Non-Newtonian Fluid displacement in annular space
Aline Abdu1; Bruno Fonseca1; Hannah A. Pinho1; Monica Feijó Naccache1; Paulo R. de Souza Mendes1
1 PUC-Rio
doi:10.20906/CPS/COB-2015-2065
Resumo
The displacement of drilling mud by cement slurry in completion operations of oil and gas wells involves a time-dependent displacement of non-Newtonian fluids in concentric and eccentric annuli. The success of this operation guarantee the lifetime of the wells. The adequate operation occurs when the cement slurry distribution at the wall is homogeneous. In this work, experimental and numerical studies of Newtonian and non-Newtonian fluid displacement through concentric and eccentric annuli are performed. The numerical solution of the governing conservation equations of mass and momentum is obtained with Fluent and OpenFOAM softwares, using the finite volume technique and the volume of fluid (VOF) method. The experiments are performed using a scaled oil well model, where the displacement efficiency is evaluated measuring the density of the mixture at the annuli outlet. Tests are performed using model and real fluids. The effect of flow rate, density ratio, fluids rheology and geometry configuration on displacement efficiency is investigated. Comparison of experimental and numerical results shows good agreement, validating the numerical procedure.
Palavras-chave: fluid displacement; non-newtonian fluids; completion operation