Evaluation of rheological and filtration properties of a polymeric water-based drilling mud in presence of nano additives at various temperatures

Over the past decades, utilizing water-based muds (WBM) in drilling operations has been significantly increased due to their environmental-friendly characteristics. However, the performance of WBM in drilling operations compared to oil-based muds and synthetic-based muds is lower. Hence, some additives (i.e., polymers, nanoparticles (NPs)) have been added to improve WBM's rheological properties. The objective of this research is to evaluate the impacts of silica (SiO2) and titanium dioxide (TiO2) NPs on rheological and filtration properties of a polymeric-WBM at 25, 50, and 75 degrees C. The NPs at concentrations from 0.01 to 0.5 wt% were dispersed in the polymeric WBM. The results revealed that by increasing the concentration of SiO2 NPs, the yield point (YP) and gel strength (GS) values of the base mud were increased by approximately 20% at all temperatures, while TiO2 NPs could only increase YP and GS values at 50 and 75 degrees C, and to a lesser extent than SiO2 NPs. Both NPs also resulted in decreasing of PV values by more than 20% at all temperatures. The lowest amount of PV was achieved at 0.1 wt% for both NPs. Besides that, both SiO2 and TiO2 NPs reduced fluid loss from the polymeric WBM at all applied temperatures. The lowest amount of fluid loss was obtained at 0.1 wt% SiO2 NPs, by roughly 35% reduction. Furthermore, both NPs also resulted in a higher quality mud cake as compared to the base mud. Overall, it can be concluded that SiO2 NPs followed by TiO2 NPs have great potential to improve the rheological and filtration properties of polymeric WBMs at operational conditions.