Experimental Study on the Effect of Sodium Chloride, Cement and Silica Sand Contamination in Water-Based Drilling Mud

Drilling operation efficiency is improved by the effective and regular monitoring of drilling mud properties when drilling a well. The type of drilling fluid or drilling mud used, the kind of pollutant, and the degree of contamination all affect how bad the contamination is. When contamination is so significant that treating it would be virtually impossible, drilling mud will be needed to be dumped. In order to ensure that the mud performs as intended, it is vital to keep an eye and monitor on its qualities for contamination. This research shows an experimental investigation into how some physical characteristics of water-based drilling mud are affected by contamination with sodium chloride, cement, and silica sand. Four mud samples were formulated, and three of them included 2 to 8 g of NaCl, cement, and silica sand contamination. The rheological properties as well as temperature, density and pH of the formulated mud were determined. Analysis of the results shows that the plastic viscosity, apparent viscosity, yield point and gel strength as well as the pH, density and temperature of the used mud increased with increasing concentration of Cement. However, when the content of NaCl increased, all of the rheological characteristics of the produced mud considerably reduced. The NaCl caused a quick rise in mud temperature, a little drop in mud pH, and a slight increase in mud density. Furthermore, the apparent viscosity, yield point, gel strength, density and temperature of the formulated mud rapidly increased when the amount of silica sand was raised. The mud pH also increased slightly with increase in the quantity of Silica Sand. While the plastic viscosity decreases rapidly as the concentration of Silica Sand increased.