Research Hypothesis

Solid sedimentation defines the treatment process of oil adopted in the oil drilling company mainly used for the purposes of elimination of particles from fuels and oil during the process of their extraction. The solid particles which are often entrained via turbulence moving fuel in the extraction process are at times eliminated via natural means through the concepts of weight of the particles of solid and gravity. Petroleum remains one of the most significant energy sources around the globe. The drilling fuels are adopted during the oil well drilling with the main aim of keeping and cleansing the bore pressure of the fuel drilling (Culver, 2015). Owing to the need of an understanding the interaction between fluids and solid, it turns out to be of a necessity to examine how the solid particles may be eliminated through sedimentation which in turn result in such a very pure fuel that is consumable in various ways.

Research Hypothesis

Among the hypotheses of this research will be:

• Solid sedimentation in drilling fluids as deployed in the operations of oil well drilling is good for the elimination of the solid particles
• Sedimentation is able to completely eliminate all the solids during the process of fuel drilling

Tests to be used in the study

The study will adopt an avalanche of tests and methods to aid in gaining an in-depth understanding of the quantity of sediment that are found in fuels and hence determination of the best elimination approaches of the same. Among the test that will be used include Rheological test and Batch sedimentary test (Culver, 2018). Other applicable methods for this study include Gamma rays attenuation as well as non-destructive methods. There is addition of calcium in the batch testing method to aid in the evaluation of the dynamic separation which is provided as a function of time and position. This can be elaborated more using the constitutive equation which is illustrative of the pressure in solids; a very important concept when dealing with fuel flow through porous media in the wellbore (Fagundes, Santos, Damasceno & Arouca, 2018). Below is illustrated the constitutive equation:

The above two equations are usable in deriving the third equation as shown below:

Gamma rays attenuation is as well applicable in testing the availability of sedimentation in the fuel wells (Fink, 2015). This involves establishing the total cross section of the interaction of the gamma rays using the equation shown below:

 -defines the photoelectric effects

 – The solid particles’ Compton scattering in the extracted product of fuel

 – The pair production os solid particles in the fuel

Gamma rays are used in the detection of the availability of particles by the used of the imaging concept. The emitted gamma rays during the process of detection of solid particles in the fuel are done neutron and there often tend to be a firm interaction between the rays and the particles in the fuel (Karimi, Goudarzi, Moezzi & RajabZadeh, 2015). This detection and removal methods encompasses the attenuations of the radiations of gamma that are transmitted and neutron backscattering. The source is often composed of an adequate energy level of ¹³⁷Cs and ²⁴¹Am and the volume of wetness of the fuel volume; in which the sediments are calculated as follows:

Tests to be used in the study

In which: lf and ld are the quantities of the gamma photons that move through the dry and wet sediments in the oil wells in that order.

– The mass of attenuation of the fuel (Kemp et al., 2017)

S-the thickness of the sedimentary

This thus an opportunity if determining the quantity of the solid particles and thereafter the recommended actions to be adopting in an effort to eliminate the sediments will be elaborated at length at later stages in the paper.

Owing to the very small nature of the gamma rays, detection of even the least small particles in the fuel will be made possible. Upon the detection of the particles, a removal technique will be adopted that would heavily be a factor of the sizes of such sediments (King & Durham, 2017). The use of filters is one of the most commonly used techniques for the removal of articles especially those whose sizes are relatively large. Such filter is to some extent ideal as they are able to sieve the fuels; making them clean as it is expected in the market.  For other sediments, larger enough to be seen by the naked eyes, decantation method may be adopted besides filtration (Larson, 2018).

The data needed for this study is of significance being that it offers knowledge on the quantity of sediment present in oil during its extraction from the wells. Among the methods that will be used in data collection include interviews, observation as well as experiments/ field study (Lindlof &Taylor, 2017). The interviews will involve among other interrogating the oil producers on the level of solid sediments that is commonly present on average in the filed doing the extraction process and the modalities they often adopt in the treatment of such impure oil. Observation would encompass the research organising a trip to oil producing company and making for him one-on-one observations of the quantity of sediments found in oil and thereafter collect the required data. Experiments involve collection of the necessary apparatus and assembling an experimental procedure that would be used in gaining in-depth understanding of the nature of the solids found in extracted fuel (Bernard, 2017).

Upon the completion of the process of data collection using the methods as have been discussed, the next stage of the research study will involve an analysis of the collected data. Some of the analysis methods that will be used will be among them mean, hypothesis test, regression and standard deviation. The mean will be used in the estimation of the average amount of solid sediments that can be found in oils from the various oil producing companies (Smith, 2017). This technique is ideal in the estimation or determination of the trends of the set of data that has been collected. The method will involve summing up all the amount of solid sediments present in fuel in different companies and the dividing by the total number of companies that provided their data. The quotient would be the average or mean amount of solid sediment in any extracted fuel (Sanoff, 2016). An illustration of the application of this data analysis technique would be as shown below

Gamma rays attenuation

Company, C₁=55g

Company, C₂=48g

Company, C₃=65g

Company, C₄=39g

The mean solid sediments production would be

(C₁+ C₂+ C₃+ C₄)/4= (55+48+65+39)/4

=51.75 g of solid sediments (Bethea, 2018)

Hypotheses testing, also commonly referred to as t testing, hypothesis testing is the data analysis method that would be adopted in the examination to establish if the data got from the analysis process is true or false. This technique would be ideal in the validation of the some of the hypotheses that have been stated above (Greenfield & Greener, 2016). Regression on the other hand, is with reference to data analysis methods that are used in the illustration of the correlation between a tested variable and dependant. The regression is used in finding the correlation or the regression line and determining whether it is weak or strong. The strongest correlation is 1 while the weakest one is zero. So when the correlation tends to 1, then the egression line between the variable and the dependent parameters of the data is strong. Conversely, when the correlation tends to or is closer to 0, then the regression line between the variable and dependant parameters of the experiment is very weak. The last methods of analysing data of this nature in the study with will standard deviation (Fellows & Liu, 2015). Standard deviation is a data analysis method applicable for data that is spread widely over an area. For the case of this research, standard deviation will be used in the analysis of the spread of the mean of the solid sediments which is got during the process of oil treatment. The method is often illustrated using a formula as shown below:

Whereby

Defines the summation sign

n-the number of terms that are used in the calculation

S-the standard deviation of the data; and

x- The mean of the data used in the calculation

Various statistical methods will be required and adopted in offering a proof to the aforementioned hypotheses. The methods will majorly be mathematical approaches, models and concepts that are more often than not applied in statistical analysis (Lazar, Feng & Hochheiser, 2017). The previously mentioned hypotheses of this research will be proved using the already discussed models and mathematical concepts among them standard deviation, regression and mean. Besides these mathematical concepts, there are as well other models and computer software among them MATLAB and SPSS that would be ideal for the purposes of more refined and further analysis of the obtained data which would in turn laid grounds for the various findings on sedimentation of solid particles during oil extraction by different companies (Vaishnavi & Kuechler, 2015).

Data Collection

Through the use of some of the statistical methods as have been aforementioned, the second hypothesis can be tested and proven as all the companies which extract oil established that extraction of solid sediments from the oil occurred at very high frequencies. The very findings were established during the process of filtration of the oil that is extracted from the wellbore. Linear Least Square Regression and Non-linear Least Square Regression are as well among the other available statistical methods options that could be deployed in an attempt to offer proof to the stated hypotheses (O’Sullivan, Berner, Taliaferro & Rassel, 2016).

For the purposes of ensuring the success of this research study, a follow up plan would be conducted at the various stages that would see a smooth transition from one stage or phase of the project to another. This would ensure that a certain stage is not delayed or completely paralysed by the delay in another stage. Still, a follow up plan would ensure that research delivers the requirements and to the expectations as opposed to delivering either low quality findings are completely variant deliverables as was anticipated. To achieve this, the plan would adopt various strategies among them observations and interviews to get to the bottom of the research work.

The observations would offer the researcher an opportunity to directly interact with the project progress and get in touch with every aspect of it and thus aiding in offering a better understanding of the areas that might need to be improved or completely changed. Interviews would help the researcher with gaining in-depth understanding of the project through making inquiries from professionals who have done similar work before. As the project progresses, new challenges come up some of which the researcher may not be able to best understand and hence effectively handle.  In cases where online sources of information would prove of help, the researcher will extract as much as needful to assist in bringing the project to a final end. The information available online may be regarding any possible updates and admirable features that the researcher may be interested in introducing into the project.

References

Bernard, H.R., 2017. Research methods in anthropology: Qualitative and quantitative approaches. Rowman & Littlefield

Bethea, R.M., 2018. Statistical methods for engineers and scientists. Routledge

Culver, T.G., Flowback Fluids LLC, 2015. System and method for separating drill cuttings from drilling fluids. U.S. Patent 9,079,188

Culver, T.G., FLOWBACK FLUIDS LLC, 2018. System and method for processing a slurry. U.S. Patent Application 14/798,059

Fagundes, F.M., Santos, N.B., Damasceno, J.J.R. and Arouca, F.O., 2018. Study on the stability of a shear-thinning suspension used in oil well drilling. Oil & Gas Sciences and Technology–Revue d’IFP Energies nouvelles, 73, p.10

Fellows, R.F. and Liu, A.M., 2015. Research methods for construction. John Wiley & Sons

Fink, J., 2015. Petroleum engineer’s guide to oil field chemicals and fluids. Gulf Professional Publishing

Greenfield, T. and Greener, S. eds., 2016. Research methods for postgraduates. John Wiley & Sons

Karimi, S., Goudarzi, B., Moezzi, A. and RajabZadeh, E., 2015. Documenting water (fluid) from dewatering process as the most strategic product in drilling operations in order to make fluid and improve its rheological properties in line with environmental standards for reuse of wastewater. Environ Conserv J, 16, pp.503-508