Research on detection method of drilling fluid viscosity based on ultrasonic waves

The viscosity of drilling fluid directly affects the efficiency and safety of drilling operations. An appropriate viscosity ensures that the drilling fluid effectively carries drill cuttings and maintains wellbore stability. The conventional measurement of drilling fluid viscosity requires offline analysis after sampling, which cannot meet the requirements of real-time monitoring and adjustment of drilling fluid properties. Utilizing the non-contact measurement and real-time online detection features of ultrasonic waves, research on the drilling fluid viscosity detection method has distinct advantages. First, the fluctuation and attenuation characteristics of ultrasonic waves are analyzed to demonstrate that viscosity affects the propagation of ultrasonic waves in drilling fluid. Next, an experimental setup for ultrasonic drilling fluid viscosity measurement was constructed to obtain ultrasonic echo signals of drilling fluids with different viscosities and temperatures under different pipe diameters and to investigate the effects of various conditions on the propagation and attenuation of ultrasonic waves. Finally, a prediction model for drilling fluid viscosity based on support vector regression and the sparrow search optimization algorithm was established to achieve effective prediction of drilling fluid viscosity.