Measurement of tensile strength of well cement sheath in underground gas storage based on tensile failure method

Abstract

During gas injection in gas storage, the inner pressure increase, potentially leading to tensile failure of the cement sheath. At present, the fracture strength of cement stone is measured using the Brazilian splitting method (BSM), which is prone to errors due to stress concentration at the loading point. To overcome this drawback, a novel test device and measurement method were developed to assess the tensile. This device utilizes the tensile failure method (TFM) to evaluate the sealing integrity of the cement sheath. The tensile strength tested by the BSM was found to be 40% higher than that tested by the TFM. Furthermore, based on the optimization of the cement slurry for underground gas storage (UGS) in the Jidong oilfield using both the TFM and the BSM. We found that using the BSM cannot optimize the cement slurry that meets the requirements for gas storage well cementing. The latex cement slurry was selected by the TMF for UGS well.