Nonlinear Wave and Cavitation Processes and Their Effect on the Mechanical Properties of Viscous Solutions

Abstract

This paper presents the experimental results of studying the effect of nonlinear wave and cavitation processes occurring in the working elements of a flow in hydrodynamic vortex- and plane-type generators with differently shaped flow bodies on the physicomechanical properties of a clay suspension. The models of a vortex-type generator with tangential and radial channels for the supply of a working fluid to the generator representing a plane channel with three cylindrical flow bodies have been studied. As a result of the studies performed, it has been revealed that the wave treatment of a clay suspension improves the quality of its colloid fraction and thereby decreases the consumption of clay powder and the time required for the preparation of a drilling mud in comparison with the traditional technology. The highest efficiency of wave treatment is attained by hydrodynamic generators in which the flowing section provides the most intensive wave and cavitation processes. The laboratory studies have been confirmed by industrial experiments, which provide the possibility to increase appreciably (by several tens of percentage points) the efficiency of drilling. The laboratory and industrial experiments performed open principally new directions for control over the rheological properties of solutions, in particular, drilling muds.