The effect of lubricant additives on the tribological performance of oil and gas drilling applications up to 200 °C

Publication date: Available online 6 August 2019Source: Tribology InternationalAuthor(s): Pixiang Lan, Larry L. Iaccino, Xiaoying Bao, Andreas A. PolycarpouAbstractAdding lubricant additives is a predictable method to decrease the frictional resistance in oil and gas drilling applications. In this work, tribological studies were carried out for drilling fluid with/without lubricant additives at different temperatures up to 200 °C and environmental pressure of 3.45 MPa. In pure fluid, additive A exhibited higher load capacity, compared to additive B at 200 °C. In drilling fluid, at 75 °C, all additives decreased the COF. However, at 125 °C and 175 °C, the additives did not decrease the COF but decreased the standard deviation of the COF values. SEM/EDS analyses were used to investigate the wear mechanisms and it was deduced that the viscosity of the drilling fluid played an important role in determining the friction and wear performance.
Source: Tribology International - Category: Materials Science Source Type: research