Powder Technology 360 (2020) 1157–1166

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Powder Technology

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Effect of perlite particles on the filtration properties of high-density barite

weighted water-based drilling fluid
Badr S. Bageri a, Abdulrauf Rasheed Adebayo b, Jaber Al Jaberi a,⁎, Shirish Patil a
a
Department of petroleum engineering, King Fahd University of petroleum & minerals, Saudi Arabia
b
Center for Integrative petroleum research, King Fahd University of petroleum & minerals, Saudi Arabia

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: There are many factors affecting the filtration of drilling fluid into the drilled formation. The adverse impact of the
Received 23 July 2019 filtration on the well productivity calls for concerted research effort towards developing promising solutions to
Received in revised form 5 November 2019 minimize the volume of mud filtration and solid invasion. This study investigates the potentials of perlite as a fil-
Accepted 11 November 2019
tration control agent under high pressure conditions. Perlite is an amorphous volcanic glass that occurs naturally
Available online 11 November 2019
and abundantly. Perlite was added to a high-density barite weighted drilling fluid at different concentrations. For
Keywords:
the different perlite concentrations, fluid loss test was conducted to form filter cakes. NMR measurements were
Filter cake performed before and after fluid invasion and filter cake deposition to evaluate the amount and particle size dis-
Drilling fluid filtration tribution of the solids that invaded the core samples. The results showed that the drilling fluid formulations con-
Drilling fluid taining perlite controlled filtration loss and mud particles invasion better than standard barite weighted fluids.
Solid invasion © 2019 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
NMR

1. Introduction an overbalanced drilling condition with a substantial pressure gradient,

Natural resources such as gas and oil reservoirs within subsurface
geological rock formations can be extracted via drilled wells. These res-
ervoirs can be located at shallow or profound depths. A drilling fluid is
required to achieve several functions such as to remove drill cuttings
and minimize formation damage. Innovative research works are being
explored in the area of drilling fluid additives with the ultimate goal of
identifying new materials as additives that will improve drilling effi-
ciency and reduce formation damage at a low cost. Such new drilling
fluids materials are also required to be tested according to the
American Petroleum Institute (API) procedures for testing drilling
fluid [1–6].
Deep oil and gas wells are becoming more common in the industry
to cover the high demand for energy around the globe. During deep dril-
ling of high-pressure oil and gas wells, high concentration of weighting
material is often added to the drilling fluid mixture to suppress and con-
trol downhole pressure by increasing the drilling fluid density.
Weighting materials such as barite and ilmenite are commonly used be-
cause of their high specific gravity and low cost [7]. High density drilling
fluid can prevent an unscheduled entry of formation fluid into the well
(a phenomenon called “kick”) by exerting a sizeable hydrostatic pres-
sure over the formation, especially in deep wells. In such cases, an
overbalanced drilling condition ensues, where the hydrostatic pressure
of the drilling fluid is higher than that of the formation being drilled. In
⁎ Corresponding author.
E-mail address: g201193810@kfupm.edu.sa (J. Al Jaberi).
fine particles can invade the formation and plug rock pore throats. Plug-
ging of the pore throats can significantly reduce the productivity of the
well [8–10]. It is therefore desirable that the drilling fluid form a thin
and impermeable filter cake that reduces the amount of drilling fluid
that enters the formation. An essential function of a filter cake is to pro-
vide excellent sealing properties that minimize permeation of the dril-
ling fluid and solids into the formation, as well as withstand a high
differential overbalance pressure [11–14].
Over the years, rigorous research has been dedicated to improve the
properties of the drilling fluids. Each drilling fluid additive has a pro-
found impact on the properties of the mud and hence its function. Var-
ious additives have been developed such as polymers to enhance
drilling mud rheology, bentonite to improve hole cleaning capacity of
the mud, bridging agents to control formation damage and others
[15–19]. Recent advances in drilling fluid research involve the use of
nanoparticles to further improve the performance of drilling fluids
[20–30]. Different nanoparticles such as aluminum-oxide and silica-
nanoparticles were tested for barite drilling fluids. They improve drilling
fluid properties in terms of thermal stability, degradations and the rhe-
ological properties [25]. They can also reduce the filter loss and the filter
cake thickness [22]. In addition, they can improve hole cleaning, solid
transport process and wellbore stability while minimizing shale swell-
ing [31,32]. However, nanomaterials are inherently expensive, which
may restrict their use at a field scale [33].
Different techniques for characterizing drilling fluid and filtration
properties are reported in the literature [14,34,35]. Computed tomogra-
phy (CT) scan approach was used to evaluate the filter cake porosity

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.powtec.2019.11.030
0032-5910/© 2019 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
1158 B.S. Bageri et al. / Powder Technology 360 (2020) 1157–1166
[14,34] and the solid invasion depth. Nuclear magnetic resonance
(NMR) was recently introduced to evaluate secondary formation dam-
age after removal of barite filter cake [36]. Furthermore, analytical
tools such as scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive
X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) and x- ray diffraction (XRD) were used to as-
sess the structure and mineralogy of the filter cake [10,19].
This study investigates the viability of perlite as an effective additive
to control solid and filtration invasion when drilling with a high-density
drilling fluid. The investigated material is inexpensive [37], environ-
ment friendly [37,38], and was evaluated to ensure that it: can form a
thin and impermeable filter cake, does not have an adverse impact on
the primary properties of barite weighted water-based drilling fluid,
and does not cause damage to the formation. Filter cake filtration prop-
erties (such as porosity and thickness of the filter cake, concentration
and invasion profile of the mud solids, and filtrates volume) were char-
acterized using nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), scanning electron
microscope and energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (SEM-EDS), and
X-ray computed tomography (CT) as a function of different concentra-
tions of perlite particles.
2. Materials and experiments
2.1. Perlite
Perlite refers to an amorphous volcanic glass with a relatively high
water content, typically formed by the hydration of obsidian [38]. An
unmodified (i.e., raw and unexpanded) perlite occurs naturally and
has the capability to expand when subjected to heat and form expanded
perlite [38]. Perlite softens when heated to high temperatures which
make the trapped water in the structure of perlite vaporizes, thus
expanding the material to 7–16 times its original volume [38]. Perlite
may also be capable of absorbing many times its weight of aqueous or
non-aqueous fluids and remains dry [39]. Accordingly, the presence of
perlite in a drilling fluid may facilitate the formation of a filter cake
and enhance the sealing property during drilling (due to its expansion).
The particle size distribution of a perlite powder was investigated
using the wet dispersion unit ANALYSETTE 22 Nano Tec plus. The instru-
ment has two detectors which are integrated to measure the size of both
large and fine particles. Fig. 1a shows the cumulative mass as a function
of particle size. The blue dashed line shows that the 50% cumulative
Fig. 1. (a) Particle size distribution for perlite and (b) photo show perlite particles.
mass corresponds to the main particle size, which is 13 μm. The photo
shown in Fig. 1b shows the perlite powder.
SEM-EDS results show that perlite particles comprise 65–80 wt% of
SiO2, 10–18 wt% of Al2O3, 2–5 wt% of Na2O, and 2–6 wt% of K2O. High-
resolution SEM (100 μm) image shows that the perlite particles have a
flake-shape (Fig. 2) [40].
2.2. Drilling fluid properties
A high concentration barite-weighted water-based drilling fluid was
used in this study. The composition of the base drilling fluid is shown in
Table 1 [41]. The density of the drilling fluid was 18 pounds per gallon
(ppg) with an equivalent pressure gradient equal of 0.936 psi/ft. Addi-
tional three drilling fluids were prepared with the same composition
but varying concentration of perlite particles namely: 1 lb./bbl,
2 lb./bbl and 3 lb./bbl. The addition of perlite does not cause any mean-
ingful change in the density of the drilling fluid. As seen in Table 2, the
density of the drilling fluid changed by only 0.5% after adding perlite.
2.3. Rock samples
A 10 in. long and 1.5 in. diameter outcrop carbonate rock sample was
cut into four identical cylindrical samples, each having a length of 2.5 in.
The four samples (shown in Fig. 3) are homogeneous such that the av-
erage porosity of the core samples was 17% and the average helium per-
meability was 80 mD. They all served as the filter medium in the
filtration test.
2.4. Fluid loss test
High-Pressure High-Temperature (HPHT) fluid loss test was con-
ducted to implement mud invasion and filter cake formation at a labo-
ratory scale. These tests were performed in order to compare the
drilling fluid containing the perlite particles with the base drilling
fluid, with respect to filter cake quality and filtration properties. The
test was carried out at a temperature of 150 °F and differential pressure
of 300 psi (inlet pressure of 500 psi and outlet pressure of 200 psi). The
filter cake was formed over the carbonate core samples and then filtra-
tion volume and filter cake thickness were measured.
 B.S. Bageri et al. / Powder Technology 360 (2020) 1157–1166 1159

2.6. CT scan and SEM analysis

The internal structure of each rock sample at pre- and post-drilling

fluid invasion was also examined using cross-sectional digital imaging
obtained over the full length of each sample with an x-ray medical CT-
scanner model TSX-032A. Each sample was scanned at 1 mm slice thick-
ness and 1 mm slice interval using a power of 20 kV and 300 mA. At the
end of the fluid loss test and NMR test, the filter cake was wiped off the
samples and dried in an oven for at least 6 h at a temperature of 80 °C.
The dried cake was gold coated to be imaged using high resolution scan-
ning electron microscope, in order to understand how perlite affect the
surface topography of the filter cakes.

3. Results and discussions

Fig. 2. SEM of perlite particles (100 μm).
2.5. NMR relaxometry
A low magnetic field (2 MHz) NMR spectroscopy system (Geospec
2.1 rock analyzer from Oxford instrument) was used to evaluate forma-
tion damage by comparing the pore size distribution of the rock samples
before and after filter cake deposition. The volume and particle size dis-
tribution of the filter cake were also determined using the same
method. T2 is the relaxation time of the hydrogen molecules in a given
pore of a rock samples which was measured using the CPMG pulse se-
quence with optimized scanning parameters as follows: Tau (inter
echo spacing) value of 0.1 m seconds; signal to noise ratio of 200; recy-
cle delay of 11,250 m seconds.
NMR measurements were plotted as a probability density function
(PDF), a cumulative distribution function (CDF) and a spatial PDF of
the relaxation time (T2) along the sample length. The PDF plot is related
to the pore size distribution of the rock according to Eqs. 1 and 2.
1 S
¼ρ
T2 V yield points were calculated from the dial readings at 300 and 600
 
1 2
¼ρ
T2 r the static gel time.
This section presents the effect of perlite on the rheological and fil-
tration loss properties of the drilling fluid. In the first subsection, we
present the results of the rheological properties for the drilling fluid be-
fore and after adding perlite at different concentrations. In the subse-
quent subsections, we discussed the effect of perlite on filtration
properties of the drilling fluid. The effect of perlite on the mud filtration
property was evaluated using five different performance indices
namely, filter cake thickness, filter cake porosity, filter cake volume, vol-
ume of filtrate, and concentration of invaded solids. The results of the
fluid loss experiments provided direct measurements of the filter cake
thickness and volume of filtrates while NMR analysis provided mea-
surements of the filter cake porosity, concentration of invaded particles,
and filter cake volume (which is directly related to the filter cake thick-
ness). All NMR measurements were conducted while the filter cakes
were fresh and deposited on the samples. The CT scan results was
used to verify the concentration profile of the invaded solids.
3.1. Rheological properties of drilling fluids
The properties of the base drilling fluid and the drilling fluid contain-
ing different weights of perlite are shown in Table 2. The drilling fluid
density and rheological properties was measured using mud balance
and 900-Viscometer® at 90 °F. Plastic viscosity, apparent viscosity and
ð1Þ
RPM (Ø300 and Ø600) using Eqs. (3), (4), and (5), respectively, while
gel strength was obtained directly from the dial reading at 3 RPM after
ð2Þ

where T2 is the relaxation time of the hydrogen molecules in a given ∅600

Apparent viscosity ðAV Þ ¼ ð3Þ
pore of a rock, ρ is the pore surface relaxivity, S is the surface area of 2
the pore, V is the volume of the pore, and r is the pore radius. Since,
NMR T2 distribution as a one to one correspondence with the pore Plastic viscosity ðPV Þ ¼ ∅600 −∅300 ð4Þ
size distribution of a porous media, the PDF profile can be considered
an indication or representation of the pore size distribution of a rock Yield point ðYP Þ ¼ ∅300 −PV ð5Þ
sample [42,43]. The CDF plot is a summation of the different pores' vol-
ume (or porosity) and peaking at a value representing the total porosity There are slight changes in the drilling fluid properties with the ad-
or pore volume of the rock. The spatial PDF reveals the pore size distri- dition of perlite. The apparent viscosity increased from 70 cP for the
bution of the different segments along a sample length. base drilling to 102.5 cP after adding 3 lb of perlite. Yield point to plastic
viscosity ratio increased from 1.3 in the base barite drilling fluid to 1.5,
1.6 and 1.5 as a result of increasing the perlite concentration by
Table 1
Barite-weighted water-based drilling fluid composition.
1 lb./bbl, 2 lb/bbl, and 3 lb/bbl respectively. This increment is an indica-
tion of an improvement in the hole cleaning capability during drilling
Name Unit Base drilling fluid operations [44,45]. The viscosity increased as the perlite added while
Water bbl 0.691 there a slight increase in the density. The gel strength increased as
Bentonite lb 4 well which is an indication to improve the cutting suspension [46].
XC-polymer lb 0.5
KCl lb 20
KOH lb 0.5 3.2. Filtration properties of drilling fluids
NaCl lb 66
Barite lb 352 Filtration volume and filter cake thickness were measured directly at
CaCO3 lb 5 the end of the fluid loss test. For in depth investigation, graphical anal-
Sodium sulfide lb 0.25
ysis of NMR was used to provide estimation of filter cake porosity, filter
1160 B.S. Bageri et al. / Powder Technology 360 (2020) 1157–1166

Table 2
Drilling fluids properties.

Property Value Units

Base drilling fluid Addition of 1 lb perlite Addition of 2 lb perlite Addition of 3 lb perlite

Apparent viscosity 70.00 95.00 101.5 102.5 cP

Plastic viscosity 42 55 53 59 cP
Yield point 56 80 87 87 lb/100ft2
YP/PV* 1.3 1.5 1.6 1.5 (lb/100ft2)/ cP
Gel strength (GS 10 s) 25 48 50 61 lb/100ft2
Gel strength (GS 10 min) 70.0 115 120 130 lb/100ft2
Density 18.00 18.10 18.12 18.13 ppg

cake volume, and concentration of invaded solids. CT scan analysis cor-

roborates the solid invasion profile.

3.2.1. Fluid loss test

Fig. 4(a) compares the filter cake thickness for different concentra-
tion of perlite. As seen in the figure, addition of 1 lb./bbl of perlite signif-
icantly reduced the filter cake thickness from 5.25 mm to 3.6 mm.
However, doubling the perlite concentration (to 2 lb./bbl) only resulted
in a very slight reduction in the filter cake thickness. Further increase in
the concentration of perlite (3 lb./bbl) reversed perlite impact as shown
by an increment in the filter cake thickness. The same trend can be ob-
served in the filtrate volume as shown in Fig. 4(b). When 1 lb./bbl of
perlite particles was added to the base fluid, the filtrate volume reduced
by 40%. Based on these observations, we can say that an optimum per-
lite concentration is 2 lb./bb. However, since there is only a very slight
reduction in the filter cake thickness after adding 2 lb./bbl compared
to 1 lb./bbl of perlite and taking cost into consideration, the optimum
perlite concentration lies between 1 lb./bbl and 2 lb./bbl.

3.2.2. NMR analysis

Three NMR measurements were conducted on each core samples.
The first measurement was conducted at a 100% water saturation
state, which is represented by a red (shaded) curve in the NMR charts.
This measurement represents the pore distribution of the rock before
the formation of the filter cake. The second measurement was con-
ducted after drilling fluid invasion and filter cake deposition and it is
represented by the green (shaded) curve. The third measurement was
conducted after carefully wiping off the filter cake from the top of the
core sample, represented by the blue (shaded) curve. At the end of filter
press test, the core with the filter cake was allowed to dry for few hours.
Then, the dry filter cake can was easily removed from the top of the core
either by detaching itself without any external force or by using a sharp
knife to detach it. These color codes are adopted in the PDF and CDF
curves of T2 values for the four samples in subsequent figures (Figs. 5
and 6). Each rock sample has multiple components after mud invasion
and filter cake deposition namely, water, filter cake, and invaded solids.
By way of material balance and subtraction, the NMR T2 signals coming
from the different components can be delineated. The green shaded re-
gion represents the pore size distribution (PSD) or volume of the filter
cake and it is derived from the subtraction of the blue curve from the
green curve (from 0.1 ms to 44 ms for the case of without perlite and

Fig. 3. The four rock samples used in this work. Fig. 4. a) Filter cake thickness b) Filtration volume as a function of perlite concentration.
 B.S. Bageri et al. / Powder Technology 360 (2020) 1157–1166 1161

Fig. 5. NMR Analysis showing pore size distribution PSD for the different formation of the core samples after subjected to HPHT fluid loss test using different drilling fluid samples.

from 0.1 ms to 11 ms for the perlite cases). The red shaded region rep-
resents the PSD or volume of the invaded solid particles. This region is
derived by subtracting the blue curve from the red curve (from 44 ms
to 2500 ms for the case of without perlite and from 11 ms to 2500 ms
for the perlite cases). Note that only the blue curve is completely visible
while the right side of the green curve and the left side of the red curve
are not visible. The invisible parts of these curves overlap with the blue
curve on the right (for the green curve) and on the left (for the red
curve).
Figs. 5 and 6 compare the results of NMR analysis for the four drilling
fluids as a function of perlite concentration (0, 1, 2, 3 lb./bbl). The figures
showed that by adding perlite particles to the base drilling fluid the
region of the filter cake (green shade) and the region of invaded mud
particles (light-red shade) reduced when compared to the base case
(“0 lb./bbl” case). This conclusion is confirmed by calculating the areas
(green shade) for the filter cake and (light-red shade) for invaded
mud particles for each perlite concentration as shown in Table 3. The es-
timated areas indicate the volume of filter cake and invaded solids.
Since the figure is a plot of porosity versus relaxation time (T2), the
unit of the areas measured can be represented as pu.ms. This unit has
no direct physical meaning other than a quantitative illustration of the
concentration of the filter cake and mud invasion. It can be observed
from Table 3 that the concentration of the filter cake and invaded solids
decreased after adding perlite following the same trend. It is interesting
1162 B.S. Bageri et al. / Powder Technology 360 (2020) 1157–1166

Fig. 6. NMR Analysis showing corresponding cumulative pore sizes (porosity) for the different cases (0, 1, 2 and 3 lb./bbl) after subjected to HPHT fluid loss test using different drilling fluid
samples.

Table 3
Areas of the filter cake and the invaded mud particle from NMR results (Fig. 5).

Concentration of Perlite Concentration of filter cake T2 distribution of filter cake Concentration of invaded T2 distribution of invaded mud particle
(lb/bbl) (pu.ms) (ms) particles (ms)

0 3.993 0.1–44 217.4 44–2500

1 0.9403 0.1–11 102.5 11–2500
2 1.083 0.1–11 61.71 11–2500
3 1.125 0.1–11 84.89 11–2500
 B.S. Bageri et al. / Powder Technology 360 (2020) 1157–1166
Table 4
NMR porosities values at each stage.
Concentration of Perlite ϕ of rock before invasion (%) ϕ of (rock + FC) after invasion (%)
(lb/bbl) (i) (ii)
0 17.75 18.67
1 17.51 17.74
2 15.80 18.30
3 16.52 18.87
though, how this quantity (areas under the curve) relates with
other know physical quantity like filter cake thickness, filtrate volume
in Fig. 4.
NMR porosity of each of the filter cakes as a function of perlite con-
centration were measured in the sequence presented in Table 4. First
measurement was conducted at 100% water saturation, before mud in-
vasion and filter cake deposition (column i). The second measurement
was conducted after mud invasion and with filter cake deposited on
the rock. The third measurement was conducted after the filter cake
was removed, but now the rock contains both water and invaded solid
particles. The fourth and fifth column in the table are the estimated po-
rosity of the rock filled with particles and porosity of the filter cake re-
spectively, expressed mathematically as:
ϕ of rock filled with particles
¼ ϕ of rock before invasion−ϕ of rock after invasion
ϕ of FC ¼ ϕ of ðrock þ FC Þ after invasion−ϕ of rock after invasion
From NMR T2 distribution profile of Fig. 5, we can estimate the T2
distribution of the filter cake and the T2 distribution of pores filled
with invaded particles. We can also estimate pores filled with the mud
particles and pore size distribution of the filter cake using Eqs. (6) and
(7), respectively. In this case we have to use an appropriate value of
the surface relaxivity. In this paper, we used ρ values reported in the lit-
erature for clay and sandstones namely; ρ2 = 6.3 μm/s for shale and ρ2
= 10–11 μm/s [47,48]. Applying these surface relaxivity values to Eq.
(7), the pore size distribution of each filter cake and the particle size dis-
tribution of the invaded solid particles was estimated as shown in the
table. The pore size distribution of the invaded particles is equivalent
to the pore size distribution they occupy. The values of surface relaxivity
used in obtaining the data in the table are approximations, the exact
values are required to obtain a more accurate data on the filtration
loss properties of the drilling fluids. This approach of using NMR mea-
surements to estimate filtration loss properties of a drilling fluid is
Fig. 7. CT scan of the core sample before and after subjected to the barite base drilling fluid (0 lb./bbl).
1163
ϕ of rock after invasion (%) ϕ of rock filled with particle (%) ϕ of FC (%)
(iii) (iv) (v)
13.95 3.80 4.72
14.68 2.82 3.06
14.63 1.17 3.67
15.06 1.46 3.82
new [49] and can be improved. This new approach has many advan-
tages in that it can allow multiple filtration loss to be evaluated in a sin-
gle experiment with minimal handling of the sample.
Fig. 6 is the CDF plots for the four drilling fluids. It compares the filter
cake porosity for different concentrations of perlites as shown in
Table 4. It can be observed that the porosity of the filter cake region
was 4.72% without perlite and reduced after addition of perlites. At
1 lb/bbl perlite concentration, the porosity of the filter cake decreased
to 3.06%. However, for 2 lb/bbl perlite concentration, the filter cake po-
rosity was 3.67% and remained nearly constant even for perlite concen-
tration of 3 lb/bbl. These results further suggest that the optimum
perlite concentration is 1 lb./bbl. Fig. 6 also demonstrated that the vol-
ume of solids that invaded the core samples was reduced by adding per-
lite to the base drilling fluid. As the perlite concentration increased, the
volume fraction of invaded particles (or porosity they occupied) de-
ð6Þ creased. This reduction in solid invasion has a significant impact in
terms of formation damage due to high challenges of removing invaded
ð7Þ solids after drilling operations. Overall, the results indicate that 1 lb./bbl
of perlite was able to improve the properties of the filter cake and re-
duce the formation damage caused by the drilling fluid. However, in-
creasing the concentration of the perlite particles beyond 2 lb./bbl
does not necessarily yield significant reduction in the volume of filter
cake (thickness) and invaded particles.
Overall, perlite improved filtration properties of the drilling fluid
based on all the evaluation criteria. The improvement is also a function
of perlite concentration. It was observed that an optimum concentration
exists after which, the filtration performance reduces. At a perlite con-
centration of 1 lb./bbl, the filtration properties improved drastically as
shown by both direct measurements and NMR analysis. Further im-
provement in filtration properties was observed upon increasing the
perlite concentration to 2 lb./bbl. However, the increment in perfor-
mance is only slight compared to doubling the cost of the perlite the in-
creased cost when doubling the concentration of the perlite. Since the
performance is slight, it is more economical to use 1 lb/bbl and obtain
very similar performance as 2 lb./bbl. Further increase in perlite
1164 B.S. Bageri et al. / Powder Technology 360 (2020) 1157–1166

Fig. 8. CT scan of the core sample before and after subjected to the barite drilling fluid contains 1 lb./bbl perlite particles.

Fig. 9. SEM at different scales (5, 10 and 100 μm) of the formed filter cake before (0 lb./bbl) and after (1–2 lb/bbl) adding perlite particles to the barite drilling fluid.
 B.S. Bageri et al. / Powder Technology 360 (2020) 1157–1166
concentration to 3 lb/bbl have inverse impact on the filtration perfor-
mance compared to lower concentration. We can now say that an opti-
mum perlite concentration lies between 1 and 2 lb/bbl from both cost
and performance point of view.
3.2.3. CT scan and SEM analysis
CT scan was used to evaluate the solid invasion profile before and
after adding the perlite particles to the drilling fluid. The CT scan slices
in the left side of Fig. 7 shows a homogeneous distribution of density
among all the slices before the mud invasion for the 0 lb/bbl case. The
CT scan of the same sample after mud invasion (right of the same figure)
shows some high contrast (high density) material in the slices, suggest-
ing an intense solid invasion. A grey scale legend at the bottom of each
figure shows the distribution of the CT number and density. The grey is
dark at lower density and becomes lighter as the density in the slices in-
creases. A histogram is used to represent the density distribution. The
presence of high-density material (like barite) in most of the slides
cause the density range to be very wide. In order to capture the variabil-
ity of the density of the rock minerals in each slice, the grey scale histo-
gram was made to capture only the rock minerals, thus excluding the
density (4.48 g/cc) and CT number of barite. A separate color (pink)
was adopted for only barite. Hence, barite invasion, wherever it occurs,
can be clearly seen as pink spots in the slices. Fig. 8 shows the CT scan
images when 1 lb./bbl of perlite particles was added to the drilling
fluid. It can be seen that the perlite particles significantly minimized
barite invasion.
As earlier pointed out in Fig. 1, the perlite particles have a flake-
shape. The flake-shaped perlite particles formed sediment type layers
that clogged the pores of the filter cake thereby forming an imperme-
able filter cake layer as confirmed by the high resolution images in Fig.
9. This is because the perlite particles have jagged edges, which may in-
terlock solid particles when at close proximity to each other. Conse-
quently, this enhanced the sealing functionality of the filter cake. In
Fig. 9, SEM images are compared at different scales (5, 10, 100 μm) be-
tween the filter cake formed from in the base drilling fluid (0 lb./bbl per-
lite particles) and those formed after adding 1 lb./bbl and 2 lb./bbl of
perlite particles. It can be observed from the SEM images that the poros-
ity of the filter cake reduced (lesser pores and vugs) after adding perlite
particles compared to the base case (0 lb./bbl perlites).
4. Conclusion
A suite of NMR and CT imaging studies were conducted to investi-
gate the role of perlite in controlling solid invasion profile in porous
media. The performance of the perlite was evaluated using different fil-
tration properties. An optimum perlite concentration exists beyond
which, the filtration performance may be impaired. We found out that
at a perlite concentration of 1 lb./bbl is technically and economically suf-
ficient to drastically improve the filtration properties of barite-based
drilling fluids. The following conclusions can be made on the roles of
perlite particles:
• The thickness of the perlite filter cake is 30% less than that of the filter
cake formed without perlite. Similarly, the filtration volume reduced
by 40%. These observations were confirmed from both direct mea-
surements and NMR analysis.
• Other filtration properties of perlite as characterized by NMR mea-
surements and CT scan also showed that perlite reduced the concen-
tration of invaded solids and filter cake porosity. Interestingly, the
NMR results showed similar trend with the results from direct mea-
surements.
• The flake-shaped perlite particles (an amorphous volcanic glass) ap-
peared to form a sediment type layers that clogged the pores of the fil-
ter cake thereby forming an impermeable layer.
• Perlite also increased the cutting carrying capacity of the drilling fluid
by increasing the YP/PV ratio.
1165
Declaration of Competing Interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing financial
interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influ-
ence the work reported in this paper.
Acknowledgement
The authors a grateful to the College of Petroleum Engineering and
Geosciences at King Fahd University Petroleum and minerals for the re-
search support. We also acknowledge the help of Syed Rizwanullah and
Rahul Salin for their help in the laboratory. We also thank the anony-
mous reviewers for their critical review.
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