Environmentally Friendly Additives for Aqueous Drilling Fluid Systems: Optimum Flow Characteristics and Models

Abstract

Recently, renewable additives are incorporated to design novel drilling fluid formulations with properties meeting the needs of downhole atmospheres and environmental regulations. The work deals with the investigation, optimization, and modeling of the rheological properties of new aqueous drilling fluid systems incorporated with green sliver nanoparticles and mastic gum and the estimation and optimization of the flow mathematical models. The average range of the experimental values for apparent viscosity, plastic viscosity, yield point, and low-shear-rate yield point for the prepared drilling fluids are 22-38 cP, 8-24 cP, 26-32 lb/100ft2, 18-35 lb/100ft2 respectively, while the optimum values estimated by ANOVA are 38.79 cP, 25.12 cP, 33.47 lb/100ft2, and 42.16 lb/100ft2 respectively. The optimum rheological properties are achieved by incorporating 17.07 ml of mastic gum and 1.6 ml of silver NPs colloids. The outcomes showed that the green additives looked talented to be applied for governing drilling fluid characteristics within the oil industry-recommended standards. The results of modeling the flow of the optimized drilling fluid indicated that it is Pseudo plastic fluid that exhibited non-Newtonian behavior and shear thinning. The Bingham-plastic flow model was explored to be the topmost model that can describe the flow behavior of the optimized drilling fluid system.