THE EFFECT OF TEMPERATURE ON NANO (ZINC OXIDE PARTICLE) WATER BASED MUD RHEOLOGICAL PROPERTIES

For a successful drilling of oil and gas wells, the mud rheological properties should be examined and additives included where necessary. Designing a proper drilling fluid that can withstand different sub-surface(temperature) conditions is a challenging task. In this work, the effect of temperature on nano water based mud rheological properties was examined at different temperature ranges (25oC, 30oC, 35oC, 40oC, and 45oC) using chandler rheometer,oven , marsh funnel and mud balance. For accuracy the equipment used were all calibrated and the rheological properties of water based mud where determined for different mass fractions(0g, 5g ,10g , 15g ,20g) at temperatures of 25oC, 30oC, 35oC, 40oC, and 45oC . The result shows that the plastic viscosity, yield point and gel strength decreases with increases in temperature. At any temperature, increase in the mass fractions (grams) of the Zinc oxide nano particle increases the mud density, plastic viscosity, Gel strength, mud pH and the electrical conductivity of the mud. The yield point was not linear with increase in grams of the Zinc oxide nano particle as increase in grams of the particles decreases the yield at higher temperature and increases the yield at lower temperature. Generally, the rheological properties of the water based mud improved with addition of zinc oxide nano particle.