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Settling Behavior of Particles in Bubble Containing Newtonian Fluids: Experimental Study and Model Development


 Accurate description of cuttings slippage in the gas-liquid phase is of great significance for wellbore cleaning and the control accuracy of bottom hole pressure during MPD. In this study, the wellbore bubble flow environment was simulated by a constant pressure air pump and the transparent wellbore, and the settling characteristics of spherical particles under different gas volume concentrations were recorded and analyzed by highspeed photography. A total of 225 tests were conducted to analyze the influence of particle diameter (1–12mm), particle density (2700–7860kg/m^3), liquid viscosity and bubble volume concentration on particle settling velocity. Gas drag force is defined to quantitatively evaluate the bubble’s resistance to particle slippage. The relationship between bubble drag coefficient and particle Reynolds number is obtained by fitting the experimental results. An explicit settling velocity equation is established by introducing Archimedes number. This explicit equation with an average relative error of only 8.09% can directly predict the terminal settling velocity of the sphere in bubble containing Newtonian fluids. The models for predicting bubble drag coefficient and the terminal settling velocity are valid with particle Reynolds number ranging from 0.05 to 167 and bubble volume concentration ranging from 3.0% to 20.0%. Besides, a trial-and-error procedure and an illustrative example are presented to show how to calculate bubble drag coefficient and settling velocity in bubble containing fluids. The results of this study will provide the theoretical basis for wellbore cleaning and accurate downhole pressure to further improve the performance of MPD in treating gas influx.