Shale shakers are a general term for a vibrating device used to screen solids from a circulating drilling fluid.
Many configurations have been used. These include:
- A square or rectangular screening area with drilling-fluid flow down the length;
- Revolving, nonvibrating, cylindrical screens with longitudinal flow down the center axis;
- Circular screens with flow from the center to the outside.
Other configurations have been tried but have not become commercial. The majority of shale shakers flow the drilling fluid over a rectangular screening surface. Larger solids are removed at the discharge end, with the smaller solids and drilling fluid passing through the screen(s) into the active system. All drilled solids above 74 microns are undesirable in any drilling fluid. API 200 (74-micron) screens are so desirable on shale shakers for this reason. Weighting materials that meet American Petroleum Institute (API) specifications still have 3% by weight larger than 74 microns. Screens this size may remove large quantities of barite and may significantly affect the drilling-fluid and well cost.
Shale shakers are the most important and easiest-to-use solids-removal equipment. They are the first line of defense once drilling fluid is returned from the well bore. In most cases, they are highly cost-effective. If shale shakers are used with torn screens, fluid bypassing screens, incorrectly sized screen panels, or worn parts, the remaining solids-removal equipment will not perform properly.
A shale shaker can be used in all drilling applications in which liquid is used as the drilling fluid. Screen selection is controlled by circulation rate, shaker design, well-bore properties, and drilling-fluid properties. The large amount of variation in drilling-fluid properties dictates screen throughput to such an extent that shaker capacities are not listed in book.
Most operations involved in drilling a well can be planned in advance because of experience and engineering designs for well construction. Well planners expect to be able to look at a chart or graph and determine the size and number of shale shakers required to drill a particular well anywhere in the world. They expect to be able to determine the opening sizes of the shaker screens used for any portion of any well. But there are too many variables involved to allow these charts to exist.
Many shale shaker manufacturers, because of customer demand, publish approximate flow charts indicating that their shakers can process a certain flow rate of drilling fluid through certain-size screens. These charts are usually based on general field experience with a lightly treated water-based drilling fluid and should be treated as approximations at best. These charts should be used to provide only very inaccurate guesses about screens that will handle flow rates for a particular situation.
Rheological factors, fluid type, solids type and quantity, temperature, drilling rates, solids/liquid interaction, well-bore diameters, well-bore erosion, and other variables dictate actual flow rates that can be processed by a particular screen. Drilling fluid without any drilled solids can pose screening problems. Polymers that are not completely sheared tend to blind screens and/or appear in the screen discard. Polymers that increase the low-shear-rate viscosity or gel strength of the drilling fluid also pose screening problems. Polymers, like starch, that are used for fluid-loss control are also difficult to screen through a fine mesh (such as an API 200 screen). Oil-based drilling fluids, or nonaqueous fluids (NAFs), without adequate shear and adequate mixing are difficult to screen. NAFs without sufficient oil-wetting additives are very difficult to screen through mesh finer than API 100.
Screen selection for shale shakers is dependent on geographical and geological location. Screen combinations that will handle specific flow rates in the Middle East or Far East will not necessarily handle the same flow rates in Norway or the Rocky Mountains. The best method to select shale shaker screens and/or number of shale shakers for a particular drilling site is to first use the recommendations of a qualified solidscontrol advisor from the area. Screen use records should be established for further guidance.
