Experimental Investigation of the Impact of Compression on the Petro-Physical and Micromechanical Properties of Wellbore Cement Containing Salt

Abstract

In this study, we investigated the effect of compression on the micromechanical and the petro- physical properties of salted wellbore cement systems. The experiments were conducted using a customized bench scale model, which utilized an expandable tubulars simulating the compression of a previously cemented casing under field-like conditions. The “mini-wellbore model” sample consisted of a pipe inside pipe assembly with a cemented annulus. The cement samples were cured in a water bath for 28 days prior to the compression experiments to allow adequate hydration. The impact of compression on the cement’s petro-physical and mechanical properties was quantified by measuring the porosity, permeability and hardness of salt cement cores drilled parallel to the orientation of the pipe from the compacted cement sheath. Permeability (Core-flood) experiments were conducted at 21℃, 10,342 kPa confining pressure for a period of 120 minutes. During the core-flood experiments, conducted using Pulse-decay method, deionized water was flowed through cement cores to determine the permeability of the cores. The results obtained from these experiments confirmed that the compression of the cement positively impacted the cements ability to provide long term zonal isolation, shown by the effective reduction in porosity and permeability. Furthermore, the results confirm reduction in the detrimental effect of salt on the strength and stiffness in post-compression cement.