Enhancing the cement quality using polypropylene fiber

Abstract

Durability and long-term integrity of oil well cement are the most important parameters to be considered while designing the cement slurry, especially in the high-pressure and high-temperature (HPHT) environments. In this study, the effect of adding the polypropylene fiber (PPF) to Saudi Class G cement is evaluated under HPHT conditions. The effect of the PPF on the cement compressive and tensile strength, thickening time, density, free water, porosity, and permeability was studied. The effect of the PPF particles on the cement sheath microstructure was studied through powder X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscope. The results obtained showed that PPF did not affect the cement rheology, density, and free water. The addition of PPF considerably decreased the thickening time and improved the tensile and compressive strength of the cement. 0.75% by weight of cement (BWOC) of PPF reduced the thickening time by 75%, from 317 to 78 min. The compressive strength of the cement increased by 17.8% after adding 0.5% BWOC of PPF, while the tensile strength increased by 18% when 0.75% of PPF is used which is attributed to the formation of stable forms of calcium silicate hydrates because of the ability of PPF to accelerate cement hydration process as indicated by the XRD results. The ability of the PPF to decrease the cement thickening time along with its ability to improve the cement strength suggests the use of PPF as an alternative for silica floor in shallow wells where a reduction in thickening time will decrease the wait on cement time. Porosity and permeability of the base cement were also decreased by incorporating PPF because of the pores filling effect of PPF particles as indicated by the microstructure analysis.

The Role of Polypropylene Microfibers in Thermal Properties and Post-Heating Behavior of Cementitious Composites

“…The reason beyond this trend could be the ability of the polypropylene fibers to accelerate the cement hydration process [31]. These results are similar to those reported in the literature [31]. This finding support the superiority of the residual compressive strength for specimens with PP fibers previously reported in Figure 2.…”

“…It is obvious in Figure 12c,d that the intensity of the CSH diffraction at 2θ = 28 for fiber-reinforced specimens is higher than that of plain mortar specimens tested at room temperature and heated at 200 • C. The reason beyond this trend could be the ability of the polypropylene fibers to accelerate the cement hydration process [31]. These results are similar to those reported in the literature [31]. This finding support the superiority of the residual compressive strength for specimens with PP fibers previously reported in Figure 2.…”

Face Mask Wastes as Cementitious Materials: A Possible Solution to a Big Concern

“…The use of polypropylene fibers has been previously described and extensively used in the concrete sector, mainly due to their high tensile strength and Young's modulus, but also due to improvement of some properties, such as shrinkage and high alkaline resistance [36][37][38][39][40][41]; that is why face mask wastes are good candidates to be reused in cementbased materials. Rehman el al.…”

Review on the Durability of Polypropylene Fibre-Reinforced Concrete

“…At hardened stage, the concrete with PPFs has less cracks, and the creaks in concrete were smaller and finer than the concrete without PPF. is suggests that the PPF can reduce the possibility of microcrack coalescence in concrete and significantly improve the permeability of concrete [12,47,48]. Ramezanianpour et al [49] studied the influence of PPF weight content at the range of 0.5%-4% on the water permeability of concrete.…”