Research on ultrasonic-based drilling fluid viscosity detection method

Abstract

Drilling fluid viscosity directly affects the efficiency and safety of drilling op-erations. Proper viscosity can ensure that the drilling fluid can effectively carry drill cuttings and maintain the stability of the well wall. Therefore, real-time and accurate viscosity measurement of drilling fluid is crucial to ensure the safety of drilling operation and improve the production efficiency. The article proposes a method to measure the viscosity of drilling fluid based on ultrasonic attenuation method. Firstly, an experimental device for ultrasonic drilling fluid viscosity detection was designed and an experimental platform for ultrasonic drilling fluid viscosity detection was constructed. Secondly, the propagation and attenuation of ultrasonic waves in drilling fluids with different viscosities were investigated for different pipe diameters, and ultrasonic echo signals in drilling fluids were obtained. Finally, it is found that there are obvious correlations be-tween drilling fluid viscosity and four key parameters: temperature, pipe diam-eter, ultrasonic echo signal amplitude and ultrasonic attenuation coefficient. The experimental results show that the viscosity detection of drilling fluid can be realized by using the ultrasonic attenuation detection technique, and the ul-trasonic signals are analyzed using the support vector regression machine, which realizes accurate prediction of drilling fluid viscosity. It provides a new idea for drilling fluid viscosity detection.