Skip to main content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.

Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock ( ) or https:// means you’ve safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

Skip to content

Lost Circulation Materials in Geothermal Drilling: Thermal Degradation, Viscosity, Compression, and Flow Loop Tests

Metadata Updated: September 17, 2025

This dataset provides a set of experimental data on the performance of lost circulation materials (LCMs) used in geothermal drilling operations. It includes results from four distinct tests: thermal degradation, viscosity measurements, compression tests, and high-temperature flow loop experiments. The materials tested, such as cedar fiber, cotton seed hulls, magma fiber, microcellulose, and sawdust, were analyzed under a range of conditions to assess their effectiveness in mitigating fluid losses in geothermal wells.

Data on thermal degradation explores mass loss, water loss, and gas release for each material when subjected to temperatures between 90C and 250C. Viscosity measurements capture the behavior of LCM mixtures under different temperatures, while compression tests investigate the structural integrity of both undegraded and thermally degraded materials. The high-temperature flow loop experiments simulate geothermal well conditions, analyzing how different materials and mixtures affect fluid flow and sealing performance in a fractured reservoir environment. In addition to the experimental data, the dataset includes photos documenting the materials, schematics of test setups, and several published manuscripts that provide detailed insights into the experimental methods and findings.

Access & Use Information

Public: This dataset is intended for public access and use. License: Creative Commons Attribution

Downloads & Resources

Dates

Metadata Created Date January 11, 2025
Metadata Updated Date September 17, 2025

Metadata Source

Harvested from OpenEI data.json

Additional Metadata

Resource Type Dataset
Metadata Created Date January 11, 2025
Metadata Updated Date September 17, 2025
Publisher Sandia National Laboratories
Maintainer
Doi 10.15121/2473672
Identifier https://data.openei.org/submissions/7729
Data First Published 2022-02-01T07:00:00Z
Data Last Modified 2025-09-15T17:26:34Z
Public Access Level public
Bureau Code 019:20
Metadata Context https://openei.org/data.json
Metadata Catalog ID https://openei.org/data.json
Schema Version https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema
Catalog Describedby https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.json
Data Quality True
Harvest Object Id 1adc6976-9cc8-467c-a610-24f4a418ec9f
Harvest Source Id 7cbf9085-0290-4e9f-bec1-91653baeddfd
Harvest Source Title OpenEI data.json
Homepage URL https://gdr.openei.org/submissions/1660
License https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Old Spatial {"type":"Polygon","coordinates":-167.7267,13.518,-53.8316,13.518,-53.8316,75.0714,-167.7267,75.0714,-167.7267,13.518}
Program Code 019:006
Projectlead Alexandra Prisjatschew
Projectnumber FY19 AOP 2.1.3.1
Projecttitle Improved Lost Circulation Management for Geothermal Drilling
Source Datajson Identifier True
Source Hash c5ea12ffd332c70ec8743fbec52e42eac842246c661f8de347670eb1ce62ebf2
Source Schema Version 1.1
Spatial {"type":"Polygon","coordinates":-167.7267,13.518,-53.8316,13.518,-53.8316,75.0714,-167.7267,75.0714,-167.7267,13.518}

Didn't find what you're looking for? Suggest a dataset here.