SOLIDS

CONTROL
Cantos, Kimberly Cyreene C.
Caringal, Sheila Marae R.
Llanes, Jannie Marie D.
Malata, Frederick R.
Qutain, Marian F.
Recinto Jr., Virgilio L.
Definition • Solids control may be defined as
the control of the quantity and
quality of suspended solids in the
drilling fluid so as to reduce the
total well cost.
 The following equation may be used to
estimate the volume of solids entering the
•   mud system whilst drilling:

Vc=
Vc=volume of cuttings (bbl/hr)
Φ=average formation porosity
D=hole diameter(in)
ROP=rate of penetration (ft/hr)
 For a • d=26”
typical • ROP=62ft/hr
North Sea • Φ=0.25

Well
•  

• = 30 bbl/hr
• Therefore 30bbls of solid have to be removed by
the solids control equipment every hour. Solids
control is the most expensive part of the mud
system since it is operating continuously to
remove unwanted solids.
• The solids which do not hydrate or react with
other compounds within mud are described as
“inert”.
 All of these solids (except barite) are
considered to be undesirable since:

• They increase frictional resistance without improving lifting capacity.

• They cause damage to the mud pumps, leading to higher maintenance cost.
• The filter cake formed by these solids tends to be thick and permeable. This
leads to drilling problems (stuck pipe, increased drag) and possible formation
damage.
 Ii. High
i. Low gravity
gravity solids
solids
s.g.=4.2
s.g.=2.5-3.0
(barite)

Mud solids can be divided into two

groups according to their density
3 BASIC METHODS USED TO
CONTROL THE SOLIDS
CONTENT OF A DRILLING
FLUID:
 a. Screening

• A shale shaker uses a vibrating screen to separate the solids

according to size. Material too large to pass through a given mesh
size will be discarded while the finer material will undergo further
treatment.
 b. Settling

• For natural settling solid particles under laminar conditions Stokes

Law applies:
•  
• Vs=slip or settling velocity(ft/sec)
• g=acceleration due to gravity (ft/sec2)
• dc=largest cutting diameter(ft)
• ρm=mud density(lb/ft2)
• ρs= cutting density(lb/ft2)
• μ= mud viscosity (cp)
 The solids will settles out
more readily when:

The gravitational
The solids The mud is light
force can be
particles are large and has a low
increased by
and heavy viscosity
mechanical means
• When the viscosity of the mud is increased (to improve lifting capacity)
solids settling becomes more difficult. For practical purposes the
natural settling rate is far too slow, so mechanical devices are
introduced to remove the solids, Hydrocyclones and centrifuges
increase the gravitational force on the solid particles, and so the
process is sometimes called “forced settling”.
 c. Dilution

• After passing through all screening and settling stages there will still be a very fine solids
content which remains in the mud. This can either be discarded or diluted. Due to the limited
capacity of the active system some mud is usually discarded (together with desirable solids
and other chemicals) before the remainder can be diluted and conditioned for re-circulating.
 • Vibrating Screens
Solids
• Hydrocyclones
Control • Decanting Centrifuge
Equipment • Mud Cleaner
 a. Vibrating Screens

• To remove the particles which will not pass through the mesh
• Screen is vibrated to prevent blinding or plugging which would lower its efficiency.
• The size of the mesh on most shale shakers is 10-14 API mesh.
• The screens can be arranged in series so that a finer mesh is put beneath the
coarser mesh. Sometimes the screens are arranged in parallel to handle larger
volumes, with a slight overlap to ensure no cuttings by-pass the screening.
 RECTANGULAR SCREEN

FLAT TOP SCREEN

• Fine screens are also susceptible to damage and need to be
replaced.
• Oblong screens are sometimes used to extend the life of the
screen.
• The mesh is different in each direction, which allows the use of
heavier wire (i.e. 30 x 70 mesh). This increases the flow rate
capacity but the cleaning efficiency is reduced. As can be seen
from the particle size distribution an 80 mesh screen will only
remove a small percentage of the total solids in the mud. Due
to the small size of the particles the most convenient unit of
measurement is the micron (1 inch = 25400 microns).
 The API classification defines three sizes of particles:
• Sand describes any particles > 74 microns. (such particles may actually be shale or
LCM, but they are sand size). This corresponds to the material retained on a 200
mesh screen.
• Silt describes any particles between 2 and 74 microns.
• Colloidal describes any particle < 2 microns.
 b. Hydrocyclones
• Hydrocyclones are designed to remove all the sand particles and most of the silt
particles from the mud while retaining the colloidal fraction.
• No internal moving parts, the separation is due solely to the settling action of
particles with different densisties
– Desanders (6” diameter or greater)
– Desilters (4” diameter)
– Clay ejectors (2” diameter)
Operating
Principle
• A centrifugal pump feeds mud tangentially at high speed
into the housing, thus creating high centrifugal forces.
These forces multiply the settling rate so that the heavy
particles are thrown against the outer wall and descend
towards the outlet (underflow).
• The lighter particles move inwards and upwards as a
spiraling vortex to the liquid discharge (overflow)
• Underflow discharge should appear as a “spray
discharge” and not “rope discharge”
BARITE SALVAGE
SYSTEM

For a clay ejector, outlets are reversed. The

underflow containing valuable barite is
returned to the active system while the
overflow containing finer material is
discarded.
Hydrocyclone Cut-off Points
 c. Decanting Centrifuge

• It was first introduced to control solids and to retain barite in weighted water
based muds
• They may also be used in unweighted muds and oil muds to process the
hydrocyclone underflow and return the liquid colloidal fraction to the active
system
• The underflow from shale shaker is led to the
centrifuge
• It is more efficient than hydrocyclones for Weighted
barite salvage
• Under operation conditions 90-95% of barite
mud
can be salvaged
• The underflow from the desilters is led to the
centrifuge
• Liquid phase containing fine material Unweighte
(including bentonite), will be returned to the
mud while the solids will be discarded
d mud
• Often used in the oil based muds where the
liquid phase will contain base oil which is
expensive to replace
 d. Mud cleaner

Mud cleaner is designed to remove drill solids larger than barite. It consists of a
desilter and a screen. It is used for a weighted mud to remove solids while retaining
barite. First the mud passes through the shale shaker, which should be as fine as
possible and still accommodate the full mud flow. The underflow is then passed
through a bank of desilters, where the overflow (lighter material) is returned to the
active system. The underflow is directed onto the screen (usually 150-200 mesh). Mud
cleaners have been developed by most mud companies under the names “silt
separator” or “sand separator”.
 Mud Cleaners often installed after the shale shakers where the sand trap drilling
mud feeds into the desanders and desilters respectively, the underflow of hydrocyclones
loads onto the dewatering screens for recycling the usefully drilling fluids back to the
mud system. The drilled cuttings above the screens are therefore dried which lowers
drilling cuttings disposal cost.
Both weighted and unweighted muds can be processed, as well as oil-based muds.
They are best suited for muds less than 15 ppg.
 The weighted mud flows to the inlet head section of the desander
and/or desilter entering the hydrocyclones for separation of particles.
Mud leaving the underflow is further screened with fine mesh to
separate larger particles allowing only barite size particles to pass
through the screen returning and recovering then the clean mud.
SOLIDS
CONTROL
SYSTEM

Caringal, Sheila Marae R. PetE-5202

 Unweighted Muds

When configuring a system for an unweighted mud, various

solids control components are arranged in decreasing order of
particle size removed to prevent clogging.

Dilution is used upstream of the hydrocyclones to increase their

separation efficiency.

After the solid control equipment, mud should be consist of

water, well-dispersed bentonite and very fine drill solids.
Unweighte
d Muds
 Weighted Muds

Hydrocyclones cannot be used alone since they will discard barite, thus
a mud cleaner may be used to solve this problem.

Water is used for diluting upstream of the mud cleaner and the
centrifuge. Low density solids in the liquid phase are discarded from the
centrifuge, while the solids are retained.

The chemicals and bentonite discarded in the centrifuge must be

replaced. The optimum solids content in a weighted mud is difficult to
determine.
Weighted
Muds
Unweighte
d&
Weighted
Mud
Unweighte
d&
Weighted
Mud
Unweighte
d&
Weighted
Mud
Unweighte
d&
Weighted
Mud
Unweighte
d&
Weighted
Mud