How Hydrocyclone Operation In Drillingg Fluid Solid Control

Sept. 17, 2012 - PRLog -- What is the best condition to use the hydrocyclones?

They can be very cost-effective used in unweighted water-based mud. With high mud weight (over 12 ppg), these equipment is not recommended because they will remove a lot of weighting material as barite as same as drill solid. You will be end up with high bill for weighting agent.

What is the feed rate for hydrocyclones?

Each manufacture will have the recommend flow rate however I will describe the typical flow rate used for the hydrocyclones based on my experience.

Desanders: Typically +/- 500 gpm per cone.

Desilters: Typically 50 to 75 gpm per cone.

How many of hydrocyclones required?

It depends on how much flow rate you expect. Normally, you must design amount of hydrocyclones to be able to process 20% over the maximum expected flow rate. For example, drilling rate is 1000 gpm. You should have a hydrocyclone capacity of 1,200 gpm.

How much is the pressure used for hydrocyclone ?

Most of manufactures use 75 ft of head pressure. Let me clarify it with you.

From the hydrostatic pressure equation:

P = 0.052 x MW x TVD (ft)

Where: MW is ppg and TVD is ft.

The head pressure = 75 ft. So you can add it into the equation above.

P = 0.052 x MW x 75

P = 3.9 x MW

P represents feed line pressure in psi.

It means that 75 ft of head pressure is equal to 3.9 time of mud weight used in the well.

For example, you are using 10.5 ppg so your feed pressure should be 41 psi (P = 3.9 x 10.5). However, if you are not able to get the required pressure as per recommendation, these following items you should take a look are:

• Check the feed pumps to see any defection, impeller sizes, etc.

• Adjust plumbing to clear restriction

• Remove cones until you get the right pressure

How can you know if the hydrocyclones working properly?

You can just following the simple instructions to see if your hydrocyclones are working properly.

1. The solid and liquid at the bottom of the cone (under flow) shows a shape of umbrella spray. It means that the cone is not being loaded by solid in drilling mud.

Rope discharge should not be happened because it indicates that solid content of drilling mud is higher than what the hydrocyclones can do their job. If there are excessive solid, the cones will be plugged. If you see the rope discharge, you should open up the underflow and clear any obstructions in the hydrocyclones. What’s more, if this situation reoccurred several times, you need to reduce solid feed rate each cone by adding more cones, and/or utilizing finer shale shaker screens.

Contact Information:

Email:   www.trsyjx@gmail.com

            julinliang@trsolidcontrol.cn

Msn :    tr.solid.control@msn.cn

Mobile phone:   8615229262604

please visit http://www.tr-desander.com/