Print Email Facebook Twitter Control of drilling fluid properties: Density & Viscosity Title Control of drilling fluid properties: Density & Viscosity Author Schuit, T.E. Faculty Mechanical, Maritime and Materials Engineering Department Delft Center for Systems and Control Programme Control Engineering Date 2016-01-15 Abstract In the oil and gas industry, safety and efficiency are taken into high regard when obtaining new natural resources. An increasing demand for automation arises to meet with the new safety and efficiency standards. During drilling operations, drilling fluid maintenance has an important role in guaranteeing safety on the rig. Controlling the drilling fluid properties is still a man controlled process with limited actuation and measurement precision. The uncertainties and inconsistencies this brings causes major safety risk, drilling inefficiency and high costs. As the wells which are drilled are becoming deeper with each well drilled, the range in which the drilling fluid properties can fluctuate are becoming more narrow as-well. The task of controlling the drilling fluid properties is still a challenge for the most experience fluid engineers as these types of systems are typically large multi-variable non-linear plants containing internal time-delays and are subjected to input and output constraints. In this thesis, a Model Predictive Controller (MPC) application is presented to control the density and viscosity properties of an oil-based drilling fluid. A simulation model is utilized to investigate the effects of drilling on the fluid properties based on field drilling data. The thesis proceeds to show how a linear MPC application can be utilized to control the nonlinear plant, incorporating a disturbance model to account for the effect of drilling. Finally, the model-predictive control solution is compared to the current method of control in terms of closed-loop reference tracking and cost efficiency for density control. Subject drilling fluidcontroldensityviscositympc To reference this document use: http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:36a5a381-bced-4b14-a776-aa7dcfdb26b5 Embargo date 2021-01-01 Part of collection Student theses Document type master thesis Rights (c) 2016 Schuit, T.E. Files PDF mscThesis.pdf 6.93 MB Close viewer /islandora/object/uuid:36a5a381-bced-4b14-a776-aa7dcfdb26b5/datastream/OBJ/view