In efforts to render the safest, fastest, and most cost efficient drilling program for a high temperature and high pressure (HT/HP) well the maximization of drilling operational efficiencies is key. Designing an adequate, HT/HP well specific, drilling fluid is of most importance and a technological challenge that can greatly affect the outcome of the overall operational efficiency. It is necessary to have a sound fundamental understanding of the behavior that water-based muds (WBM) exhibit when exposed to HT/HP conditions. Therefore, in order to adequately design and treat a WBM for a HT/HP well specific drilling program, it is essential that the mud be evaluated at HT/HP conditions. Currently, industry standard techniques used to evaluate WBM characteristics involve aging the fluid sample to a predetermined temperature, based on the anticipated bottom hole temperature (BHT), either statically or dynamically, for a predetermined length, then cooling and mixing the fluid and measuring its rheological properties at a significantly lower temperature. This, along with the fact that the fluid is not subjected to the anticipated bottom hole pressure (BHP) during or after the aging process, brings to question if the properties recorded are those that are truly experienced down-hole. Furthermore, these testing methods do not allow the user to effectively monitor the changes during the aging process. The research in this thesis is focused on evaluating a high performance WBM and the current test procedures used to evaluate their validity. Experimental static and dynamic aging tests were developed for comparative analysis as well to offer a more accurate and precise method to evaluate the effects experienced by WBM when subjected to HT/HP conditions. The experimental tests developed enable the user to monitor and evaluate, in real-time, the rheological changes that occur during the aging of a WBM while being subjected to true BHT and BHP. Detailed standard and experimental aging tests were conducted and suggest that the standard industry tests offer false rheological results with respect to true BHT and BHP. Furthermore, the experimental aging tests show that high pressure has a significant effect on the rheological properties of the WBM at elevated temperatures.

La transition entre le comportement effusif et explosif des volcans de magma riche en silice est en partie contrôlée par la capacité des surpressions gazeuses à se dissiper hors du magma. La libération efficace des gaz est associée aux éruptions effusives tandis que la rétention de ces gaz contribue aux processus explosifs. L’une des approches pour évaluer la facilité d’échappement des gaz est de considérer l’évolution et le développement de la perméabilité dans la colonne magmatique et dans l'édifice. J'évalue dans ce travail de thèse le rôle des changements post-mise en place sur la microstructure dans des andésites basaltiques du Merapi (Indonésie). La perméabilité de ces roches est principalement contrôlée par des fissures liées à leur mise en place. Malgré l’influence importante de ces fissures post-mise en place pour dégazer à travers l'édifice, elles ne contribuent pas au dégazage intrinsique du magma en cours d’ascension. Pour s’affranchir de l'influence des microstructures post-mise en place du magma, j'étudie le développement et l'évolution in situ des réseaux perméables en déformant des magmas à deux phases (bulles de gaz et liquide silicaté) en cisaillement simple dans une presse Paterson selon des viscosités et des vitesses de déformation réalistes pour la partie haute des conduits des strato-volcans. Le développement de la perméabilité est confirmé in situ et se développe à des vitesses de déformation supérieures à 4,5 x 10⁻⁴ s⁻¹. À des vitesses de déformation élevées (> 5 x 10⁻⁴ s⁻¹) le magma est fragile et l’échappement du gaz est lente, facilitée par l'interconnexion de courtes fractures de Mode I. À des vitesses de déformation < 5 × 10⁻⁴ s⁻¹, le magma se comporte à la fois de manière fragile et visqueuse et la perméabilité se développe lorsque la déformation est importante; le gaz s’échappe rapidement par de longues fractures de Mode I bien développées. Les fractures de Mode I sont idéalement orientées pour le dégazage du conduit central et sont, surtout, soumises à peu de déformation jusqu'à ce qu'elles soient réorientées dans la direction de cisaillement. Ces caractéristiques de dégazage peuvent, à long terme, favoriser un dynamisme éruptif effussif. / The transition from effusive to explosive behaviour at silicic volcanoes is, in part, governed by how efficiently gas overpressures are dissipated from the volcanic plumbing. Efficient gas release is associated with effusive eruptions while inadequate outgassing contributes to explosive processes. One approach to assessing the facility of gas escape is by considering how permeability develops and evolves in the magma column and surrounding edifice. Here, I appraise the role of post-emplacement changes to microstructure in edifice-forming basaltic andesites from Merapi (Indonesia). The permeability of these rocks is dominantly crack-controlled and while these features exert important controls on gas escape through the edifice, they do not represent the escape pathways available to gas within ascending magma. To avoid the influence of postemplacement microstructure, I investigate the development and evolution of permeable networks in magmas by deforming initially impermeable two-phase magmas in simple shear. This is done in a Paterson apparatus at viscosities and shear strain rates appropriate to upper conduits in stratovolcanoes. Permeability development is confirmed in situ and develops at moderate to high shear strain rates (> 4.5 × 10⁻⁴ s⁻¹). At very high strain rates (> 5 × 10⁻⁴ s⁻¹) the magma behaves in a brittle manner and gas egress is slow, facilitated by the interconnection of short, Mode I fractures. At moderate shear strain rates (< 5 × 10⁻⁴ s⁻¹), the magma displays both brittle and viscous behaviour and permeability develops at high strain; gas escape is rapid owing to long, well-developed, sample-length Mode I fractures. Mode I fractures are ideally oriented for outgassing of the central conduit and, critically, accommodate little deformation until they are rotated into the direction of shear, making them long-lived outgassing features that may favour volcanic effusion.