of preparing the well for the
running casing, the most important factor of the casing is mud preparing. When we speak about mud
(drilling fluid), it can act as a Newtonian fluid such as drilling (water, air, oil, etc.) or as the most
common case, and these are non- Newtonian fluids. During circulation at various flushing capacities,
the mud in the well has a few degrees of flow. Plastic viscosity is an increase in shear stress above the
flow point and is caused by mechanical friction resistance. The installation of casing as a process
requires circulation of the mud before and after the running of the tube, which speaks about the
importance of mud. Under the conditioning of the mud in the preparation well for casing cementation
is meant to: reduce the strength of the gel and reduce its plastic viscosity, thus increasing the
possibility of displacing of the mud from the annulus.

Key words: mud mobility, muddiespalcing, the influence of the non-centering of the casing, the
Newtonian / Non-Newtonian fluids.

1. INTRODUCTION

Drilling process represents a set of different techincal-technological processes realized

through the application of a complex system of conducting and monitoring the works. The
main goal is that the system must always work reliably and safely with minimal cost of
production.
One of the element of technical-technological procedures in the complex drilling system is the
preparation of the well for the running of casing.
Running of casing in the well, means the running pipe in well with a smaller outer diameter
than the borehole diameter. Casing installed in the well have very important functions, both
during drilling and during the lifetime of the exploration.
In the process of preparing the well for the running of the casing, the most important influence
of the pipes is mud.
Circulation with mud before cementation is necessary and has the following functions:
 Circulating in the annulus volume for checking whether there was fluid penetration
into the annulus,
 Clean the borehole from the material when running casing,

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 Erodes a gelatinous or dehydrated mud that is left in extensions and narrowed

spaces (non-centric) between the casing and the borehole wall.

In order for the mud to be able to perform these functions, the characteristics of the mud
before to the cementation process require adjustment of the correction or conditioning.
Correction of the mud characteristics means reduce the strength of the gel, reduce its plastic
viscosity, decrease the density, all in order to better drill the well and later and more
efficiently dispalcing the mud from the annulus.
Changes in the rheological characteristics of the mud should be performed before cementation
so the mud is as efficiently exited from the annular overflow. This, as well as a number of
other conditions between the mud characteristics during running of the casing in the well for
cementation, is the problematic of the subject.

2. RHEOLOGICAL CHARACTERISTICS

Mud can behave like Newtonian fluid such as drilling (water, air, oil, and other) or as is the
case most commonly known as non-Newtonian fluid. Rheology is a part of mechanics and
studies the deformation and flow of matter. When the force acts on the figure causes its
deformation, and in the liquid or liquid fluid such force forces the flow. The flow rate or fluid
flow is divided into two types:
 Continuous flow
 Uncontrolled flow
Continuous flow is the flow that does not change, and there are two types of flow laminar and
turbulent.
Laminated flow is understood to mean the same flow when individual particles tend to move
in straight lines parallel to the course without changing the speed. Turbulent flow is a type of
flow that is characterized by swirling flow of fluid particles within the flow.
Characteristic of uncontroled flow is the description of the motion of the fluid without a
steady flow. The characteristic formation of this flow is at the launch itself, then when the
diameter of the pipe through which the fluid circulates is changed.
Flow rate changes with change of velocity are conditioned by the values of Reynolds number
and critical speeds.
Mud like non-Newtonian fluid differ from Newtonian fluids, and the essential difference is in
the velocity of flow. In Newtonian fluids, the shear stress is directly proportional to the shear
rate and fluid is triggered at the same moment when the force becomes larger than the zero
and that is given with equation:

τ = µ•v (1)
Where:
µ-viscosity
v-shearing speed

Non-Newtonian fluids are fluids in which viscosity is in function of flow conditions. Into the
muds we have two types flow fluids: Bingham's plastic fluids and Psydoplastic fluids.

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Bingham's plastic fluids are those in which the shear stress changes linearly with shear rates
but require a certain force to initiate liquidity unlike Newtonian fluids. Pseudoplastic fluids
are a fluid model that better mimics real fluid flow and is applied to shear rates less than 150.
Applies for muds with a low content solid phase and for low shearing speeds that are being
applied today. Like Newton's liquidity, pseudoplastic fluids are beginning to run at the same
time as some force is applied to them, unlike Newtonian liquids, stress on the shear is not
proportional to the rate of shear. Flow equation:

τ= k•vn (2)

Where:
k-consistency index
nn- index of reactive flow behavior

Figure 1Mud speed profiles

Figure 1 shows the profile of the mud speed depending on the "n" factor. In Bingham's fluids,
the flattening of the flow profile is achieved by increasing the flow rate of the mud and
thereby reducing the relationship between the plastic viscosity and the flow boundary, thus
giving lower "n".In the case of extended channel or winding channel "n" it should be lower
(0.4-0.6).

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3. MUD MOBILITY

The quality of mud is designed to:

 clean the well from the material wound when installing casing,
 check for any fluid flow into the well
 initiated by a gel-like or dehydrated mud that was left in the extensions between the
casing and the borehole wall.
The ability of fluid to develop a gel in inaction is called thixotropy. It is considered that fluid
is thixotropic under the following conditions, when it can:
 to develop a gel at inaction after mixing and
 to take advantage of the prevailing properties after starting
The basic role of thixotropy or mud properties is that when the interrupt circulation with the
development of the gel, it keeps the suppressed particles in a leaking state thus preventing
their deposition. The mud mobility is determined by the following relation :
1
V f  G10 min
Pi = (3)

Where:
Pi-mud mobility
Vf- the filtrate volume (m3)
G10min-minimum strength of the gel

As can be seen from equation (3), the mud is more mobile if the volume of the filtrate and the
strength of the gel are weighed by the minimum values.
Figure 2 shows the percentage of displaced mud in the function of the proportion of the speed
of the cement solution to the annulus and the mud mobility.

Figure 2 Influence mud mobility and speed of the cement solution on the efficiency of displacing

The percentage of displaced mud can be increased by decreasing the filtration rate of mud and
the gel strength.

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4. DISPLACING OF MUD IN CEMENTATION OF CASING (CONDITIONING OF

MUD IN PREPARING THE WELL)

Under the conditioning of the mud in the preparing of the cement borehole is meant to: reduce
the strength of the gel and reduce its plastic viscosity thereby increasing the possibility of
fuller displacing mud from the annulus. In most cases, the reduction of the solid plastic
viscosity gel follows the reduction of the mud density. Therefore, it is very important that
during drilling all the occurrence of mud loss and penetration of layer fluids into the well are
monitored and recorded in order to determine the limit values of the hydrostatic pressures.
Mud in the drilling is designed for the drilling process with properties that correspond to the
conditions under drilling but the efficiency of displacing the one that requires the need to
correct mud properties or improve its rheological properties. Immediately prior to the
beginning of the cementation, the two basic characteristics of the mud must be changed:
density and rheology. Mud density should be changed to the safety margin, because the
density is limited by the pressures of the layers during drilling. The strength of the gel and the
plastic viscosity of the mud are the factors that must also be adjusted to increase its mobility.
Modification of mud rheology can be accomplished by the simple addition of water (which
reduces the density) or the dispersant for mud. It is necessary to circulate the mud while the
rheological properties did not rise in the design range. It is important to circulate one borehole
volume (minimum volume) and should be done before extractiondrill pipes. In other words,
non-conditioned mud have enough time to gelaurate during the pseudostatic period (tool
extraction, EC recording, installation of casing ).
Mud circulation is also necessary after the installation of casing. The two basic rules are
always present when determining the time necessary for the circulation of the mud before the
cementation:
 carry out the circulation in the volume of the annulus for the purpose of checking that
there has been no fluid penetration into the annulus,
 carry out the circulation in the volume of the casing column due to the safety that it
passes through the passage of cement pulp and plugs
This circulation should take the most time-consuming time until 95% of the measured well
volume is circulated. Conditioning of mud at this stage is aimed at :
 clean the well of the coated material, during the installation of casing,
 check the fluid flow in the well,
 homogenizes the mud after treatment in the pools,
 reduces the flow rate and plastic viscosity because most of the muds are thixotropic
 erodes a gelatinous or dehydrated mud that is left in the extensions and in the
narrowed (non-centric) areas between the casing and the borehole wall.

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5. THE INFLUENCE OF THE NON-CENTERING CASING ON DISPLACING

PROCESS

The ideal center of casing is achieved if the outer wall of the casing pipe is far from the wall
of the well for 19.05 mm. . In practice, this is very difficult to achieve so that API 10 D
specification permits the casing to be away from the wall of the well by a maximum of 12.7
mm so that the minimum value of centricity :

12.7
CE= 19.05 = 67% (4)

Centricity is achieved by the arrangement of centralized with elastic or rigid ribs on the
casing. For Fluid Power-Law flow modes where the ratio of the diameter of the borehole and
the casing ∆l the efficiency of the circulation depends of centricity (CE per API standard must
be at least 67%) and from the value of the n- fluid flow index. Typical examples of circulating
efficiency for n = 0.5 are shown in Figure (3).

Figure 3 Efficiency of Power-Law Fluid circulation in noncentric interstate for Dc / D = 0.8 and n = 0.5

Figure 4 Efficiency of circulation for Bingham plastic fluids in noncentric annulus Dc / Db = 0.8 and ζ = 0.174

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Figure 5 Efficiency of circulation for Newton's fluids in noncentric annulus for Dc / Db = 0.8

6. CONCLUSION

In the complete process of installing casing in the well, the most important is rheology
working fluid. Correlation and monitoring of rheological properties such as gel strength,
plastic viscosity in this process have the most important influence. Gel and plastic viscosity
correction aims at achieving greater mud mobility and bigger displacing of the mud from the
annulus. Changing these values of rheological properties is not simply because their change
changes the density of the mud which in no case should be smaller than the safety margin.
When modifying the mud with water or the necessary dispersers to obtain the above-
mentioned characteristics of the mud, these rheological properties have to be established, and
this is done by fluid circulation, at least the size of one well volume. In addition to the above-
mentioned rheological properties that we can cure to some extent in favor of demanding more
efficient and complete displacing there are other influencing parameters on the dipslacing
process of mud such as center annulus and mud flow regime. The influence of centricity of
the annulus on displacing efficiency has been demonstrated that centricity in the case of
greater than 80% achieves very good results of fluid flow efficiency. In cases where the center
intensity of the annulus is less than 80% the displacing efficiency is reduced but is in function
of time and capacity. The main factor is to have the circulation or annulus displacing
completed in one or two cycles or the volume of the borehole, thus the annulus boreholes
have a negative impact on the efficiency of the displacing because it would require a longer
circulation time and correction of the capacity to be supplied to the borehole.

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REFERENCES

1 Petroleum Engineering Handbook , Society of Petroleum Enginers, 2007

2 Neal , J. Adams., Drilling Engineering, Tulsa , Penn Well PublishingCompany,1985
3 Preston , L. Moore., Drilling Practices Manual, 1986
4 Drilling Fluids Technology, Exxon Company USA, ( August 1996)
5 Bizjak, Renato, Design of the exploitation column of casing pipes in wells, DIT Professional Journal, No.
13, 1988
6 Bizjak, Renato, Drilling technology with design, Novi Sad, DIT NIS- Naftagas, 2004

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