The use of polypropylene beads in transporting different sizes of cuttings in water-based mud

Abstract

It has been commonly acknowledged that a good wellbore cleaning is highly essential to cut off the unnecessary spending in drilling operations. There are many new technologies that have been introduced to address the poor wellbore cleaning issues. In this study, the experimental investigation focused on the use of polypropylene-based polymer beads as a mechanism to enhance cuttings transportation in water-based mud. The primary objective of this study was to observe the performance of the polymer beads in lifting the different sizes of drilled cuttings in water-based mud. The cuttings lifting rig was equipped with a 13 ft long and 2 in ID acrylic pipe with a 0.79 in inner pipe OD with no rotation. The tests were conducted using a 11 ppg water-based mud (PV = 12.5 cp, YP = 14.5 lb/100 ft2) and constant annular velocity of 0.78 m/s at ambient condition. Six different sizes of drilled cuttings, ranging from 0.50 to 3.34 mm, were used and the lifting performances were done at five different angles, i.e., 0o (vertical), 30o, 60o, 75o, and 90o (horizontal). Over 250 tests have been carried out. It was divided into two phases of run, namely test run using basic water-based mud and test run using drilling mud containing 1% (by weight) of polymer beads. The experimental results showed that the cuttings transport efficiency with the presence of polymer beads in basic water-based mud was better than basic mud especially in a vertical hole. In terms of drilled cuttings sizes, however, the drilling mud with polymer beads was found to have transported better the smaller drilled cuttings than larger one. Despite a relatively low recovery at highly deviated angles, the use of polymer beads has shown some improvements in cuttings transport.