US 2025/0020033 A1Published application

System and method for calculating mud density

AssigneeBaker Hughes Oilfield Operations LLC

InventorsBastian Sauthoff, Volker Peters, Thomas Wettmarshausen

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Abstract

Drilling mud is flowed through a valve assembly that is set at a particular open amount, measurements are taken of mud flowrate and a force exerted by the drilling mud onto a portion of the valve assembly, and density of the drilling mud is estimated based on historical data. The historical data is generated by directing multiple flows through the valve assembly, where the flows are at different flowrates, and at each flowrate different drilling muds having different densities are directed through the valve assembly. For each flow the valve assembly is adjusted to different open amounts, and a corresponding force exerted by the flow onto the valve assembly is measured. An example of the valve assembly is a mud pulser with a plug member that engages an orifice opening, a sensor in the pulser measures force exerted by the flow of mud.

Claims20

Dependent claims

A downhole valve assembly in a wellbore to determine a fluid density, the valve assembly comprising:

a housing;
a flow restrictor comprising an opening;
a fluid flowing through the valve assembly and through the opening of the flow restrictor;
a plug member configured to plug at least partially the opening of the flow restrictor;
an actuator configured to drive the plug member relative to the flow restrictor to select a flow restricted area;
a flow meter to measure a flow rate of the fluid flowing through the valve assembly;
a measurement device in or on the valve assembly configured to measure a parameter related to a force acting on at least one of the flow restrictor and the plug member due to the fluid flowing through the valve assembly;
a processor configured to:
position the plug member in a selected position corresponding to the selected flow restricted area, using the actuator,
obtain measurement data from the measurement device while the plug member is in the position corresponding to the selected flow restricted area, and
determine a fluid density using the obtained measurement data and the measured flow rate.

8 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.