Patent ID: 8606521
Filing Date: 2013-12-10
Classification: E21B

Abstract:
1. A computer implemented method of determining a wellbore fluid pressure, the method comprising: receiving, at a computer, a signal from a densometer representative of a density of a fluid flowing through a wellbore, the fluid comprising a slurry having a fluid component and a solid component; determining, by the computer, a fluid pressure of the fluid based at least in part on the signal; correcting the signal representative of the fluid density based on a concentration of the solid component in the slurry; empirically scaling the corrected signal representative of the fluid density to determine the fluid pressure of the fluid by scaling the corrected signal representative of the fluid density as a function of the fluid density and one or more empirically derived constants according to the equation: where P is the determined fluid pressure of the fluid, ρ 1 is a density of the fluid with zero system gauge pressure, ρ 2 is an instant fluid density, m is a gain factor constant, β is a bulk modulus of the fluid, and b is an offset constant; and quantitatively scaling the corrected signal representative of the fluid density to determine the fluid pressure of the fluid.