PE 4210 Lab #Number, Section A, B, or C – The Lab Title
Author: YOUR NAME
Abstract (3 points)
Writing scientific reports is an important skill for petroleum engineering students. This
document explains how to write reports for the PE4210 laboratory reports but should be
transferable to other courses where reports are required as well. Including an abstract is
required for the PE4210 laboratory exercises. An abstract should be a “stand alone”
document where you should synthesize the whole report. Avoid referring to the paper in
the abstract.
Introduction (6 points)
Technical writing is an important skill
for you to have. Therefore I put some
emphasis on the technical writing of
laboratory reports in this course. The
appropriate length of a report is typically
2 to 5 pages.
The points for each portion of the report
are given in each heading. Each section
will be evaluated based on, structure,
analytical content, technical writing and
technical appearance.
 Structure is to get the right stuff
in the right place. Keep your
introduction in the introduction
chapter, your procedure in the
procedure chapter and so on.
 Analytical content evaluates if all
analysis is conducted, all
procedures described, and all
results reported.
 Technical writing is to evaluate if
questions are answered and the
reasoning in your answers are
clear.
 Technical appearance is to check
if the laboratory report is made
according to the standard (the
report should look like this
document) without different
fonts and sizes in the text and
with “scientific looking” figures
and tables.
The
introduction
section
should
introduce the background for your
experiment and state the objective for
the experiment. For this course it only
has to be a few paragraphs.
Example introduction for Lab 1.
The whole purpose of the drilling
operation is to create a hole however; the
drilling process is very complex and
expensive. While the hole is drilled with
the drilling bit, drilling fluid is pumped
down to remove the drilling cuttings out
of the wellbore. After drilling for a
certain depth, a certain casing has to be
applied to the wellbore to secure the
wellbore and prevent the groundwater
from entering the wellbore. Also, to
prevent the leakage in the wellbore, the
casing has to be cemented. After the
cement is solidified the well can be
drilled deeper but the wellbore has to be
smaller than the inside diameter of the
casing. The objective of this experiment
is to learn how to use the i-handbook
software. Also, creating 3 different
wellbore schematics using the ihandbook software and by using the ihandbook we will be able to find the
volume of the annular, surface casing,
intermediate casing, and production
casing etc. we will also find the
displaced volume due to the surface
casing.
Example procedure for Lab 1.
To sketch a wellbore, first open the ihandbook software. In the upper right of
the software click on the “wellbore” tab.
You will see a new window that
appeared. First, click on the “wellbore
hardware” button and new window will
appear. Choose “open hole” while
holding the mouse button, move it to the
wellbore diagram and held the curser to
the red rectangle that will appear in the
wellbore diagram and release the mouse.
A new properties window will open and
let you change the diameter and depth.
Second, to choose a casing click on the
“pipe” button. A new will appear has
many casings, scroll down and find the
casing needed. Click on the casing
needed and hold the mouse and drag it
over the wellbore diagram and change
the casing depth when a new properties
window appeared.
Third, to find any volume needed, click
on the on the “start volume” icon and
choose the volume you need to find then
select “end volume” and the value of the
volume will appear in bbl.
Results (20 points)
Make a paragraph where you present
your results. All tables and figures
should be referred to in this text.
Examples:
Table 1 is an example of how table
should look like.
In scientific writing reporting data in
tables and graphs is very important. First
a note on tables, ALWAYS include a
Table heading above the table itself with
a number and explanation of the table.
Table 1: Viscometer readings results for the 3
tested muds.
Mud A
Mud B
Mud C
100
(RPM)
1°
2°
6°
300
(RPM)
1°
5°
12°
600
(RPM)
1°
7°
15°
Figure caption should always be
included on Figures. Figure 1 is a
scientific looking figure in black and
white where all axis and data are
referenced. Figure 2 is an example of
how figures should NOT look like.
Shear stress (viscometer degrees)
Procedure (10 points)
In this section you need to present the
actual procedure which you used in the
class. The procedure needs to be detailed
enough that others can replicate your
work. Write the procedure IN YOUR
OWN WORDS. You can reference the
equipment details from the lab manual,
but if you do, you need to reference it
correctly.
Equations you need for analyzing the
results should be included in the
procedure chapter.
You should also only describe the
experiments you did. If the exercises are
modified or reduced to accommodate the
2 hours you have for the lab you should
only report your results.
16
14
Mud C
12
10
8
6
Mud B
4
2
Mud A
0
0
100
200
300
400
500
600
700
Shear rate (RPM)
Figure 1: This is how a scientific figure looks
like.
16
14
12
10
Series1
8
Series2
6
Series3
4
2
0
0
100
200
300
400
500
600
700
Figure 2: This is not how a figure should look
like with a lot of unnecessary colors and lack
of axis labeling.
Discussion (5 points)
This is the section where you answer the
questions asked in the lab manual. You
can write it as a single answer for each
question and number them according to
the question in the lab manual or as a
paragraph that answer all the questions.
Write full sentences and explain your
reasoning for your answers. Refer to
figures and table when it is appropriate.
Conclusions (5 points)
State the important conclusions or
findings of your experiments in YOUR
OWN WORDS. Use short but clear
statements. There should be no new
information in the conclusion.
References (1 point)
1. Drilling Laboratory handout #1
PE 4210 (2009)
2. Bourgoyne, A., et al., (1986)
Applied Drilling Engineering,
SPE text book series V 2.