Experimental investigation of the effect of TiO2 nanofluid and KCl salt on polymeric water-based drilling fluid properties

Abstract

In petroleum industries, nanofluids have the potential to improve the characteristics of the fluids used in drilling wells or Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) processes. In this study, a water based mud containing polymer was considered as the base fluid. Different concentrations of TiO2 nanoparticle (0, 0.5 and 0.75 wt%) and different concentrations of KCl salt (0, 0.5, 1.5, and 3 wt%) were added to the base fluid and exposed to different temperatures (30, 50, 70 and 90 °C) with 19 different shear rates for investigating the effects of nanoparticle concentration, salt concentration, temperature and shear rate on viscosity of the base mud. Presence of TiO2 particles enhanced not only the rheological behavior but also electrical and thermal conductivity of fluid up to 25% and 43%, respectively. Furthermore, the stability of the fluid containing salt and nanoparticle was investigated in these temperatures owing to the fact that the temperature could cause degradation of the fluid. For the purpose of investigating this phenomenon, the after cooling experiment was conducted. In addition, the data gathered in this investigation were examined by using three famous rheological models (Power law, Herschel-Bulkley and Herschel-Bulkley-Papanastasiou models) and the rheological parameters of each model were determined.