Patent ID: 11913934
Assignee: HALLIBURTON ENERGY SERVICES, INC.
Field: Measurement (Instruments)
Classification: CPC G | IPC G

Claim 9:
10. A system to determine a characteristic of a drilling fluid, comprising:
memory; and
at least one processor configured to:
determine a base oil type of an oil used in a drilling fluid formed from a mixture of a plurality of components;
obtain a measurement of a mud density of the drilling fluid;
obtain a measurement of a thermal conductivity of the drilling fluid;
obtain a volumetric fraction of each component of the drilling fluid;
determine an error function of a calculation of characteristics of the drilling fluid, wherein the characteristics of the drilling fluid consist of the mud density of the drilling fluid, the thermal conductivity of the drilling fluid, and the volumetric fraction of the components of the drilling fluid; wherein the mud density of the drilling fluid is based on the density of every component of the drilling fluid; wherein the measurement of the thermal conductivity of the drilling fluid is based on the thermal conductivity of every component of the drilling fluid; wherein a sum of the volumetric fraction of each of the components of the drilling fluid is equal to 1; wherein the error function is indicative of a threshold difference between the calculation of the characteristics of the drilling fluid and the characteristics of the drilling fluid obtained from retort data of a mud distillation process; wherein the thermal conductivity and the volumetric fraction of each component is continuously measured before the drilling fluid is pumped into a wellbore, while the drilling fluid is flowing in the wellbore, and after the drilling fluid is extracted from the wellbore;
determine, based on the error function, an oil water ratio of the drilling fluid and an average specific gravity of the drilling fluid periodically or continuously during a drilling operation; and
provide the oil water ratio of the drilling fluid and an average specific gravity of the drilling fluid to an operator during the drilling operation.