The effect of polypropylene fiber on the curing time of class G oil well cement and its mechanical, petrophysical, and elastic properties

Abstract

The cement paste is subjected to various loads throughout a well’s life, which may compromise some of its essential characteristics and impair its performance. When the cement paste is first being formed and the cement’s characteristics have not yet fully matured, these loadings take on greater importance. In this study, the early properties of cement used in oil wells that contains polypropylene fiber are assessed. Five different curing times were used to prepare ten cement samples (6, 12, 24, 48, and 72 h). Five samples contained polypropylene fiber, while the remaining five samples were without polypropylene fibers. After the samples were prepared, the examination of several early cement properties took place. Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) was used to describe each sample in order to determine how the curing times affected the cement’s porosity. The findings demonstrated that both cement systems’ compressive and tensile strengths increased with curing time, and that adding polypropylene fiber enhanced the cement’s strength. The porosity and permeability of the cement specimens were significantly reduced with the incorporation of polypropylene fibers, as well as with time during the curing process for both cement samples. The reduction of Young’s modulus and the increase in Poisson’s ratio show that the addition of polypropylene fibers also makes the cement more elastic. To express variations in porosity as well as compressive and tensile strengths, logarithmic relationships were constructed. While the Poisson’s ratio, Young’s modulus, density variations, and permeability were precisely modeled by power-law equations.