Trip Tank function?

[DavidL]

Hi
I'm a newbie of drilling, and wonder how the trip tank, "trippump" and bell nipple works.
I tried to google a bit, but I didn't find any good description of the system. So far I understand the "trip pump" will pump mud back to the hole then the drill is triped/pulled upwards to maintain pressure and replace the volume of the drillpipe. Is this pump only operating during these circumstances? Is there any book or website which describes the drilling process, including trip tank in a basic way?

Regards
David

[arturo82]

the trip tank is located at the mud pits, near the shale shakers, it is used when the drill pipe is pulled out of the wellbore, because the drill pipe ocupies a volume inside the hole, and that volume needs to be replaced so the well is always filled with mud to mantain pressure as you said previously
as far as I know, that pump only operates during that operation cause you need to know the mud volume entering into the well

[mohamedtahir]

we use the trip tank to know the volume occupied by the steel (drill pipe + drill collar) to add in the well when they puuled out and to detect any kick off.

[oileruis]

TO ADD the previous comments: Trip tank is a typical cylindrical or rectangular tank (in a Vertical position) which storage or receive drilling fluid (depends on which operations are you doing: pulling out of the hole or tripping into the hole). The trip tank is used not only for drill pipe or drill collar....is use to monitor the filling of the well (when you pull out any kind of tool from the borehole) and to monitor the displacement of each tubular/tool ran into the borehole......in some operations, the hole can be monitored with the trip tank when none tool/tubular is into the borehole (for example, logging operations you can watch if the hole is taking or overdisplacing fluids).

The TT (trip tank) must have 2 types of measurements (mechanical and optical/electronic/sonar type), thats mean, when you are using the TT you must know how the fluid level is inside the TT.
Typical TT have 20-40 bbls of capacity (depends of each drilling contractors...but you can find useful information in the API specs or IADC specs bulletins)

Regards

[derrickhand300]

Trip Tanks are often circulated over the hole while tripping and loss is monitored usually electronically from the drillers console. Every 5 stands the calculations have to be quickly made to make sure the hole is taking the proper amount of fluid. Not filling properly would indicate a gas kick or swabbing the hole as well as a few other possibilities. A small tank (trip tank) is used because it is easier to get a more accurate reading than if you left the flow line lined up on the pit system. We run a 90 bbl trip tank

[sghuge]

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