Cement-Polymer Composites for Oilwell Cementing

The selection of an optimal cementitious material is critical to maintain zonal isolation for the lifetime of oil & gas or gas storage wells not only for primary cementing but also after well abandonment. Polymer powder/cement composites present good mechanical and durability properties since polymer latex promotes improved adhesion and flexibility to the hardened cement paste. So, for well constructions in aggressive environment, polymer powder/cement composites would be good candidates. During the well construction, the cement slurry placement strongly depends on its rheological behaviour. In this paper, we studied rheological properties of polymer powder/cement composite suspensions: they present a transition from a gel to a liquid behaviour in oscillatory shear. The replacement of cement particles by polymer particles induces a decrease of the storage modulus in the gel state. The good quality of the polymer particle dispersion and their high affinity for cement particles were observed by Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM). Solid state NMR (29 Si and 27 Al) and calorimetry allowed to highlight the influence of the polymer addition on both the hydration and hardening of the cement matrix. All these results helped us to understand the relations between the slurry composition, its rheological behaviour and the properties of the hardened materials which allowed us to design new cementing materials.