Well control
Fluid is any substance that flows; e.g. oil, water, gas, and ice are all examples of fluids. Under extreme pressure and temperature almost anything will become fluid.
Fluid exerts pressure and this pressure is as a result of the density and the height of the fluid column. Most oil companies usually represent density measurement in pounds per gallon (ppg) or kilograms per cubic meter (kg/m) and pressure measurement in pounds per square inch (psi) or bar or pascal (Pa). Pressure increases as the density of the fluid increases.
To find out the amount of pressure a fluid of a known density exerts for each unit of length, the pressure gradient is used.
A pressure gradient is defined as the pressure increase per unit of the depth due to its density and it is usually measured in pounds per square inch per foot or bars per meter.It is expressed mathematically as;
"pressure gradient = fluid density × conversion factor".
The conversion factor used to convert density to pressure is 0.052 in English system and 0.0981 in Metric system.
Relative density
As the principal use of relative density measurements in industry is determination of the concentrations of substances in aqueous solutions and these are found in tables of RD vs concentration it is extremely important that the analyst enter the table with the correct form of relative density. For example, in the brewing industry, the Plato table, which lists sucrose concentration by mass against true RD, were originally (20 °C/4 °C) that is based on measurements of the density of sucrose solutions made at laboratory temperature (20 °C) but referenced to the density of water at 4 °C which is very close to the temperature at which water has its maximum density of "ρ"() equal to 0.999972 g/cm (or 62.43 lb·ft). The ASBC table in use today in North America, while it is derived from the original Plato table is for apparent relative density measurements at (20 °C/20 °C) on the IPTS-68 scale where the density of water is 0.9982071 g/cm. In the sugar, soft drink, honey, fruit juice and related industries sucrose concentration by mass is taken from this work which uses SG (17.5 °C/17.5 °C). As a final example, the British RD units are based on reference and sample temperatures of 60 °F and are thus (15.56 °C/15.56 °C).