Fluid mixing system
AssigneeSchlumberger Technology Corporation
InventorsJoel Rondeau, Pierre Vigneaux
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A method for continuously mixing a borehole fluid such as cement includes using a measurement of the solid fraction of a cement slurry as it is being mixed to determine the ratio of the solid and liquid components to be added to the slurry. A system for mixing the includes a liquid material (water) supply including a flow meter; a solid material (cement) supply; a mixer which receives the liquid and solid materials and includes an output for delivering materials from the mixer to a delivery system; a device for measuring the amount of material in the mixer; and a flow meter in the output; wherein measurements from the flow meters and the device for measuring the amount of material in the mixer are used to control the amount of solid and/or liquid material added to the mixer.
Claims21
1-17. (canceled)
A method of mixing solid and liquid components in a mixer to form a slurry, the mixer comprising a liquid input, a solid input, and a slurry output, the method comprising:
- i) measuring at least one flow rate of the group selected from the flow rate of the liquid component provided through the liquid input into a mixer, the flow rate of the solid component provided through the solid input into the mixer, and the flow rate of the slurry out of the mixer through the slurry output;
- ii) measuring the amount of slurry in the mixer;
- iii) using the flow rate measurement and the slurry measurement to calculate the solid fraction or the porosity of the fluid;
- and
- (iv) controlling the supply of the liquid component or the supply of the solid component to the mixer according to the calculated solid fraction or porosity.
A method of mixing a slurry comprising:
- i) delivering a solid component and a liquid component to a mixer, the mixer comprising a liquid input, a solid input, and a slurry output;
- ii) mixing the solid component and the liquid component to form a slurry;
- iii) measuring the amount of slurry in the mixer;
- iv) measuring at least one flow rate of the group selected from the flow rate of the liquid component provided through the liquid input into a mixer, the flow rate of the solid component provided through the solid input into the mixer, and the flow rate of the slurry out of the mixer through the slurry output;
- v) calculating the solid fraction or porosity of the slurry using the flow rate measurement and the slurry amount measurement.
The method of claim 15 wherein the slurry is cement slurry.
A method of mixing a slurry wherein a solid component and a liquid component are delivered to a mixer and the slurry is removed from the mixer, the method comprising:
- i) measuring the flow rate of at least one of the solid component and the liquid component into the mixer;
- ii) measuring the flow rate of slurry removed from the mixer;
- iii) measuring the level of the slurry in the mixer;
- iv) calculating the solid fraction or porosity of the slurry using a measurement of flow rate and the slurry level measurement;
- and
- (v) controlling the delivery of solid component or liquid component to the mixer according to the calculated solid fraction or porosity.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.