Automated identification and quantification of solid drilling fluid additives

A method for evaluating lost cuttings materials (LCM) in drilling fluid circulating in a wellbore, the method comprising:

• acquiring a calibrated digital image of solid particles separated from drilling fluid circulating in a wellbore, the solid particles including at least LCM particles;
• processing the calibrated digital image to generate a segmented image that identifies individual ones of the solid particles depicted in the image;
• extracting color features or texture features from each of the identified solid particles depicted in the segmented image;
• processing the extracted color features or texture features to distinguish LCM particles from among the identified solid particles;
• computing a number of the distinguished LCM particles in the segmented image;
• and
• evaluating the number of distinguished LCM particles to estimate a concentration of the LCM particles in the drilling fluid.

A system for evaluating lost cuttings materials (LCM) in drilling fluid circulating in a wellbore, the system comprising:

• a digital camera system configured to take a calibrated digital image of solid particles separated from drilling fluid circulating in a wellbore, the solid particles including at least LCM particles;
• and
• a digital image processing system including a plurality of modules, the modules comprising:
• a segmentation module configured to process the calibrated digital image to identify individual ones of the solid particles depicted in the image;
• a color and texture feature extraction module configured to extract color features or texture features from each of the identified solid particles depicted in the image;
• an LCM classification module configured to process the extracted color features or texture features to identify LCM particles among the identified solid particles and to classify each of the identified LCM particles into one of a plurality of LCM classes and thereby obtain an LCM particle classification;
• and
• a consolidation module configured to process the LCM classification to generate and output and a consolidated summary.