DOE lost circulation technology development
Lost circulation is a problem common in both the geothermal and the solution mining industries. In both cases, drilling is on a relatively large scale (geothermal holes can be as large as 26 inches). Lost circulation technology development for geothermal drilling has been in progress at Sandia National Laboratories for more than 15 years. The initial work centered on lost circulation materials, but testing and modeling indicated that if the aperture of a loss zone is very large (larger than the drill bit nozzles) it cannot be plugged by simply adding materials to the drilling fluid. Thus, the lost circulation work evolved to include: (1) Development of metering techniques that accurately measure and characterize drilling fluid inflow and outflow for rapid diagnosis of los circulation and/or fluid balance while drilling. (2) Construction of a laboratory facility for testing drillable straddle packers (to improve the plugging efficiency of cementing operations) and the actual testing of components of the straddle packer. (3) Construction of a laboratory facility for the testing of candidate porous fabrics as a part of a program to develop a porous packer that places polyurethane foam into a loss zone. (4) Implementing (with Halliburton and CalEnergy Company), a program to test cementitious lost circulation material as an alternative to Portland cement.
- Research Organization:
- Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE, Washington, DC (United States)
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC04-94AL85000
- OSTI ID:
- 376415
- Report Number(s):
- SAND-96-1885C; CONF-9610163-1; ON: DE96015042; TRN: 96:005401
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: Fall meeting of the Solution Mining Research Institute, Cleveland, OH (United States), 20-23 Oct 1996; Other Information: PBD: 1996
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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