High energy in-line hydraulic shearing unit for oilfield drilling fluids

摘要

Disclosed is an apparatus and method for shearing well drilling fluid mixtures containing an emulsifier, and utilizing pumping the fluids through a plurality of nozzles, reducing the size of the fluid droplets as they pass through the nozzles, discharging the fluid droplets into a output chamber where the emulsifier surrounds the smaller droplets with the nozzle discharges aligned to intersect in the stabilization chamber.

主权项

1. A method of shearing an invert well fluid and flowing a well fluid into a well, comprising:
forming a mixture comprising oil and water; pumping the mixture into an input chamber at a high pressure; dividing the mixture into a plurality of flow segments; reducing a pressure of the plurality of flow segments by flowing the plurality of flow segments through a plurality of nozzles to reduce the size of and elongate the water droplets, wherein the nozzles comprise convergent-divergent nozzles; discharging separate streams of the plurality of flow segments from the plurality of nozzles into a low-pressure stabilization chamber; intersecting the separate streams in the low-pressure stabilization chamber to form an emulsified invert well fluid; and flowing the emulsified invert well fluid from the low-pressure stabilization chamber through a low pressure fluid outlet into the well.