Experimental analysis of improving water-based drilling fluid properties by using nanoparticles and poly (AN-co-VP)/zeolite composite

In this experimental research, the effect of the poly acrylonitrile-co-N-vinyl pyrrolidone /zeolite composite and four types of hydrophilic and hydrophobic of nanoparticles, namely Zinc oxide, titanium dioxide, untreated multi-walled carbon nanotubes, functionalized multi-walled carbon nanotubes on the rheological and filtrate lost attributes of newly formulated bentonite mud were evaluated. This experimental study compares the drilling fluid properties including different concentrations of nanoparticles to select the most favorite agent through several laboratory tests to generate some engineering guidelines. The different concentrations of nanoparticles (0.0028, 0.0143, 0.028, and 0.143 wt%) were used to investigate the effect on attributes of rheological and mud filtration for bentonite mud. Results of experimental tests indicated that yield point property increases up to 250% with the 0.143 wt% of FMWCNTs in bentonite mud with poly acrylonitrile-co-N-vinyl pyrrolidone/zeolite composite. Also, investigating the effects of higher temperature has shown that an improvement in thermal stability can obtain by using this composite and FMWCNTs in drilling mud rheological properties such as plastic viscosity, yield point, mud filtration volume. Evaluating the effects of using novel formulated water-based mud has shown that it can increase the drilling mud rheological properties and reduce mud filtrate volume and decrease formation damage particularly under the HPHT environment.