BAKER HUGHES - Drilling Fluids Reference Manual

GLOSSARY OF TERMS
Filtration Rate - See Fluid Loss.
Fishing - Operations on the rig for the purpose of retrieving from the well bore sections of pipe,
collars, junk, or other obstructive items which are in the hole.
Fish Eye - A slang term for a globule of partly hydrated polymer caused by poor dispersion during
the mixing process (commonly a result of adding the product too fast for the shearing ability of the
hopper). Fish eyes consist of a granule of unhydrated polymer surrounded by a gelatinous covering
of hydrated polymer which inhibits water from completing the hydration process. Thus, once
formed, fish eyes do not disperse and the byproduct is removed by the shaker screens and discarded.
Fish eyes are notorious for plugging off (blinding) the shaker screens thereby resulting in loss of
drilling fluid with the discharged cuttings.
Flat Gel - A condition wherein the ten-minute gel strength is essentially equal to the initial gel
strength.
Flipped - The reversal of an emulsion; a separation between two immiscible fluids into two separate
phases, i.e. no longer dispersed.
Flocculate - A process whereby the electromagnetic attraction between suspended particles
dominate the particle alignment under quiescent conditions thereby resulting in increased gel
strengths of the fluid.
Flocculating Agent - Substances, such as most electrolytes, some polysaccharides, certain natural or
synthetic polymers, that bring about the thickening of the consistency of a drilling fluid. In Bingham
Plastic fluids, the yield point and gel strength increase.
Flocculation - Loose association of particles in lightly bonded group’s, i.e., non-parallel association
of clay platelets. In concentrated suspensions, such as drilling fluids, flocculation results in gelation.
In some drilling fluids, flocculation may be followed by irreversible precipitation of colloids and
certain other substances from the fluid, e.g., red beds.
Flocs - See Flocculates.
Fluid - A fluid is a substance readily assuming the shape of the container in which it is placed. The
term includes both liquids and gases. It is a substance in which the application of every system of
stresses (other than hydrostatic pressure) will produce a continuously increasing deformation without
any relation between time rate of deformation at any instant and the magnitude of stresses at that
instant.
BAKER HUGHES DRILLING FLUIDS
REFERENCE MANUAL
REVISION 2006 15-18