Viscosity Models for Drilling Fluids—Herschel-Bulkley Parameters and Their Use

Arild Saasen and Jan David Ytrehus
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Arild Saasen: Department of Energy and Petroleum Engineering, University of Stavanger, N-4036 Stavanger, Norway
Jan David Ytrehus: SINTEF Industry, S.P. Andersens vei 15 B, N-7031 Trondheim, Norway

Energies, 2020, vol. 13, issue 20, 1-16

Abstract: An evaluation is presented of the practical usage of the Herschel-Bulkley viscosity model for drilling fluids. If data from automatic viscosity measurements exist, the parameters should be selected from relevant shear rate ranges to be applicable. To be able to be used properly, viscosity measurements must be measured with a sufficient accuracy. It is shown that a manual reading of standard viscometers may yield insufficient accuracy. It is also shown that the use of yield point/plastic viscosity (YP/PV) as measured using API or ISO standards normally provide inaccurate viscosity parameters. The use of the Herschel-Bulkley model using dimensionless shear rates is more suitable than the traditional way of writing this model when the scope is to compare different drilling fluids. This approach makes it also easier to make correlations with thermodynamic quantities like pressure and temperature or chemical or mineralogical compositions of the drilling fluid.

Keywords: drilling fluid viscosity; Herschel-Bulkley model; drilling fluid shear rates (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

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