Drilling Decanter Centrifuge
Drilling Decanter Centrifuge operates on the principle of centrifugal force. It is based on separation of material via buoyancy. The centrifugal force is applied for accelerated settling of solids by increasing g-force.
So a lot of components get covered in the working of a decanter centrifuge – g-force, accelerated centrifugal force, viscosity of fluid in which solids are submerged, speed of conveyers, density of different matters, feed rate, etc.
Drilling Decanter Centrifuge applied in solid control system of an oilfield drilling operation would typically be the last phase equipment in the process. The equipment will create high degree centrifugal force in the bowl to separate drilling fluid from the drilling waste .
The centrifugal force created by the centrifuge will contribute in this separation and the solid thus obtained will be carried through a conveyer that’s running at a different speed than the bowl, for further discharge. The g-force applied to the bowl will be anywhere between 1000 Gs to 4000 Gs.
The material to be filtered will be fed to the decanter centrifuge at a certain rate or speed, the bowl in which they are carried, will be set to rotate at a certain rate and inside the bowl, the conveyer will be running at different/slower speed to carry of the solids.
The rotations will generate centrifugal force inside the bowl that will force the drilling cutting to settle out and the fluid or mud will be collected in the center of the bowl for discharge.
As we know the actual output will greatly vary depending upon the earlier mentioned aspects, different designs and types will use different dimensions. The size of the decanter or the diameter, rotation per minute, limit of g-force, density of material, rate of feeding the material, and the differential speed of conveyer to carry separated solid for discharge.
All of these factors could be manipulated to achieve the desired output from the decanter centrifuge equipment. Another factor is for how long the material was stored or kept inside the bowl.