Simulation of ultrasonic Doppler System for Drilling mud Flow Measurements

Abstract

Abstract Mud flow monitoring is essential for safe drilling and formation characterization. During coiled tubing drilling, drill cuttings are not available for direct observation and measurement. The purpose of the study is to investigate the feasibility of determining the size of the solid phase from spectra obtained by ultrasonic Doppler measurement, as well as determining the velocity of solid particles in the drilling fluid. For this purpose, numerical simulation is used with the ultrasonic measurement described using a meshless method, while the flow is simulated using a finite volume method. The developed model makes it possible to obtain spectra for various particle size distributions of the solid phase and flow characteristics, such as flow rate and viscosity. As a result, the dependence of the average signal amplitude on the concentration of solid particles in the drilling fluid was determined. Its analysis shows that the measurement in question can be used to estimate the average particle size.