Experimental analysis of improving water-based drilling fluid properties by using nanoparticles and poly (AN-co-VP)/zeolite composite

Abstract

• The influence of various concentrations of chosen nanoparticles containing U-MWCNTs, TiO 2 , ZnO, and F-MWCNTs on water-based drilling fluid was evaluated. The rheological properties such as plastic viscosity, yield point and gel strengths of water-based drilling fluid samples were enhanced by using low concentrations of F-MWCNTs that proved desirable effect in the operational condition of the drilling industry. The most reduction of mud filtrate volume was belonged to F-MWCNTs into drilling fluid composition. The filtration results showed that the poly (AN-co-VP) / zeolite composite with F-MWCNTs could help to prohibit the increase of filtration loss of the mud samples, especially under HPHT environments. The excellence thermal characteristics of poly (AN-co-VP) / zeolite composite and enhancement of mud properties of F-MWCNTs were the best characteristic which could progress the drilling efficiency. In this experimental research, the effect of the poly acrylonitrile-co-N-vinyl pyrrolidone /zeolite composite and four types of hydrophilic and hydrophobic of nanoparticles, namely Zinc oxide, titanium dioxide, untreated multi-walled carbon nanotubes, functionalized multi-walled carbon nanotubes on the rheological and filtrate lost attributes of newly formulated bentonite mud were evaluated. This experimental study compares the drilling fluid properties including different concentrations of nanoparticles to select the most favorite agent through several laboratory tests to generate some engineering guidelines. The different concentrations of nanoparticles (0.0028, 0.0143, 0.028, and 0.143 wt%) were used to investigate the effect on attributes of rheological and mud filtration for bentonite mud. Results of experimental tests indicated that yield point property increases up to 250% with the 0.143 wt% of FMWCNTs in bentonite mud with poly acrylonitrile-co-N-vinyl pyrrolidone/zeolite composite. Also, investigating the effects of higher temperature has shown that an improvement in thermal stability can obtain by using this composite and FMWCNTs in drilling mud rheological properties such as plastic viscosity, yield point, mud filtration volume. Evaluating the effects of using novel formulated water-based mud has shown that it can increase the drilling mud rheological properties and reduce mud filtrate volume and decrease formation damage particularly under the HPHT environment.