A three-dimensional computational fluid dynamics (CFD) study was carried out for drilling fluid flow with drill cuttings in open channels. The flow is similar to the return flow when drilling, stream containing drilling fluid, and drill cuttings. The computational model is under the framework of the Eulerian multifluid volume of the fluid model. The Herschel–Bulkley rheological model was used to describe the non-Newtonian rheology of the drilling fluid, and the computational model was validated with experimental results for two-phase flow in the literature. The effect of flow depth and flow velocity in an open channel was studied for drill cutting size of up to 5 mm and for a solid volume fraction of up to 10%. For constant cross section and short open channels, the effect of drill cuttings on flow depth and mean velocity was found to be small for particle sizes less than 5 mm and solid volume fractions less than 10%. High momentum force in the downward direction can carry the solid-liquid mixture at higher velocities than a lower density mixture. Higher inclination angles mean that the gravity effect upon the flow direction is more significant than the particle friction for short channels.

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钻屑对明渠流动影响的计算流体力学研究

进行了三维计算流体动力学（CFD）研究，以利用明渠中的钻屑进行钻井液流动。该流量类似于钻井，包含钻井液的流和钻屑时的回流。该计算模型在流体模型的欧拉多流体体积的框架下。用Herschel-Bulkley流变模型描述了钻井液的非牛顿流变学，并用文献中的两相流实验结果验证了该计算模型。对于最大切削尺寸为5 mm的钻头和最大固含量为10％的钻头，研究了明渠中流动深度和流速的影响。对于恒定的横截面和短的开放通道，对于小于5 mm的粒径和小于10％的固体体积分数，发现钻屑对流动深度和平均速度的影响很小。向下的高动量力可以比较低密度的混合物以更高的速度承载固液混合物。较大的倾斜角度意味着，对于短通道，重力对流动方向的影响比颗粒摩擦更重要。