Measurements and monitoring of solids content and salinity in fluids to maintain these at ideal levels is essential for optimum well construction operations during drilling, completion, workover and abandonment phases. Currently, API measurements are used for solids and salinity determination, which have certain drawbacks and are difficult to automate.

As an alternative, a novel in-line X-ray fluorescence (XRF) measurement approach was investigated to make determination of solids content and salinity of well construction fluids much simpler and more efficient through automation. Laboratory experiments were conducted to generate a comprehensive dataset of X-ray photon counts from an in-line XRF setup coupled to a flow loop to evaluate common solids and solutes in well construction fluids. Using this dataset, calibration curves were generated to determine the high-gravity solids (HGS) and low-gravity solids (LGS) content as well as the salinity of water/brine, oil, and synthetic-based fluids at a high level of accuracy in real-time with full automation.

It was observed that with the XRF measurements, certain solids can be measured and monitored by analyzing the concentration of certain elements in the compounds (i.e., barium (Ba) for barite concentration, potassium (K) for potassium chloride concentration, iron (Fe) for clay concentration). The mean average errors in estimating the HGS, LGS and salinity values were found to be less than 2%. Using this method together with automated rheology, density and water-cut measurements decreases these errors to significantly lower levels.

The system presented here offers the possibility for real-time solids content management and optimization, opening the door to fully automated fluid measurements, maintenance, and solids control in well construction operations. This will benefit well construction efficiency (e.g. lowering drilling costs), quality, productivity (e.g. reducing reservoir impairment from unwanted solids) and safety (e.g. lowering incidence of well control and lost circulation events due to better equivalent circulating density (ECD) management in narrow margin drilling environments).

测量和监测流体中的固体含量和盐度以将其保持在理想水平对于钻井、完井、修井和废弃阶段的最佳建井操作至关重要。目前，API 测量用于固体和盐度测定，具有一定的缺点并且难以自动化。

作为替代方案，研究了一种新颖的在线 X 射线荧光 (XRF) 测量方法，以通过自动化更简单、更有效地确定建井液的固体含量和盐度。进行了实验室实验，以从与流动回路耦合的在线 XRF 设置生成 X 射线光子计数的综合数据集，以评估建井流体中的常见固体和溶质。使用该数据集，生成校准曲线以高精度确定高重力固体 (HGS) 和低重力固体 (LGS) 含量以及水/盐水、油和合成基流体的盐度实时且完全自动化。

据观察，通过 XRF 测量，可以通过分析化合物中某些元素的浓度来测量和监测某些固体（即，钡 (Ba) 代表重晶石浓度，钾 (K) 代表氯化钾浓度，铁 (Fe)用于粘土浓度）。估计 HGS、LGS 和盐度值的平均误差小于 2%。将此方法与自动流变学、密度和含水量测量结合使用，可将这些误差显着降低到更低的水平。

此处介绍的系统为实时固体含量管理和优化提供了可能性，为油井施工操作中全自动流体测量、维护和固体控制打开了大门。这将有利于油井建设效率（例如降低钻井成本）、质量、生产力（例如减少不需要的固体对储层的损害）和安全性（例如，由于在狭窄区域更好的等效循环密度 (ECD) 管理，降低了井控和漏失事件的发生率）。边缘钻井环境）。