Clay suspensions are used as drilling fluids for the initial rock layers, usually constituted of unconsolidated sediments. For deeper layers oil based fluids are more commonly used due to their thermal resistance. Therefore, because of the environmental laws, these fluids are being replaced and the clay suspensions arise as an alternative, as they are environmentally correct and have lower cost. So, it becomes of great importance to study the properties of clay suspensions at moderate and high temperatures. This work has the aim to evaluate the properties of bentonit clay suspensions under different thermal conditions. For so, a type 2² factorial plan with three experiments in the centre + star configuration, was applied, totalizing 11 experimental runs to evaluate the influence of temperature and clay content (entrance variables) over the rheological and filtration properties of the clay suspensions. The clay suspensions were prepared with bentonit concentrations between 8.75 g/350 mL and 22.4 g/350 mL and were submitted to temperatures between 38 ºC and 176 ºC during 16 h. Two types of thermal aging were studied, dynamic and static, in a Fann Roller Oven equipment. The rheological properties (apparent viscosity - AV and plastic viscosity - PV) were determined in a Fann 35A viscometer and the filtered volume (FV) in a API filter-press. Could be concluded that the entrance variables did influence statistically, at a 95% confidence level, on the dispersion properties, being observed that the combination of elevated temperatures and high clay concentrations leads to higher values of VA and VP, as for the higher values of VF were obtained from the suspensions prepared with lower clay concentrations and submitted to higher temperature. It became evident that the type of aging does have direct influence in the rheological behaviors of the evaluated dispersions.
clay suspensions; bentonite; aging; thermal stability
