Accepted Manuscript

CFD Simulation of Viscosity Modifier Effect on Cutting Transport by Oil Based Drilling
Fluid in Wellbore
K. Mohammadzadeh, S.H. Hashemabadi, S. Akbari
PII:

S1875-5100(15)30257-2

DOI:

10.1016/j.jngse.2015.11.011

Reference:

JNGSE 1107

To appear in:

Journal of Natural Gas Science and Engineering

Received Date: 1 May 2015

Revised Date:

5 November 2015

Accepted Date: 6 November 2015

Please cite this article as: Mohammadzadeh, K., Hashemabadi, S.H., Akbari, S., CFD Simulation of
Viscosity Modifier Effect on Cutting Transport by Oil Based Drilling Fluid in Wellbore, Journal of Natural
Gas Science & Engineering (2015), doi: 10.1016/j.jngse.2015.11.011.
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CFD Simulation of Viscosity Modifier Effect on Cutting Transport by Oil Based Drilling
Fluid in Wellbore

K. Mohammadzadeh, S.H. Hashemabadi*, S. Akbari

Iran University of Science and Technology, 16846, Tehran, Iran

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Abstract

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Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) Research Laboratory, School of Chemical Engineering,

In this study particle transportation has been predicted in a wellbore for an oil based drilling fluid

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containing viscosity modifier using CFD simulation. The effects of fluid viscosity on particle
transport capacity of fluid were studied by considering various particle parameters such as
density, diameter, shape, and initial particle concentration and wellbore inclination through using
the Algebraic Slip Mixture (ASM) model. Rheology of the drilling fluid was expressed by

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Herschel-Bulkley non-Newtonian fluid model. The influence of viscosifier concentration on

fluid rheology show that it improves carrying capacity of particles but its effect attenuates in
higher concentration. For 2ppb of viscosifier in drilling fluid, the cutting transport capacity has

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been increased almost 12% whereas adding 4ppb of viscosifier, only created about 14%
escalation on the transportation of cuttings. Against this positive effect viscosity modifier make

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more pressure drop that was a costly effect for operation and this effect had constant rate (for
each ppb viscosifier, pressure drop growth is equal to 200 kPa/m approximately). Also, the
results indicate higher particle density or larger particle size results in less particles

Corresponding Author, Associate Professor

E-mail: hashemabadi@iust.ac.ir, Fax: +(9821) 7724-0495

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transportation in the wellbore. Increasing initial solid loading has an adverse impact on the
transmission of solid particles in wellbore.
Keywords: Cutting transportation, Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD), Algebraic Slip

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Mixture (ASM) model, viscosity modifier, pressure drop.

1. Introduction

Cuttings transport and wellbore cleaning acts a main role in a drilling operation. Inappropriate

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wellbore cleaning is great obstacles in drilling oil and gas wells and leads to problems such as:
reducing penetration rate, increasing torque and drag force, formation of cuttings bed, wellbore

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plugging, and pipe sticking (Chen et al., 2014).

Many works have been performed to investigate the behavior of cutting transport through
experimental studies (Hemphill et al., 1996; Okrajni et al., 1986; Saasen, 1998), which they
analyzed main parameters on wellbore cleaning and obtain some noteworthy information. They

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found cuttings transport is governed by numerous factors including the complex Non-Newtonian
fluid rheology, cutting parameters (size, density, shape, and concentration), fluid velocity, well
deviation angle, and etc.

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Several researchers investigated viscosifier additive to increase drilling fluid apparent viscosity.
Baba Hamed and Belhadri (2009) studied water based mud, including both polysaccharide

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xanthan gum and scleroglucan as biopolymers. They concluded the desirable property of
polymers for drilling fluids is high viscosity at low concentration. Yan et al. (2013) used a novel
comb-like terpolymer, amphiphilic comb-like terpolymer (PASA), as viscosity modifier for
drilling fluid. The fluid represented great yield point, apparent and plastic viscosity. They found
that the apparent viscosity and yield point are increased 1183.4% and 2600% respectively by
adding 0.3% PASA to freshwater-based drilling fluid whereas addition of 0.8% PASA to brine-

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based drilling fluid, created about 359.7% increase on the apparent viscosity and yield point
increased 130.7%.
El-Sukkary et al. (2014) evaluated new types of vanillin-modified polyoxyethylene surfactants as
additive in drilling fluid. The rheological specifications (apparent and plastic viscosity, yield

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point, and gel stress) of improved drilling fluid were investigated. Their results showed that the
rheological characteristics of the fluid increased with increasing concentration of the added
surfactants. In most of the work related to effect of additives, only the change of fluid rheological

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properties have been discussed and its influence on fluid flow characteristics and cutting
transport capacity of fluid was neglected.

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Cuttings transport concept can better observed via CFD simulations since measurement and
visualization of downhole drilling fluid parameters during drilling operation is not easily
possible, also the existing theoretical relations are not capable of considering most parameters at
the same time. CFD provides a qualitative and even quantitative prediction of fluid flows and

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gives an insight into flow patterns that are difficult, expensive or impossible to study using
traditional (experimental) techniques. Also CFD does not replace the measurements completely
but the amount of experimentation and the overall cost can be significantly reduced. In this

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study, two phase flow and non-Newtonian fluid with yield stress was simulated with 3D CFD
technique which is difficult to study analytically. Some researchers have been focused on this

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subject. Bilgesu et al. (2002) and Ali (2002) exerted CFD to simulate the results of several
factors on wellbore cleaning. Bilgesu et al. (2007) applied steady state-Eulerian model in CFD
program to specify the efficacy of various factors like cutting size, fluid velocity, penetration
rate, and inclination angle in the annular section of a deviated well. They observed better
wellbore cleaning for smaller particles and larger fluid velocity. Al-Kayiem et al. (2010)
considered a power law model to study the effects of cutting properties (shape and size) on
cutting transport process in the annulus of the well. The CFD simulation to solve the governing
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equations was carried out by commercial code using the discrete phase model as a solver. The
simulation results specified that fine particles clean out from wellbore easier and an
inconsiderable enhancement in cutting transport could be regarded as the sphericity of cuttings
rises. Yilmaz (2012) used computational setup to represents the effects of wellbore inclination,

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fluid properties, particle parameters, and inner pipe rotation speed on cuttings transportation and
utilized discrete phase model which follows the EulerianLagrangian approach. Further, several
Herschel-Bulkley fluids selected and their efficiency is compared together with water as a

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Newtonian fluid. He found that the yield point is the most dominant parameter in flow regime.
Also, the change in fluid rheology had insignificant impact on flow characteristics for the same

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low yield point value fluids. Rooki et al. (2014) numerically simulated the cuttings transport
process of foam laminar flow, using an Eulerian two phase model to observe the effect of fluid
properties, and wellbore inclination on cuttings transport in annulus with Herschel-Bulkley and
Power Law models for description of rheological properties of the foam. Their results showed

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that with a higher velocity of foam in axial orientation of annulus, the drag force exerted on the
solid particles increases and cutting transport ratio enhances. However, the higher viscous foam
has a better cutting transport ratio.

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Any of mentioned researchers didnt concentrate on examination of viscosity modifier effect on

cutting transport and drilling fluid hydrodynamics. In this work, Algebraic Slip Mixture (ASM)

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model by considering yield stress has been applied for determination the effect of different
concentrations of viscosifier (VIS-PLUS) and particle properties (density, diameter and shape)
on cutting transport and flow field by oil based drilling fluid in a wellbore. The advantages of oil
based drilling fluid over water based drilling fluid are known (Oghenejoboh, et al, 2013 and
Khodja, et al, 2010), so we selected oil based drilling fluid for our study.

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2. The CFD Simulation Model
2.1 The Computational Domain
Fig. 1 shows the geometry of the drilling wellbore. The outer surface of the annulus is defined as
the well wall and the inner surface is defined as the drilling pipe wall. The physical geometry of

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problem considered a concentric annulus of an oil well in Ahwaz oilfield (in Khuzestan
province, south west of Iran). A part of wellbore was simulated to reduce the computational
times and physical memory requirement for the computer. Take this into account, we divided the

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length of the well into three parts and use the upper part for simulation. Other parts are
susceptible to flow of fluid around the bit that has been ignored in this study. The annulus length

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was considered to be large enough to reach fully-developed flow. The approximation that
proposed by Han et al. (2010) which length of developed zone is considered over more than 70
times of the hydraulic diameter of the annulus has been implemented. Also a safety factor equal
to 10% was considered. The wellbore model used in this study was a 6 m section with outer

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diameter of 149 mm and inner diameter of 76 mm.

Fig. 1. Schematic of inclined well geometry

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2.2 Cuttings and Drilling Fluids Specifications

Cuttings were considered as inert particles and they were introduced to the annulus at a constant
rate representing an invariable penetration rate. The influence of cutting properties such as size,

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density, shape, and percent of loading on cutting transport capacity were studied in this paper. To
avoid end effects, all parameters have been reported at a distance equal to diameter of well to
outlet. A drilling fluid with five different viscosifier contents (0, 2, 3, 4 and 5ppb) named VIS-

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PLUS (Manufactured by Baroid Fluid Services, Product Service Line of Halliburton) have
been investigated. According to rheological data reported by Leong (2013) for oil based drilling

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fluid, the Herschel-Bulkley rheological model provided the best fit. Three parameters of
Herschel-Bulkley non-Newtonian model for each drilling fluid are presented in Table 1. Adding

Table 1

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viscosifier to drilling fluid enhances yield stress and consistency factor.

Rheological parameters of Herschel-Bulkley model for oil based drilling fluid Leong, (2013).

Parameter

(0 ppb*)

(2 ppb)

(3 ppb)

(4 ppb)

(5 ppb)

1.4279

4.7712

6.5868

8.8832

10.5303

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(Pa)

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VIS-PLUS Concentration

K (Pa sn)

0.0362

0.1278

0.1371

0.1147

0.2963

0.9223

0.7979

0.8078

0.8465

0.7099

0.9994

0.9997

0.9998

0.9903

0.9996

R c2
*

Pounds per barrel

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2.3 Governing equation
A three-dimensional isothermal steady state CFD model was employed to compute the local
hydrodynamics of solidliquid laminar flow in the vertical and deviated wellbores. In this study
Algebraic Slip Mixture model was selected for demonstrating two phase flow behavior that

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allows to solving the problem at lower computational time than EulerianEulerian approach. The
3D numerical multiphase mixture model solves continuity and momentum equations for the
mixture of fluids and volume fraction equations for the secondary phases. The model also solves

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the well-known algebraic expressions for the relative velocities for the secondary phases. This
model validated for solid-liquid mixture in low concentration (lower than 10%) (Syrjanen et al.,

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2009). The continuity and momentum equation for the mixture is given as follows (Manninen et
al., 1996).
n

. k u k = 0
k =1

(2)

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mu m + . ( mu mu m ) = p m . m + m g + k k u mk u mk
t
k =1

(1)

Where k and u k are volume fraction and velocity of phase k respectively and m is mixture density.

m = k k

(3)

k k
m

(4)

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k =1

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Density and velocity of mixture are defined as below ( c k is mass fraction of phase k):

um = ck uk
k =1

ck =

In Eq. (2), the pressure of the mixture is defined by the relation:

(5)

pm = k pk
k =1

In this study, the pressure of liquid and solid phases is equal approximately ( p k = p m )
(Manninen et al., 1996). The continuity equation for a phase is presented as below:
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k + . ( k k u m ) = . ( k u mk )
t

(6)

The slip velocity (the cutting velocity relative to the continuous (liquid) phase ( u lk )) and
diffusion velocity (the velocity relative to the center of the mixture mass u mp ) for dispersed

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phase are calculated from algebraic equations involving only local variables. The diffusion
velocity has no relevance to the current regime and can be used in both cases. Slip velocities can
be presented as:

(7)

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u lp =

l ( p m ) d p2 ( g u m u m )
18l l f drag

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Where d is the diameter of the particles and relation between slip velocity and diffusion
velocity is:

u mp = (1 c p ) u lp

(8)

f drag is drag function and taken from Schiller-Nauman relation as (Clift et al., 2005):

Re p 1000

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1 + 0.15 Re0.687
p
f drag =
0.0183Re p

(9)

Re p 1000

l d pu lp
m

(10)

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Re p =

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Where R e p is the particle Reynolds number.

In this study Reynolds number was calculated in all computational cells and results showed that
they were less than 1000, because apparent viscosity of the fluids which has been used in this
study are in high order, so first expression of Eq. (9) was used. In this model the viscosity of the
continuous phase should be replaced by the apparent viscosity of the mixture  (Ishii and
Zuber, 1979) as follows:

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m = l 1 k
0.62

1.55

(11)

Drilling fluid or drilling mud was a shear thinning fluid with yield stress (Al-Zahrani, 1997;
Kelessidis et al., 2006). Kelessidis and Maglione (2008) prepared two different drilling fluids,

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formed by adding bentonite at 5 wt. % and 6.42 wt. % concentrations. Results showed that
rheological parameters of the fluid can be equally well described by HerschelBulkley. So the
relation between shear rate and shear stress of continuous phase is computed from Herschel-

0
<0

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= 0 + K & n

& = 0

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Bulkley model:

(12)

Liquid viscosity ( l ) in Eq. (11) is defined by the following equation:

l =

for

0
n 1
+ k &crit
.
&crit .

for

& > &crit .

& < &crit .

(13)

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l =

0
+ k& n 1
&

Where &crit . is critical shear rate. While the shear rate approaches to zero in numerical solution,
the liquid apparent viscosity tends to infinity. Consequently for avoiding this problem the

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yielding viscosity is calculated based on critical shear rate. As the data measured in Leong (2013)

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extend down to a lower shear rate limit of 1 s-1, this value is used for the critical shear rate in the
current study.

2.4 Boundary Conditions and Numerical Solution

At the inlet condition, a uniform velocity was applied for fluid and solid homogenous mixture.
Outlet boundary were placed where the flow is fully developed that all gradients except pressure,

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along the axis of annulus is equal to zero. The inner and outer wall of annulus was subjected to
no-slip boundary condition.
In this study, the governing set of partial differential equations was discretized utilization of
finite volume technique. For simultaneously solution of momentum and continuity equations, the

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SIMPLE algorithm was used (Patankar, 1980). Also first order upwind approximation was
implemented for calculation of fluxes of quantities on the faces of computational cells. For
reduction of computational time and escalation of accuracy, structural mesh was applied (Fig.2).

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An in-house code has been used to simulate the mud flow through the well. All of the
simulations in this work were performed on Core i7, 2.67 GHz 8MB cash CPU with 12GB

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RAM.

Fig. 2. Computational domain, structured mesh

3. Results and Discussion

3.1. Mesh Independency and Model Validation
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To study cutting transport capacity of fluid, the ratio of average velocity of dispersed phase and
average velocity of continues phase is defined as particle transport ratio (PTR). In other words:

PTR =

(14)

Average axial velocity for solid phase

Average axial velocity for liquid phase

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Higher PTR percent shows higher rate of cleaning in wellbore. A grid is needed to simulate the
mathematical model. The mesh independency of the problem is obtained by increasing the
number of mesh elements in a trial and error manner in order to obtain adequate convergence of

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the computations. For showing the independency of results from computational cells, the
simulations have been done on several mesh sizes. The results of simulation for particle transport

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ratio (PTR) with different mesh sizes are shown in Fig. 3. The structured mesh has been
produced through algebraic method by refining the mesh near walls. In order to produce the
mesh, divisions has been done into a face of cube and coincided to the geometry of the problem
according to corresponding mapping. We gradually increased the number of cells until no

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sensitivity was identified. Finally a computational domain with 178000 nodes was selected as
appropriate mesh. As shown in Fig. 3, when number of nodes increased from 178000 to 325000,
only created about 0.02% growth on the PTR and computational time was doubled. Also the

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PTR changed about 0.012% when nodes increased from 325000 to 500000.
To validate numerical solution, firstly our results of CFD simulation have been compared with

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pressure drop prediction of Eq. (15) (Seyidoglu, 2006). This relation is an approximation of
single phase flow through a vertical annulus. The comparison in same conditions shows an
average error of 0.8% (Fig. 4.a).

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1

( rout rin ) dP ( rout rin ) n 1 T 1n +1 s + 1 + T

U=
(

(
0)
0)
1
1 dL 2 K
2 + 2 + 1
n
n
2 0
dL
1
T0 =
,s =
n
( rout rin ) dP

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(15)

Secondly the results of CFD simulation for 1.85% bentonite suspension in water (see Table 2)
through a vertical annulus have been compared with empirical pressure drop data (Kelessidis et

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al., 2011). Fig. 5a illustrates an average error of 9.5%. Bentonite suspension in water at higher
concentration exhibits HerschelBulkley fluid behavior with high yield stress (Sisodia, et al.,

agreement with Herschel-Bulkley model.

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2015) and according to Dingsyr et al. (2004) and Leong (2013), the oil based mud has a good

In the last part, the solid-liquid two phase flow containing particles with diameter of 2 mm in a
vertical annulus (Han et al., 2010) were compared with results of CFD simulation (Fig. 5.b). It
was seen that numerical method overestimate the pressure drop observed during particles

maximum 8.8%.
Table 2

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transport. The difference between measured and calculated pressure drop varied between 1.9 to

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Rheological parameters of Herschel-Bulkley model for S13 (Merlo, et al., 1995) and 1.85% bentonite
suspension in water (Kelessidis et al., 2011)

S13

(Pa)

1.701993

1.073

K (Pa sn)

1.206338

0.0088

0.435224

0.8798

0.9996

0.9999

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Fluid

Rc2

1.85% bentonite suspension in water

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Fig. 3. Independency of numerical solution from computational nodes (dp=4mm, p =2600 kg/m3 , p

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=4%, , V=1 m/s, Inclination=0)

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Fig. 4. Pressure drop results predicted by Eq. (15) in 149-by-76 mm concentric vertical annulus
(Kelessidis, et al., 2006) and results of simulation for drilling fluid (S13 from Table 2)

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(a)

(b)
Fig. 5 a) The results of simulation for 1.85% bentonite suspension in water and experimental
pressure drop data through a 70-by-40 mm concentric vertical annulus (Kelessidis et al., 2011), b)
Experimental pressure drop data in 44-by-30 mm concentric vertical annulus (Han, et al., 2010) and
results of simulation for water having particles (dp=2mm)
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3.2. Effect of Viscosifier Concentration on Cutting Transport

The study shows that for a given cutting and operational parameters, viscosity of fluid have a

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significant effect on wellbore cleaning. The graph of cutting transport ratio versus value of
viscosifier are shown in Fig. 6, considered five different fluid rheology and a uniform particles
size 4 mm in diameter. The fluid velocity has a large effect on the cuttings transport. With a

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higher fluid velocity in the axial direction of the annulus, the drag force exerted on the solid
particles increases and higher drag coefficient reduced slip velocity, so it results in a higher

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cuttings transport ratio. Moreover, a higher quality fluid (i.e., higher viscosifier content)
increases the cuttings lifting capacity of the fluid. This indicates that the improving drilling fluid
viscosity can significantly enhance the drag force on cutting particles. Fig. 7 shows that a higher
quality fluid increases the apparent viscosity of drilling fluid in annulus. So the value of
viscosifier affects on rheology of fluid. Furthermore, in low Reynolds numbers (lower than

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1000) the effect of viscosity on the slip velocity is negative with respect to Eq. (7) which are
related to particle Reynolds number, drag coefficient, and slip velocity respectively. Also, in
higher Reynolds numbers (higher than 1000) drag coefficient is independent of the viscosity. The

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viscosity has an inverse relationship with the slip velocity and this approves the results, because

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of our simulation is based on low Reynolds numbers in all cases. As shown in Fig. 6, with an
increasing amount of viscosifier, there is less impact on the percentage of cuttings transport at
higher speeds. These factors are making the reduction of viscosifier effect in higher speeds. For 2
ppb of viscosifier in drilling fluid, we have 12% increase in cutting transport capacity whereas
adding 4 ppb of viscosifier, only created about 2% escalation on the transportation of cuttings
respect to 2ppb of viscosifier.

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Fig. 6. Graph of PTR vs. value of viscosifier at different speeds within the well (dp=4mm, p =2600

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kg/m3 , p =4%, Inclination=0)

Fig. 7. Variation of apparent viscosity on a radius of annulus (dp=4mm, p =2600 kg/m3, p =4%,
Inclination=0)

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Fig. 8 demonstrates area weighted average of cuttings on cross-sectional area of developed zone
in annulus versus value of viscosifier. The diagram illustrates the inverse relationship of average
of cuttings with amount of viscosity modifier. This behavior is completely in line with the Fig. 6,

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because higher PTR result in more extraction of cuttings from well and reduce its concentration

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in wellbore.

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Fig. 8. Area weighted average of cuttings on cross-sectional area of developed zone in annulus vs. value

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of viscosifier (dp=4mm, p =2600 kg/m3 , p =4%, V=0.75 m/s, Inclination=0)

Fig. 9 shows volume fraction of cuttings on radius of annulus and its clear that with increasing
viscosifier content, volume concentration of cuttings decreases and this is confirmed in Fig. 8.
Also Fig. 9 indicates that cutting concentration is at lowest value at the center of annulus and at
surfeit value near the walls. The justification of this matter has been illustrated in Figs. 10 and
11. According to Table 1, rheological properties of drilling fluids, the apparent viscosity
decreases with increasing shear rate and increasing slip velocity resulted (with respect to the
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discussion of Fig. 6). Fig. 10 illustrates the strain rate on the radius of annulus. In this figure the
lowest value of strain rate is at center of annulus and its maximum value is near the walls. Fig.
11 depicts the slip velocity of particles on the same radius. Slip velocity near the walls is

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particles increases near the walls due to higher slip velocity.

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maximum, and minimum in the center of annulus. Its observed clearly the accumulation of

Fig. 9. Variation of volume fraction of cuttings on a radius of annulus (dp=4mm, p =2600 kg/m3, p

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=4%, V=0.75 m/s, Inclination=0)

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Fig. 10. Variation of strain rate in annulus (dp=4mm, p =2600 kg/m3, p =4%, V=0.75 m/s,

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Inclination=0)

Fig. 11. Slip velocity in annulus (dp=4mm, p =2600 kg/m3, p =4%, V=0.75 m/s, Inclination=0)

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3.3. Effect of Cutting Density, Size, Shape and Loading

The cutting properties such as size, density, shape, and concentrations have effect on wellbore
cleaning. The particle sizes used in this study were 2, 4, 6 and 8 mm uniform spherical sand
grains with different density of 2500, 2600, 2700 and 2800 kg/m3. Fig. 12 illustrates a sample of

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drilling cuttings. To consider shape of cuttings, drilled cutting shapes were compared to the
shape of the sphere. This concept is known as the sphericity. The sphericity is a measure of how
spherical an object is and defines as below:

S eq

(16)

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S particle

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Where S eq and S particle are surface area of a sphere with the same volume as the given particle and

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the surface area of the particle, respectively.

Fig. 12. Drilling cuttings (Jiimaa, 2014)

Fig. 13 shows PTR results for various cutting density. The operating conditions and the cutting
properties are kept constant throughout the simulation except cutting density. The results present
that the lower cutting density is easier to go up from wellbore and this difference is reduced by
higher viscosifier content. This behavior is related to increasing buoyancy force per unit mass of
particle when particle have lower density.
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Fig. 13. Variation of PTR vs. value of viscosifier for various cutting density (dp=4mm, p =4%, V=0.75
m/s, Inclination=0)

Results for various particle sizes are given for a vertical well in Fig. 14. Four cutting sizes of
equivalent diameters of 2, 4, 6 and 8 mm have been selected to study their effect on the wellbore

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cleaning performance. It could be concluded that the particles with diameter of 2 mm have better
cleaning performance compared with the other larger sizes. This implies that fine particles are
the easiest one to go up from the wellbore. Furthermore, in system by higher viscosifier content

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the negative effect of increasing in cutting diameter on PTR is lesser.

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Fig. 14. Graph of PTR vs. value of viscosifier for various cutting size ( p =2600 kg/m3, p =4%, V=0.75
m/s, Inclination=0)

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Cuttings are the small pieces of rock that are chipped away by the bit. To consider the nonspherical shape of these chips,

it was assumed cylindrical cuttings by 4 mm in diameter and

various heights from 0.5 mm to 4 mm. For defining diameter of non-spherical particles in our

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CFD runs, we used diameter of a sphere which has an equal volume of non-spherical particle.
Fig. 15 illustrates the PTR versus value of viscosifier for various sphericities. As shown in this

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figure, decreasing sphericity has double effect on cutting transport in any fluid. At first, it can be
seen a reduction and after that a protracted improvement in the cleaning performance.
Cutting concentration in drilling fluid is an indication of penetration rate. The various loadings of
cutting were implemented to study its contribution on PTR. Fig. 16 shows the results of the PTR
at the annulus outlet. As shown in this figure, low concentrations of cuttings increases cuttings
transportation weakly, this represents a better cleaning.

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Fig. 15. Graph of PTR vs. value of viscosifier for various Sphericities ( p =2600 kg/m3 , p =4%,

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V=0.75 m/s, Inclination=0)

Fig. 16. Variation of PTR vs. value of viscosifier for various cutting concentration (dp=4mm, p =2600
kg/m3, V=0.75 m/s, Inclination=0)

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3.4. Effect of Wellbore Deviation

The influence of wellbore deviation on cutting transport capacity was studied and the simulation
results are shown in Fig. 17. As can be seen from the figure, improvement of drilling fluid
through utilization of vicosifier makes enhancement of PTR percent for all angles especially for

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deviated and horizontal wells. Also, the results show with increasing of deviation angle, it
becomes harder to clean out cuttings.

Fig. 18 demonstrates the effects of flow rate and fluid viscosity on pressure drop per unit length

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of annulus. The results illustrate that higher viscosity creates higher values of pressure drop for
the fluid. As shown addition of each ppb of viscosifier exhibits pressure drop increasing equal to

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200 kPa/m approximately. Fig. 19 shows the average of friction coefficient on well wall and drill
pipe. It can be seen that as the amount of viscosifier increases, higher wall friction coefficient

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results and this growth for low velocity of fluid is more than others.

Fig. 17. Changing of PTR vs. value of viscosifier for various well deviation angel (dp=4mm, p =2600
kg/m3, p =4%, V=0.75 m/s)

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Fig. 18. Graph of pressure drop vs. value of viscosifier for various fluid velocity (dp=4mm, p =2600

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kg/m3, p =4%, Inclination=0)

Fig. 19. Graph of friction Coefficient vs. of viscosifier for various fluid velocity (dp=4mm, p =2600
kg/m3, p =4%, Inclination=0)

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4. Conclusion

In present study the effect of viscosity modifiers on transportation of various particles in a threedimensional wellbore has been numerically simulated. To track the carrying of cuttings by
drilling fluid, Algebraic Slip Mixture model has been implemented. The simulation has been

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validated by comparison of the results with existing experimental work, which good agreement
was obtained. Influence of viscosifier content and particle properties on cuttings transport are
simulated and leading to the following results:

Drilling fluid rheology acts important role in cuttings transport. To get the most favorable

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results for wellbore cleaning, the best way is with a high yield stress fluid.
Addition of viscosity modifier had an optimum value because as the viscosity modifier

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content of drilling fluid augments, the pressure drop increases with constant rate while the
cuttings lifting capacity of the fluid enhances slightly.

The shear thinning effect of our simulated fluid is related in cuttings transportation in drilling

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systems. As a result cutting transport decreases and thus cutting concentration get larger,
where shear rate increases across the wellbore.

Viscosifier content has the great influence in wellbore cleaning. As the value of viscosifier

concentration.

Viscosifier make more pressure drop that was a costly effect for operation and this effect had

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increases, it becomes easier to clean out particles. But its effect is weakened in higher

constant rate, thus addition viscosifier have an optimum amount.

The valuable cleaning performance is achieved when the drilling fluid velocity is high for all
types of investigated cuttings.

Applying various cutting size were conducted for 2, 4, 6 and 8 mm and the results show that
fine particles are the easiest one to clean out.

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The cuttings transport efficiency decreases with increase in concentration and density of
cuttings under the same flow condition.

Mass fraction

Diameter (m)

Gravitational acceleration (m/s2)

Consistency index (kg/m.s)

Power-law index

Pressure (Pa)

rin

Inner radius

rout

Outer radius

Re

Reynolds number

Velocity (m/s)

u mk

Diffusion velocity (m/s)

u ck

Slip velocity (m/s)

Average velocity (m/s)

f drag

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Greek symbols

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Volume fraction

Drag function
Sphericity

Shear rate (1/s)

&crit .

Critical shear rate (1/s)

Viscosity (mPa.s)

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Nomenclature

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Density (kg/m3)

Stress (Pa)

Yield stress threshold (Pa)

Phase k

Mixture

Particle

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Subscripts

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Highlights

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The effect of viscosity modifiers were simulated on cuttings transportation in wellbore.

As the value of viscosifier increases, it becomes easier to clean out particles.
As the viscosifier content of fluid augments, pressure drop increases constantly.
Cuttings transport decreases as concentration and density of cuttings increases.

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