RHEOLOGY OF NANO BASED DRILLING FLUIDS

Table of Contents
1. Introduction
1.1 Drilling Fluids
1.2 Classification of Drilling Fluids
1.2.1 Water Based Mud
1.2.1.1 Inhibitive drilling fluid
1.2.2 Oil Based Mud
1.2.3 Pneumatic (or) air based fluid
2. Rheological Models
2.1 Newtonian model
2.2 Non-Newtonian model
2.2.1 Bingham Plastic Model
2.2.2 Power law Model
2.2.3 Herschel Buckley model
2.3 Rheological Parameters by Rotations per Minute (RPM)
2.4 Terminologies
2.4.1 Plastic Viscosity (PV)
2.4.2 Apparent Viscosity (AV)
2.4.3 Yield Point (YP)
2.4.4 Gel strength (GS)
3. Nanoparticles
3.1 Why Nanomaterials in drilling fluids?
4. Enhancement in Rheology by Nanoparticles
5. Conclusion
Abstract
Due to extinction of conventional reservoirs, it is the peak time to drill the unconventional

field for the production of oil and Gas. Drilling an unconventional field requires engineered

drilling fluids because an efficient drilling operation purely depends upon the performance of

drilling fluid. Drilling fluid which is a combination of solids and fluids performs many functions

like cooling the drill bit, cleaning the wellbore, maintaining the wellbore pressure and producing a

filter cake to prevent the invasion of fluid to the formation. It can be classified into Oil Based

Mud (OBM), Water Based Mud (WBM) and pneumatic fluid (or) air based fluid. Conventional

drilling fluids which are in use, lose their efficacy during drilling due to complex reservoir

environment like High Temperature High Pressure (HTHP) and high salinity. Nanomaterial’s

which are unique due to its distinctive properties like high surface to volume ratio, thermal

stability, and conductivity found application in almost all fields of engineering. Over the last few

decades, researchers found that addition of nanoparticles to the drilling mud enhances the

rheological properties, reduce filtrate loss volume, shale inhibition and can withstand extreme

downhole environment. This book chapter describes about the addition of various types of

nanoparticles to both oil and water based mud and their effects in enhancing the rheological

properties of drilling fluids.

Keywords: Drilling fluids, Nanoparticles, Rheology

1. INTRODUCTION
1.1 Drilling Fluids
A well-organized reservoir operation consists of many important stages, starting from

finding the presence of crude oil to extracting the oil from the reservoir. An important parameter

in-between these two stages, which decides the fate of drilling is the Drilling fluids. A successful

drilling operation depends upon the effectiveness of the drilling fluid. Drilling a long hole from

surface till deep inside the earth produces a huge amount of heat, which reduce the performance

of drilling bit. A drilling fluids (or) muds which are generally used to cool down the drilling bit

primarily consists of solids, liquids and some chemical components. Some other functions of

drilling fluids are carry the cuttings from the subsurface, minimize formation damage by

producing a filter cake and to maintain the wellbore stability. Drilling fluids are classified into

Water-Based Drilling Fluids (WDF) and Oil-Based Drilling Fluids (OBM) and Pneumatic drilling

fluid. The chosen drilling fluids must be environmentally friendly it should not affect the

formation, and it should withstand the extreme pressure and temperature condition. Since drilling

fluids encounter HPHT environment maintaining the viscosity of drilling fluid is the crucial part

of effective functioning. The rheological properties like plastic viscosity (PV), apparent viscosity

(AV), yield point (YP), Gel strength explains the efficiency of the drilling fluid. Any deviation in

the rheological, physical and chemical properties of the drilling fluids severely affect the

performance.

The below flow chart brief about the property and their functions in drilling fluids
 Prevention of formation fluids to well bore
Maintain wellbore stability
Density Cool and lubricate the bit

Transport cuttings from wellbore

cool and lubricate the bit
Velocity

Transport cuttings from wellbore

YP,AV,Gel
strength

Table 1: Properties and functions of drilling fluids

1.2 Classification of drilling fluids

1.2.1 Water Based Drilling Fluids (WDF):

Being inexpensive and environmental friendly, 80 % of worlds oil and gas wells are

drilled by using Water Based Mud (Sadeghalvaad, M. and Sabbaghi, S., 2015). Water itself can be

used as a coolant to cool down the drill bit but since the carrying capacity of drilling fluid depends

upon the viscosity, clay or polymer is generally added to continous phase (may be either fresh

water, brine, saturated brine (or) formate brine) to increase the viscosity of drilling fluid. The

added clays may be hydrophilic (or) hydrophobic in nature. The hydrophilic clay significantly

absorbs water and results in clay swelling which decrease the efficiency of whole process.

Additives like barite, clay, starch, organic colloid (Sodium Carboxy Methyl cellulose),

polyacrylates, lignosulphonates, polyanionic cellulose, pH control additives were added to

significantly improve the rheological properties like Yield point, Apparent Viscosity, Plastic

viscosity and Gel strength. Aftab et al., (2017) stated that addition of potassium chloride(KCl) to

WBM is a quite famous mechanism for increasing the rheological properties and it can also act as
hydrate resistant, particularly in shale. But a high concentration of KCl in water-based mud can

separate the mud into two phases such as liquids and sediments. Polymers like xanthum gum,

polyacrylamide, and carboxymethyl cellulose are added to increase the viscosity of mud but due

to increase in a temperature gradient with an increase in depth, polymers lose their property and

degrade.

KCl + PHPA

Water based Mud

KCl
Drilling Mud

Oil based mud Invert oil mud

Fig 1: Basic classification of drilling fluid

1.2.1.1 Inhibive water based Mud

Mud that particularly prevents hydration of clay is called Inhibitive mud. The mechanism

is actually executed by preparing the drilling fluids in high salt concentration solution. Calcium

ions retard the hydration by flocculation and a cation exchange reaction occur between calcium

and sodium ions on the clay plates. Other than cations the mud can also treat with Lignosulphate

to prevent hydration. Potassium ions added to the mud provide multi-level application provide

stability to the shale, holds the cuttings together thereby prevention of the cuttings dispersed into

finer particles. The most common Potassium based additive is KCl. Researchers found that adding
KCl to the mud increases the rheological properties to a great extent but using this salt at extreme

conditions accelerate accretion(Aftab et al., 2016, Aftab et al., 2017)

1.2.2 Oil-based Drilling Fluids

In the oil-based drilling fluid along with the base fluid which is mostly mineral oil, diesel,

olefins (or) paraffin barite is used to increase the system density and bentonite is used as the

viscosifier. Oil-based Mud is highly preferred in olden days because it significantly retards the

clay swelling and showed better performance in deviated well and provided a high degree of

lubricity. Sometimes asphaltic and polymeric materials are added to control HPHT (High

pressure/High temperature) fluid loss. Oil-based systems usually contain lime to maintain an

elevated pH. The mud typically resists the adverse effects of hydrogen sulphide (H 2S) and carbon

dioxide (CO2) gases and enhance emulsion stability. Even though the performance of oil-based

mud is superior to WBM due to the toxic nature of the mud, it is strictly restricted at

environmentally sensitive areas. OBM also classified into Invert Emulsion method in which the

water is emulsified in oil

1.2.3 Pneumatic (or) air based drilling fluids

Air (or) Nitrogen is commonly used in Pneumatic drilling fluid technique. The main

advantage of air based drilling fluid is it offers higher penetration rates, better hole cleaning

efficiency and less formation damage. Whereas air based drilling fluid doesn’t provide enough

pressure for the prevention of inflow of reservoir fluids.

2. Rheological models

The Rheological models are generally classified in to Newtonian and Non Newtonian model.

2.1 Newtonian model

If the relation between the shear stress and shear rate is linear then the fluid is generally

called Newtonian Fluid. The relation between the shear stress and shear rate can be defined by a
single parameter called viscosity (i.e) τ =µγ where µ is the shear stress, µ is the viscosity and γ is

the shear rate. Higher the viscosity, higher the force required to move the fluid

2.2 Non-Newtonian Model:

Drilling fluids are complex in nature. The relation between the shear stress and shear strain

is not linear so a single parameter doesn’t define the relationship. However it is possible to find

other parameters like apparent viscosity, plastic viscosity, yield point, and gel strength.

The standard rheological models are Bingham plastic model and Power law model

2.2.1 Bingham Plastic model

τ =YP+ PV (γ )

YP yield point (dynes/cm2)

PV plastic viscosity (poise)
γ shear rate (1/s)

2.2.2 Power Law model:

τ =K γ n

K is the consistency index (dynes sn /cm2),

n is the flow behaviour index(dimensionless)
γ is the shear rate

2.2.3 Herschel-Buckley model

The rheological parameter estimation can be done by Herschel-Buckley model(Vryzas et al.,

2015) (cross check year)

τ =τ HB + K ¿

Where τ and τHB are shear stress and shear rate

The three HB rheological parameters are: the yield stress ( τHB ),

the flow consistency index (K) which is an indicator of the suspension viscosity, and the flow

behavior index (n) that shows shear thinning (n<1) or shear thickening (n>1) behavior

2.3 Rheological Parameters by RPM

Flow Properties can also be determined with respect to Rotations Per Minute (RPM) (Aftab et al.,
2016)
1. Apparent Viscosity AV = RPM 600/2
2. Plastic Viscosity PV= RPM 600-RPM 300
3. Yield Point YP = PV-RPM 300
2.4 Terminologies

2.4.1 Plastic Viscosity (PV)

Plastic viscosity is defined as the resistance of fluid to flow, the value of low PV indicates

that the mud is capable of drilling rapidly because of the low viscosity of mud departing at the bit.

High PV is caused by a viscous base fluid and by excess colloidal solids. It is always desired to

lower the solids content by mud dilution to attain a lower PV value. The value of PV increases

with drilling fluid weight. High PV can cause several problems during drilling high equivalent

circulation density, high swab, surge, pipe sticking (Aftab et al.,2016) depends upon the

concentration and size of particles, PV increases with decrease in shape of particles

2.4.2 Apparent Viscosity (AV)

Aftab et al.,(2016) stated that it is desired to maintain thixotropic behavior of drilling fluid

by maintaining the value of Apparent viscosity between 33.5 to 49.5 m Pa.s, the addition of

nanoparticles to drilling fluid maintain the Apparent viscosity in a desirable range without much

deviation. Apparent viscosity is defined as the ratio of stress to rate of strain of liquid and it is also

found that increase in nanoparticle concentration increase the apparent viscosity of drilling fluids

2.4.3 Yield point (YP)

YP is defined as the minimum shear stress required to move the fluid and explains about

the ability of drilling fluid to lift the cuttings from well bore to surface. Even though high YP is

desired, the value exceeding the range of 13-20 pa leads to problems like increase in well bore

pressure, swab and surge pressure fluctuations.

2.4.4 Gel strength

It is the ability to drill fluid to hold the drilled cuttings for a certain period ranges are10-s (or) 10

min respectively. At a time of 10 s and 10 min to measure the fluid capability to act as a gel to

suspend cuttings and weighting materials when circulation is ceased.

3. Nanotechnology and Nanomaterials

It was 1959 when Richard Feynman coined the term “There is a plenty of room at the

bottom” leads to the invention of a new technology called Nanotechnology. Nanomaterials are

one of the important products of nanotechnology is a new Era of material which found application

in almost all fields of Engineering and Technology in the range of 10 -9 m, The Nanomaterial has a

high surface to volume ratio which provides greater area for chemical reactivity it can also alter

the quantum effects that leads to change in optical, magnetic, electrical, and other substantial

properties. Nanomaterials have extremely small size which having at least one dimension 100 nm

or less, but the dimensions vary from one to three, an example for one dimension material is

Surface film, two dimension is (strands (or) fibers) three dimension (particles) Common types of

nanomaterials include nanotubes, dendrimers, quantum dots, and fullerenes. There are several

approaches to produce various sizes of nanomaterials; they are top-down approach and a bottom-

up approach. Nanoparticle should be used in the form of nanofluids which is the colloidal

dispersion of nanoparticles in the base fluid.

3.1 Why Nanoparticles in Drilling Fluids?

Performance of conventional drilling fluids failed to attain the desired rheological

properties at high pressure and high-temperature condition leading to fallen of the cuttings from

the drilling mud, decrease in maintaining AV, PV, YP, Gel strength and increase in loss of filtrate

volume. Nanoparticles which are an oxide in nature support heat transfer of the drilling fluids by

increasing the thermal conductivity. Due to their extremely small size, nanoparticles occupy the

space between micro materials in the formation and plug the pore which eventually leads to a

reduction in mud filtrate volume. Agarwal et al., (2011) stated that Nanoparticles because of their
large free energy of adsorption attach themselves to the interface between oil and water in an

emulsion based drilling fluids. Because of their enhanced physiochemical, electrical and thermal

properties it can enhance the rheological properties of drilling fluids and increase in nanoparticle

concentration increases the viscosity. Hassani et al., (2016) showed that Quantum effects of

nanoparticles in drilling fluids make many physical changes without altering the bulk chemistry.

The significance of the use of nanoparticles in drilling fluids has reported for the first time by

(Abdo and Danish., 2010).

4. Rheology of nano-based drilling fluids

Nanoparticles enhance the rheological properties of the drilling fluids using various
mechanisms which mostly depends on the concentration, physical and chemical properties of
nanoparticle and continuous phase of drilling fluids

ZnO Nanoparticles
ZnO nanoparticles due to their high heat capacity, thermal conductivity, low thermal
expansion, and high melting point enhance the rheological properties of drilling mud. Hassani et
al., (2016) reported that adding 0.5 wt% of ZnO nanoparticle showed higher thermal conductivity
than silicon oxide nanoparticle and it also enhanced the rheological properties like plastic
viscosity, apparent viscosity, and yield point. The thermal conductivity of ZnO nanoparticle was
also confirmed by (William et al., 2014) increase in nanoparticle concentration increases the
thermal conductivity which is an indication of the ability of the mud to cool faster. Abdo et al.,
(2014) suggested that though Nano clays like Montmorillonite (MMT) and APT have good
intercalation property they lack in maintaining high yield point at HTHP condition ZnO
nanoparticle prevents flocculation of clays in drilling fluid and increases and stabilized the Yield
point of drilling fluid even under HTHP environment. The ZnO nanoparticle dispersed in
polyacrylamide solution not only increases the viscosity but also increases the YP, Gel strength
and lubricity of the drilling fluid (aftab et al., 2016). Pourkhalil and Nakhaee (2019) showed the
effect of ZnO nanoparticles in minimizing the water invasion by plugging the pores. As the
surface of the reservoir is mainly composed of clay which is a negatively charged surface with
hydrophilic nature ZnO nanoparticles is surface treated with fatty acids to convert the
hydrophobic nature to hydrophilic and carry a positive charge on the surface thus making the ZnO
nanoparticle adheres towards the surface of the clay. It was also found that an increase in
nanoparticle concentration showed increment in pressure reduction up to 60%.
Fig 1: comparison of thermal conductivity for ZnO nanoparticle from Hassani et al., 2016 and William et
al., 2014

Graphene oxide Nanoparticles

Graphene is one of the strongest known substance in the universe. Though the graphene is

thinner it is approximately 100 times stronger than steel. The strengths of the material is due to

the two-dimensional crystal of pure carbon, which makes graphene a good conductor of heat and

electricity. Due to the superior mechanical property of graphenes such as tensile strength, weight,

Young's modulus, specific strength and melting point it is always a preferred material for the

drilling operation. The rheological behavior of Graphene nanoparticles dispersed in OBM was

studied by Ho et al., (2016) the graphene nanoparticles is dispersed in OBM via two-step method

which is a combination of hydrodynamic cavitation dispersion and ultrasonication. A very

minimum concentration of 25,50,100ppm of graphene nanoparticles was used, which increased

the viscosity of drilling fluid than hydrogenated OBM. The shear thinning behavior of Graphene

Oil-based Mud was also confirmed by a decrease in viscosity with an increase in shear rate.

Though the Bingham plastic rheological model fits with the experimental data at all shear rate,

power law model deviates at the higher shear rate because of agglomeration of particles.
 F

igure 2: Viscosity of 25, 50,100 ppm of graphene oil nanofluid at 300C Ho et al., 2016(Permission

from Elsevier)

The ability to act Graphene Oxide (GO) as fluid loss control additive was studied

extensively by Kosynkin et al., (2011) through the filtration loss by Powdered Graphene Oxide

(PGO) initially show less filtration loss the overall performance is very poor leading to the

combination of Large Flake Graphene Oxide(LFGO) with PGO which acts as a reinforcing agent

enhanced filtration properties and the methylated GO produced by the esterification reaction

increased the stability of Graphene oxide as a fluid loss control additive in both freshwater and

saline water.
 Figure 3: Graphene as a barrier prevent infiltration of drilling fluid while during

production as pressure lowered Graphene sheets off from bore wall Kosynkin et al., (2011)

The potential of Graphene oxide as a fluid loss control agent was also studied by Taha and Lee.,

(2015) The graphene-enhanced lubricant can be thermally stable up to 3000 C. Nano graphene

suspended in the surfactant upon the pressure enter in to the microscopic pore of the metals and

form a triboflim to improve rate of penetration(ROP), improve bit’s life span and thermal stability

of fluids. Nasser et al., (2013) found that a combination of nanographene and nano silicon wires

can act as an additive to WBM and the nanomud retained all the rheological properties at a higher

temperature of 900C

Iron Oxide Nanoparticles

Iron oxide nanoparticles due to their superior paramagnetic nature biocompatibility and non-
toxicity extended its application wide open to all fields like biomedical, oil and gas, drug delivery
etc. Magnetic NPs, with sizes ranges between 2 and 20 nm display superparamagnetism, i.e their
magnetization is zero, in the absence of an external magnetic field and they can be magnetized by
an external magnetic source. This property provides additional stability for magnetic
nanoparticles in solutions. Jung et al.,(2011) showed that the addition of iron oxide nanoparticles
to the bentonite based mud increased the yield stress and viscosity at HTHP condition. They
proposed the enhancement is particularly due to the embedded iron oxide nanoparticle dispersed
in the pore structure on the surface of clay particle in the bentonite fluid which promotes gelatin in
the bentonite particle and there is a coagulation of iron oxide nanoparticles with the bentonite and
the particle which exceeds the bentonite. Mahmoud et al., (2016) compared the potential of using
iron oxide and silicon oxide nanoparticle in enhancing the rheology of bentonite based mud.
Adding iron oxide nanoparticle increased the yield point and plastic viscosity compare to base
mud up to 2000F and the mud containing iron oxide nanoparticle remain stable with very minor
loss in gel structure at 3500F for 16h. Regarding the rheological model, the best fitted model was
Herschel Buckley. A very minimum quantity of 0.5 wt% of iron oxide nanoparticle increased the
rheology. Barry et al., (2015) investigated the rheological properties and fluid filtration
performance of low solid content bentonite mud containing iron oxide nanoparticles (Fe 2O3) and a
hybrid containing two NP intercalated clay hybrids, iron oxide clay hybrid (ICH) and alumina
silica clay hybrid (ASCH) under both LTLP and HTHP condition. The sample containing Fe 2O3
nanoparticles showed superior yield stress than another base mud at all shear rate, while ASCH
solutions lower shear stresses at all rate than the base fluid. Contreras et al., (2014) presented a
statement that nanoparticles alone can be used in drilling fluid without any additives like lost
circulation material because the samples containing both iron oxide and LCM in high
concentration reduced the yield point and to minimize formation damage the ability of iron oxide
to reduce the fluid loss is investigated and it was found that iron oxide nanoparticle even in low
concentration and at HPHT condition showed a higher reduction in fluid loss. Iron oxide
nanoparticle with a higher concentration of graphite showed a better performance at HTHP
condition and the combination of iron oxide nanoparticle with LCM could achieve a reduction in
filtration over 75%. Vryzas et al., (2015) examined the effect of iron nanoparticles on the water-
based mud. Addition of 0.5wt% of iron nanoparticle reduced the filtrate losses up to 42.5% and
the added iron oxide nanoparticles were more efficient even at HTHP condition and the best fitted
model was Herschel Buckley model. Increase in nanoparticle concentration increased the yield
stress value

Figure 4: 30 min HP/HT cumulative filtrate volume of the samples containing

different concentrations of iron oxide (Fe2O3) nanoparticles at 250◦F and 300 psi differential
pressure (Permission yet to get from SPE vryzas et al., 2015).
Fig 5: Percentage of reduction in mud filtrate at 30min under HPHT for (a) NP1 (the single square
represents the blend only containing NP1 at 0.5 wt%)

(b) NP2 (the single square represents the blend only containing NP2 at 2.5wt%), Contreras et al.
(2014) (adopted) (permission yet to get)

Carbon Nanotubes
Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) are an allotrope of carbon cylindrical in structure. They can be single-
walled (SWCNT) with a diameter of less than 1 nanometer (nm) or multi-walled (MWCNT), due
to their superior strength and electrical property and as an efficient conductor of heat, the
application of CNT is wide open to many fields like Medicine, nanotechnology, Petroleum,
electronics, and optics. Hassani et al., (2016) proposed that adding a small quantity of CNTs to
the WBM significantly improve the thermal conductivity of the fluid and by considering the
individual effect of Silica nanoparticle and CNTs on convective heat transfer a hybrid component
is prepared by mixing the two, which have added advantage like controllable size and stable
suspension. Compare to Silica nanoparticle, CNTs and ZnO nanoparticle the hybrid prepared
showed maximum thermal performance in higher Reynolds number. The rheological properties
like PV, AV, YP is also increased by adding CNTs and hybrid CNT. Halali et al., (2016)
performed experiments with CNTs Nanoparticle and they suggested for homogenous dispersion
of CNTs it is recommended to use surfactants (or) polymeric materials. The concentration of NPs
used up to 0.8 wt% at temperature 248, 302, 347, 392 0F and they found viscosity increased
especially at lower shear rates and the CNTs Nanoparticle mud reduced the filtrate volume also.
Kazemi-Beydokhti and Hajiabadi (2018) prepared oxidized multi-walled carbon nanotubes
wrapped by polyethylene glycol(POCNT) via chemical treatment of raw CNTs which introduced
hydrogen sites in to the CNTs in water based mud. The prepared composite improved the
rheological properties like yield stress and viscosity and most importantly due to ultra-small size,
high surface area and high aspect ratio a thin low permeability cake has formed which reduced the
filtrate volume up to 82% and also leads to lesser friction, further increase in concentration
reduced the spurt loss. Ismail et al.,(2014) to identify the influence of MWCNTs on WBM and
ester based mud he worked on both the muds and found that adding low concentration of
MWCNTs to WBM at low temperature doesn’t bring any significant changes in rheological
properties whereas in ester based mud gel strength and the stability of emulsion is increased.

Madkour et al., (2016) prepared a biodegradable polymer using MWCNTs and Graphene and
used as a viscosifier in oil-based mud. The rheological properties like AV, YP, PV and gel
strength showed a significant increase and the modified drilling fluid followed Herschel-Buckley
model.(MR-commercial viscosifier, MC: mud formulation with polymeric nanocomposite, MG:
formulation with graphene)

FIG: Improvement in rheological property (Madkour et al., 2016) ( variation in dia)

Samsuri and Hamzah., (2011) showed the cutting capacity of water-based mud can be increased
by the addition of multiwall carbon nanotubes(MWCNT) and increasing the concentration of
MWCNTs increased the efficiency of mud. Addition of MWCNTs stabilizes the mud by
balancing the gravity force thereby increases the drag force and easily lifted the cuttings to the
surface. Finally, they also concluded that the addition of MWCNTs increased the viscosity which
also significantly helps to improve the carrying capacity of fluid. Fazelabdolabadi et al., (2015)
developed a functionalized Carbon nanotubes via acid treatment by applying a hydrophilic
functional group onto the surface of CNTs. For 1% volume fraction of Carbon nanotubes, there is
a significant enhancement in thermal conductivity of oil-based mud than water-based mud and
there is a considerable reduction in filtrate quantity which further enhanced the performance of
drilling mud.

Titanium Nanoparticles

Titanium oxide is a very costly metal has found its application in drilling fluids along with
synthetic polymer solution (polyacrylamide). Sadeghalvaad and Sabbaghi (2015) improved the
water-based mud by polymerization of an acrylic monomer in presence of titanium oxide
nanoparticles via solution polymerization the viscosity of the nanofluid increases with
nanoparticle concentration and decreased over time. The Nano drilling fluid shows a shear
thinning behaviour by a decrease in viscosity and also the value of plastic viscosity and yield
stress increases with increase in the concentration of nanoparticles. The model best fitted for this
shear thinning behaviour is Power law model which clearly explains an increase in hole cleaning
capacity due to increase in the value of k which happened due to the increase in the value of
annular viscosity. The values of K were tabulated in table 1The most important function of
drilling fluid is producing a filter cake of low thickness that is also possible by using TiO 2-
synthetic polymer combination The nanoparticle size was affected in the filtration properties, but
in general, that improved the fluid loss and filter cake thickness about 64% compared the WBF

S.No Additive (g) Power law Model

K N R2
1 1 0.1753 0.8225 0.9987
2 2 0.2478 0.7847 0.9976
3 3 0.2225 0.8753 0.9937
4 4 0.4464 0.7075 0.9908
5 5 0.5449 0.7265 0.9908
6 6 0.6177 0.7069 0.9813
7 7 0.8607 0.6722 0.9924
8 8 0.9703 0.622 0.9816

9 9 1.0944 0.6286 0.9869

10 10 1.5587 0.5293 0.9819
11 14 2.9047 0.4657 0.9843

Table 1: Constants for power-law model

Clay Nanoparticles
Cheraghian et al., 2018 prepared a composite SiO 2/clay which enhanced the rheological and
filtration properties of drilling fluids. More than silica nanoparticle the composite showed
enhanced results in yield point and in gel strength. Since the clay particles are very small effective
plugging was obtained which ultimately results in reduced fluid loss and the mud cake produced
by lower concentration of NC/SiO2 composite produced better results than higher concentration.
The well dispersed and thin mud cakes demonstrate the decreasing effect of the differential
pressure sticking problem
4.6.1 Palygorskite (PAL)
PAL is used in the drilling industry as a viscosifier, to improve the suspension of drilling

fluids when no circulation is desired. Production of nano PAL in Needle-like structure makes it
unique in many important properties like colloidal nature, resistance to the concentration of

electrolytes. The preparation of nano-sized PAL requires ethanol during sonication to prevent

flocculation. Reducing the size of PAL from micro to nano increases the viscosity and yield point

of drilling fluid. Increase in the yield point increases the efficiency of holding the drill cuttings

under static condition. Even though PAL alone can able to improve the rheological properties of

drilling fluids, it lacks in maintaining high yield point, so Mt is added to produce a thick drilling

fluid which offers high yield point. The shear thinning behavior of the fluids is also important as it

looks into the transport of cuttings from subsurface to surface. Adding a combination of nano

PAL and Mt offers shear thinning behavior (i.e) viscosity decreases under shear strain. So it can

replace the drilling fluid additives. Another remarkable effect of PAL nanoparticles is stable

under HTHP environment which usage of Mt alone cannot able to do

Sepiolite Nanoparticles
Sepiolite is a clay mineral which consists of hydrous Magnesium silicate composite,

reducing the size of sepiolite from bulk to nano size increase its stability in drilling fluids. Other

remarkable properties of sepiolite are lightweight, non-swelling and porous in nature(Abdo et al.,

2016). Sepiolite nanoparticles do not dissolve in water so it of greater advantage to plug the core

samples. Adding sepiolite particles to the water-based drilling mud increases the plastic viscosity,

yield point at low-temperature low-pressure condition and also at HPHT. Also in the brine-based

drilling fluid addition of sepiolite nanoparticles increased the yield and plastic viscosity of

bentonite based mud. The Nano sepiolite also offers excellent shear thinning behavior and the

addition of sepiolite nanoparticles to the bentonite-based mud reduced the fluid loss even at

HTHP condition

Silica Nanoparticles
Silica nanoparticles have extensively used as a drilling fluid additive many by researchers

because of its thermal stability, biocompatibility, and low toxicity . Sharma et al., (2012) was the

first to investigate the rheological properties of silica-based nanofluid and found that increasing
the nanoparticle concentration increased the Plastic viscosity, as the silica nanoparticle is directly

dispersed in the water-based mud the enhancement in rheology is not apparent but the added

silica nanoparticle reduced the water invasion in to the formation by completely plug off the

pores through physical plugging. In invert emulsion drilling fluid system addition of barite results

in losing the yield stress, it can be overcome by adding nano silica particles (Agarwal et al.,2011).

The usage of polymer in drilling fluids improve the distribution of nanoparticles throughout the

drilling fluid. A Hydrophobic associated polymer based nano silica composite developed by Mao

et al.,(2015) enhanced the rheological properties of drilling fluid under both fresh water and salt

water drilling mud and decreasing the fluid loss. The ability to control the fluid loss by silica

nanoparticles was studied extensively by (Srivatsa et al., 2012; Mao et al., 2015; Mahmoud et

al.,2016) Xu et al., (2018) showed that the plugging capacity of silica nanoparticle could be

increased by preparing a composite. Polyethylene glycol grafted nano silica composite(PEG-NS)

was prepared for stabilizing the shale by reducing the permeability. Since the particle size of

PEG-NS ranges from 110-434 nm a wide range of pores in the shales and cracks could be plugged

in addition a dense plugging film was formed on the surface of the formation. The active hydroxyl

group in the structure of PEG-NS can compete with the water molecules to absorb the available

free oxygen atoms on the clay surface through hydrogen bonding. Addition of Silica nanoparticles

enhanced the viscosity of both water and oil based mud(Anoop et al.,2014; Cheraghian et al.,

2018). The added nanoparticles to the water-based drilling mud increase the drag and lift forces on

cuttings to overcome the gravitational and cohesion forces which increase the cuttings transport

efficiency of drilling fluids further if the cuttings are smaller in size the efficiency is pretty higher

by adding even a small quantity of silica nanoparticles (Boyou et al.,2019; Gbadamosi et al.,

2019)
Conclusion
Conventional drilling technologies failed to produce satisfactory results at high
temperature and high-pressure condition. Though various conventional additives such as KCl,
polymer are used to improve the rheological properties they yielded only negative impacts like a
high concentration of KCl destabilize the rheological properties and the polymer used cannot plug
the Nanopores in the formation. The added nanoparticles to the drilling fluid, in addition to
enhancement in rheological properties and gel strength, can significantly reduce the fluid loss by
plugging the pores of the formation, increase the wellbore stability. Metal oxide nanoparticles
which are the good conductor of heat is the preferred one for drilling operation at high-pressure,
high-temperature condition. Nanoparticles with size distribution smaller than shale pore throat
could have the possibility of pore throat plugging in the shale formation and the usage of polymer
in the drilling fluid enhance the dispersion of nanoparticles in the drilling fluid
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