BOREHOLE-STABILITY MODEL TO COUPLE THE MECHANICS AND CHEMISTRY OF DRILLING-FLUID SHALE INTERACTIONS

A borehole-stability model that uniquely couples the mechanical and chemical aspects of drilling-fluid/shale interactions was developed. The model allows the user to determine the optimum drilling parameters (e.g., mud weight and salt concentration) to alleviate borehole-stability-related problems with oil- or water-based drilling-fluid systems. Chemically induced stress alteration based on the thermodynamics of differences in water molar free energies of the drilling fluid and shale is combined with mechanically induced stress. These two potentials are coupled by use of the framework of poroelasticity theory to formulate the physiochemical basis of this borehole-stability model.