Investigation of rheological and filtration properties of water-based drilling mud using commercially available additives

Abstract

Drilling fluids are an essential component of the drilling system. Conventional copolymers have shown degradation at high temperature. To significantly improve the drilling fluid, the use of nanoparticles (NPs) for advancement of their rheological properties and fluid loss control is introduced. In this study commercially available additives, barite and nano-silica, are taken and in varying concentrations to identify the most optimized fluid that can be used for drilling operations. With this we hope to reiterate the significant difference between the ability of nanomaterials and other additives and verify those claims by performing experimentation. The observation in the past researches and the experimentation concur that nanoparticle enhanced mud has better rheological and improved filtration properties compared to the barite mud.