Experimental investigation of rheological and filtration properties of water-based drilling fluids in presence of various nanoparticles

For the past decades, considerable attention has been focused on the manufacture of a high-performance, environmentally compliant water-based mud system to be a better choice than oil and synthetic-based muds (OBM/SBM). However, the improvement of WBMs has not reached the satisfactory level yet and attempts in this regard should be continued. Accordingly, in this study, an attempt was made to improve the performance of a Bentonite-WBM by adding four types of hydrophilic nanoparticles (NPs), namely aluminum oxide (Al2O3), titanium dioxide (TiO2), silicon dioxide (SiO2), and copper oxide (CuO). The NPs were dispersed in the drilling fluid with concentrations of 0.01, 0.05, 0.1 and 1 wt%. The results revealed that the Al2O3 NPs increased the amount of mud filtration up to 80% while the mud cake quality became poorer as compared to the based mud. In contrast, the amount of mud filtration had a decreasing trend when SiO2, TiO2 and CuO NPs were applied especially at the concentration below 0.5 wt%. Rheological properties and gel strength were also improved in the presence of TiO2, Al2O3 and CuO NPs in comparison with the based mud. Overall, it was concluded that adding of the NPs at concentrations below 0.5 wt% to the Bentonite-WBM has potential to improve rheological and filtration properties.