Abstract:

When shale contacts with drilling fluid during drilling processes, the filtrate and solid particles go into the shale, causing changes in the rock mechanics property and decline of rock strength and thus often resulting in drilling problems .To evaluate the hydration property and the strength changes of the shale, a novel instrument Shale Hydration Appraisal (SHA) was developed. The instrument is compact and easy to operate, and is able to automatically collect data and print results. The output data and curves can be used to analyze the hydration property of different shale and to optimize the anti-sloughing mud composition and mud additives.

Key words: shale, hydration, instrument, appraisal