Patent ID: 11933120
Assignee: ENSIGHT SYNERGIES LLC
Field: Civil engineering (Other fields)
Classification: CPC E | IPC E

Claim 1:
2. A method for cooling a drilling mud at a well site, the method comprising the steps of:
(a) drawing the drilling mud from any one of a plurality of active volume mud tanks;
(b) pumping the drilling mud through a heat-exchanger apparatus; and
(c) returning the drilling mud after it has been cooled through the heat-exchanger apparatus to any one of the plurality of active volume mud tanks;
wherein the step of pumping the drilling mud employs an electrically driven mud pump; and wherein the step of pumping additionally comprises: controlling a pumping rate of the electrically driven mud pump using a variable frequency drive, wherein the variable frequency drive is capable of adjusting the pumping rate for pumping of the drilling mud through the heat-exchanger apparatus;
additionally comprising a step of controlling the variable frequency drive according to the following formula: desired flow rate of the drilling mud X specific heat capacity of the drilling mud X specific gravity (relative to density of water at 4° C. (39.2° F.) at 1 atm pressure) of the drilling mud X (a coefficient X desired flow rate of the drilling mud)/maximum pumping capacity of the mud pump X input power frequency in Hz of the motor of the mud pump=desired Hz setting on the VFD, where the coefficient value is in a range of 0.005 to 0.02.