Concentric cylinder viscometer flows of Herschel-Bulkley fluids

Abstract Drilling fluids and well cements are example non-Newtonian fluids that are used for geothermal and petroleum well construction. Measurement of the non-Newtonian fluid viscosities are normally performed using a concentric cylinder Couette geometry, where one of the cylinders rotates at a controlled speed or under a controlled torque. In this paper we address Couette flow of yield stress shear thinning fluids in concentric cylinder geometries.We focus on typical oilfield viscometers and discuss effects of yield stress and shear thinning on fluid yielding at low viscometer rotational speeds and errors caused by the Newtonian shear rate assumption. We relate these errors to possible implications for typical wellbore flows.