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This thesis provides a detailed evaluation of different environmentally friendly dispersants in invert-emulsion drilling fluids that can be used to drill wells under difficult conditions such as HPHT. The drilling fluid is weighted by manganese tetraoxide (Mn3O4) particles, which have a specific gravity of 4.8 and a mean particle diameter of ca1 micrometers. Manganese tetraoxide has different wetting properties and surface chemistry than other weighting agents. Hence, there is a need to find dispersants for manganese tetraoxide that give reduced sag, reduced rheology, and low fluid-loss at HPHT conditions. This is particularly important for deep wells with narrow operating windows between pore-pressure and fracture pressure gradients. The stricter global environmental regulations mandated the dispersants to be environmentally friendly, e.g. within OCNS group D or E. First, oil compatibility tests and particle settling time experiments were conducted on 31 dispersants. From the experiments, we identified 3 oil-compatible dispersants that gave the longest settling time in base oil and belonged to OCNS group D. We investigated the effectiveness of selected chemicals in dispersing manganese tetraoxide at HPHT conditions. 1.95 and 2.4 S.G. drilling fluid samples were first prepared and tested without any contaminant and then in the presence of rev dust and cement as contaminants. Drilling fluid samples were statically aged at 400 degrees F and 500 psi for 16 hours. Sag and rheological measurements were taken before and after aging to determine the effect of HPHT conditions on fluid properties. Then, HPHT dynamic filtration tests were done at 500 psi differential pressure and 300 degrees F to determine HPHT dynamic fluid-loss. We have found that one of the dispersants (nonionic) gives low rheology and reduced sag before and after static aging. It also gives the lowest fluid-loss of the selected dispersants. For 2.4 S.G. fluid without contaminants, 10-minute gel strength was reduced from 50 to 32 lb/100 ft^2, plastic viscosity from 37 to 25 cp, sag from 0.249 to 0.135 lbm/gal, and fluid-loss was reduced from 44.4 to 39.6 cm^3 with the addition of dispersant. This dispersant prevents agglomeration of particles, thereby reducing fluid rheology, sag, and fluid-loss.

This thesis presents the results of the investigations in two areas, i.e. non-Newtonian annular flow and cuttings transport in drilling annuli at various angles. In the first part of the thesis, a review of the fundamentals and the previous studies on laminar concentric annular flow of non-Newtonian fluids is given at first. Then two parallel theoretical studies are performed, respectively, on: a. Laminar eccentric annular flow of power-law and Bingham plastic fluids. In this analysis, a new method is used which treats an eccentric annulus as infinite number of concentric annuli with variable outer radius. The analytical solutions of the shear stress, shear rate, velocity and the volumetric flowrate/pressure gradient are obtained over the entire eccentric annulus. This analysis is useful in design of any engineering operations related to eccentric annular flow such as oil drilling operations. b. Laminar helical flow of power-law fluids through concentric annuli. A group of dimensionless equations are derived in this analysis for the profiles of the apparent viscosity, angular and .axial velocities, and for the volumetric flowrate. These equations are essential when one needs to simulate the helical flow conditions in various engineering operations. In addition, another group of dimensionless equations are also derived for pressure gradient calculations which can be used directly by drilling engineers to predict the reduction of the annular friction pressure drop caused by drillpipe rotation during drilling operations. The second part of the thesis is dedicated to the investigations into the problems directly related to cuttings transport through drilling annuli at various angles. First, both theoretical and experimental studies on settling velocities of drilled cuttings in drilling fluids are conducted using new approaches to account for the non-Newtonian nature of drilling fluids and for the shape irregularity of drilled cuttings. Based on experimental results, a generalised model is developed for calculating settling velocities of variously shaped particles in power-law fluids. Then, the effects of various parameters on cuttings transport during drilling operations are analysed based on the previous and the present studies. After that, an extensive theoretical analysis for the previous studies on the minimum transport velocity (MTV) in solid-liquid mixture flow through pipelines, on initiation of sediment transport in open channels and on MTV for cuttings transport in deviated wells is presented. At last, theoretical studies on the minimum transport velocity for cuttings transport in drilling annuli at various angles are conducted and two parallel general correlations are developed. When these correlations are experimentally verified and numerically established in the future, they can be served as general criteria for evaluating and correlating the effects of various parameters on cuttings transport, and as a guideline for cuttings transport programme design during directional drilling.

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This thesis presents a detailed analysis of the plane rake faced drill design, its grinding method and grinding wheel geometry. A fundamental geometrical analysis has then been carried out on the major cutting edges of the modified drills according to the national and international standards. It has been shown that this new drill design results in a significant increase in the normal rake angle at lips as well as point relieving at the chisel edge region. Geometrical models for the various drill point features have been established which uniquely define the drill point features of the modified drill design. A comprehensive experimental investigation has been carried out to study the drilling performance of the modified drills, when drilling a high tensile steel, ASSAB 4340, with TiN coated high speed steel drills over a wide range of drilling conditions. Comparing to the drilling performance with conventional twist drills under the corresponding conditions, it has been found that the modified drills can reduce the thrust force by as much as 46.9% with the average of 23.8%; the reduction of drilling torque is also significant at an average of 13.2% and the maximum of 24.9%. Similarly, the new drill design shows great superiorities over the conventional drills in terms of drill-life. In the drill-life tests, a few conventional drills were broken, but all plane rake faced drills performed very well. In order to estimate the cutting performance in process planning on a mathematical and quantitative basis when drilling with the modified drills, predictive cutting force models have been developed based on the unified-generalized mechanics of cutting approach. The models have been assessed qualitatively and quantitatively and showed good agreements with the experimental thrust, torque and power. Empirical-type force equations have also been developed to provide simple alternatives for practical applications.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--West Virginia University, 2007. / Title from document title page. Document formatted into pages; contains ix, 104 p. : ill. (some col.). Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references (p. 94-96).

Thesis (M.S.)--West Virginia University, 2009. / Title from document title page. Document formatted into pages; contains xv, 91 p. : ill. (some col.). Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references (p. 82-84).

Thesis (M.S.)--West Virginia University, 2008. / Title from document title page. Document formatted into pages; contains xi, 59 p. : ill. (some col.). Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references (p. 52-54).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2008. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.S.)--State University of New York at Binghamton, Thomas J. Watson School of Engineering and Applied Science, Department of Systems Science and Industrial Engineering, 2008. / Includes bibliographical references.