Method of Preparing Drilling Mud Through Integrating Ultrasonic Mixing and Venturi Technology
AssigneeBaker Hughes Oilfield Operations LLC
InventorsSyed Ehsanur Rahman, Reza Ettehadi Osgouei, Robert Banker Comer, Emery Horton
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Abstract
A process includes pumping a first fluid into a conduit; introducing a second fluid into a flow of the first fluid in the conduit via a venturi injector to mix the first fluid with the second fluid forming a premix; adding an additive to the premix forming an additive-containing fluid; and passing the additive-containing fluid through an ultrasonicator forming a drilling mud comprising an emulsion, in which the first fluid forms a continuous phase and the second fluid forms a discontinuous phase.
Claims21
A process comprising:
- pumping a first fluid into a conduit;
- introducing a second fluid into a flow of the first fluid in the conduit via a venturi injector to mix the first fluid with the second fluid forming a premix;
- adding a solid additive to the premix forming an additive-containing fluid;
- and
- passing the additive-containing fluid through an ultrasonicator forming a drilling mud comprising an emulsion, in which the first fluid forms a continuous phase and the second fluid forms a discontinuous phase.
(canceled)
A system for preparing a drilling mud, the system comprising:
- a conduit having:
- a first inlet for receiving a first fluid, and
- a second inlet located downstream of the first inlet for receiving a second fluid, the second inlet comprising a venturi injector where the second fluid is mixed with a flow of the first fluid forming a premix;
- a hopper coupled to the conduit and configured to allow an-a solid additive to be added to the premix in the conduit forming an additive-containing fluid;
- an ultrasonicator that receives the additive-containing fluid and after ultrasonic mixing, generates a drilling mud comprising an emulsion in which the first fluid forms a continuous phase, and the second fluid forms a discontinuous phase;
- a fluid measurement system configured to measure a property of the drilling mud generated from the ultrasonicator, and
- a processing device configured to process information received from the fluid measurement system, and to control an adjustment of the property of the drilling mud.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.