2011 2nd International Conference on Environmental Science and Technology

IPCBEE vol.6 (2011) © (2011) IACSIT Press, Singapore

Reduction of set cement permeability in oil well to decrease the pollution of

receptive environment using spherical nanosilica

V. Ershadi1, T. Ebadi1, A.R Rabani2,L. Ershadi1 H. Soltanian

1
Civil and environmental , 2Petroleum engineering Discovery Division Research
Amirkabir University of technology Research Institute of Petroleum Industry
Tehran, Iran Tehran, Iran
Vida.ershadi@aut.ac.ir soltanianh@ripi.ir

Abstract—Nanosilica is the extremely fine silica that has been and a second between 5 to 30 nm. Also they used nS dry
used for years as cement admixture both in the oil field and in powders in encapsulated form and concentration of 5 to 15%
construction and civil engineering industries. Because of its bwoc. The respective test results for the slurries
extremely fine nature and high reactivity pozzolanic material, demonstrated that the inclusion of nS reduces the setting
nanosilica has been used to improve slurry impermeability and time and increases the strength (compressive, tensile) of
the mechanical properties of the hardened material. Using resulting cement in relation with other silica components that
nanosilica in slurry composition, improved reological and were tested [13]; therefore it has been a popular additive in
mechanical properties of cement slurry and set cement. With the oil field industry. Its application encompasses the
the adoption of very fine silica particles in cement matrix,
formulation of stronger lightweight cements as well as
porosity and permeability significantly were declined 33.3%
and 99% respectively and compressive strength grew from
reducing the free fluid and enhancing the stability of large
1486 psi to 3801 psi. Finally the proper amount of nanosilica in number of slurries [14].
slurry composition is presented. The novel slurry formulation This paper reports the effects of nano-sized spherical
with low porosity and permeability and high compressive silica on porosity, permeability and compressive strength of
strength, is suitable in zones where the possibility of gas oil well cement.
migration is very high.
II. MATERIALS AND METHODS
Keywords-nanosilica; cement class G; porosity and A. Materials
permeability; slurry formulation
Cement
I. INTRODUCTION
The cement powder used in this study, Kerman class G
Cementing is an essential operation during construction cement according to the American Petroleum Institute (API)
of an oil or gas well [1]. The quality of cement behind a standards, was provided by Research Institute of Petroleum
casing plays a vital role during drilling and has a serious Industry (RIPI) of Tehran. The cement suspensions are made
impact on the secondary cementing, workover and by adding the powder to tap water in a Waring blender.
stimulation operation [2]. Poor quality of cement slurry and
set cement may lead to remedial cementing and will increase Spherical Nanosilica Powder
the time and cost of cement job [3].whereas high quality of The spherical nanosilica that was utilized in this study
cement will ensure the long-term durability of borehole by was synthesized by Professor Alimorad Rashidi, one of the
providing a high-quality casing [4]. In recent years great faculties of Nanotechnology Department of Research
efforts have been done to improve drilling and construction Institute of Petroleum Industry of Tehran. The particle size
cement properties, using nano particles [5]. of nanosilica is about 20 nm.
Cementing of deep wells requires materials that, while Other additives such as dispersants, extenders, antifoam
satisfying performance specifications, are quite different agent and fluid loss control were used in the admixture of
from those encountered in conventional processes, hence cement slurry.
nano particles, especially nanosilica, nano-Fe2o3 [6, 7], and
nanoalumina [8, 9] have been widely employed for B. Experimental method
increasing compressive and flexural strength of Portland and Sample preparation
Belite cements [4].One of the most common additives in
cement admixture both in oil field and in construction and The sample preparations were done in accordance with
civil engineering industries is nano silica [10]. API [15]. The specification gives the standard procedure for
Nanosilica is typically a highly effective pozzolanic sample conditioning prior to testing. For the initial mixing, a
material. It normally consists of very fine vitreous particles high speed propeller-type mixer is used. The additives were
approximately 1000 times smaller than the average cement added to the water successively in the mixer with the mixing
particles. It has proven to be an excellent admixture for intervals of 20 s at 4000 rpm. Cement powder and spherical
cement to improve strength and durability and decrease nanosilica were premixed and thereafter added to water and
permeability [11, 12]. Roddy et al applied particulate nS in other additives in the mixer at the speed of 4000 rpm for 3
two specific ranges of particle sizes, one between 5 to 50 nm,

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min and 35s at the speed of 1200rpm [16]. The water/cement TABLE I. POROSITY AND PERMEABILITY OF 5 TESTED SLURRIES AT 5
DIFFERENT PERCENTAGE OF NANOSILICA
ratio in all formulation in this study is 0.6.
Porosity and Permeability in different amount of
Permeability and Porosity Test No. of nanosilica
slurry
Permeability is a measure of the ability of a fluid to flow %nanosilice Porosity (%) permeability(md)
through a porous media when subjected to a differential S1 0 45 0.1
pressure and is mathematically equated by Darcy’s Law. The
primary function of well cement is to isolate/seal the casing S2 1 30 0.001
from the well bore. This seal prevents the migration of fluids S3 1.5 30 0.01
into the annulus and upwards to the surface. Therefore, it is
imperative that a well cement exhibit very low permeability. S4 2 29 0.019
The applied formula to calculate the permeability of set S5 3 28.5 0.02
cement is mentioned below:
Adding 1% BWOC of nanosilica to slurry admixture,
k = (2,000 x OP x Q x µ x L) / (A x (IP2 - OP2)) decreased porosity and permeability 33.3% and 99%
respectively figure (1).
Where:

Q = Flowrate, k = Permeability,

A = Cross Sectional Area, OP = Outlet Pressure

IP = Inlet Pressure, µ = Viscosity, L = Length

All of the permeability and porosity tests were applied

and calculated according to API standard and under 3000 psi
pressure in Core Research Unit of Research Institute of
Petroleum Industry of Tehran.
Compressive Strength Test (Ultrasonic Cement Analyzer)
The cement slurry to be tested was placed in autoclave Figure 1. the Percent of Porosity and Permeability Reduction
unit of ultra sonic cement analyzer (UCA) with temperature
and pressure adjusted to simulate downhole conditions (T:
158 F and P: 3000 psi). The required pressure was applied In conventional slurries the particles are distributed more
to the cell through a pressure apparatus along the cement uniformly than new formulations. The tiny particles of
column. An acoustic signal was then transmitted through the nanosilica place in pores in micron size and lead to porosity
cement sample. As the strength of the cement increased over and permeability reduction, but it seems that non-uniformed
time, the faster the acoustic signal traveled through the distribution of particles has greater impact in reducing the
sample. permeability to porosity.
A computer running customized Windows based As already mentioned, increasing the amount of
software measures the transit times of the signal over time nanosilica lessened slurry density, thus the permeability of
slurries increased. Figure (2) shows the changes of
and interpolates the compressive strength values.
permeability versus various percentage of nanosilica.
III. RESULT AND DISCUSSION
A. Effect of nanosilica on cement porosity and
permeability
Using nano particles is one of the best methods to
decrease permeability and porosity of concrete in
Construction Industry [6, 7]. In this study a similar way was
performed to decrease porosity and permeability of drilling
cement. If it is required to use a formulation with high W/C,
the porosity problems should be resolved by changes in the
arrangement of structure. Table (1) shows the changes of Figure 2. Changes of permeability at different percentage of nanosilica
porosity and permeability versus different percentages of
nanosilica.

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 As it is observed in figure 3, by increasing the amount of
nanosilica, permeability increased too, and this can be
considered due to increased density. Subsequently small
samples of set cement powder were taken for scanning
electron microscope (SEM), to determine the effect of
nanosilica on the structure of the composition and
permeability reduction of cement. SEM images of S1 and S2
are shown in figure 3(a) and 3(b). As seen in figure 3, fine
particles of nanosilica have been placed as well in the pores
of cement paste. Figure 3(b) shows more condensed structure
rather than figure 3(a).

Figure 5. Changes of Compressive Strength versus time for S1, S2, S3

Figure 3. SEM images of (a) slurry No.1, (b) slurry No.2. . Figure 3 (a),
shows the porous structure of cement paste and 3(b) exhibits the
application of nanosilica in filling the porosities

B. Effect of Nanosilica on Compressive Strength (CS)

According to the results of UCA tests to determine the
compressive strength of cement, is quite evident that in the
new system design of slurries the growth of compressive
strength will be faster, figure (4),(5). Figure 6. 48-hour compressive strength for S1, S2, S3
Using nanosilica to the system not only reduced
permeability and porosity and improved rheological
behavior of slurries (with proper percentage) but also, could It is worth noting that the CS of S4 and S5 were not
provide the early strength of them [13]. measured, since they were thickened after heat and showed
Figure (6) shows the trend of increasing 48-hour CS by inappropriate rheology behavior, so was not suitable to use in
adding nanosilica to raw slurry. S2 showed the maximum cementing job.
48-hour CS with 1% nanosilica in the admixture, but
increasing in amount of this additive decreased the IV. CONCLUSION
compressive strength. As mentioned before, increasing the The slurry that was intended as control slurry with W/C
amount of nanosilica reduced slurry density which ultimately 0.6 had very long thickening time, high porosity,
leads to reduction of CS [13]. permeability and low compressive strength. According to the
results, adding proper amount of nanosilica to slurry No.1 as
an accelerator additive with tiny particles and high effective
surface area, could improve mechanical properties of the
slurry. Pursuant to results 1% nanosilica is the most
appropriate amount in order to improve properties. The
effect of nanosilica would not be observable by using less.
An overview of the results can be noted the followings as
the advantages of using nanosilica in the mixture of drilling
cement:
• High compressive strength (3023 psi at T= 158 F
& P= 3000 psi) of low density slurries (80-90pcf)
• Very low porosity and permeability (respectively
33.3% , 99% reduction compared to initial slurry)
Figure 4. the trend of time required changes to achieve pressure 50psi and • Low costs of remedial cementing operation
500psi

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 ACKNOWLEDGMENT [8] Campillo, A. Guerrero, J.S. Dolado, A. Porro, J.A. Goñi, S., 2007.
Improvement of initial mechanical strength by nanoalumina in belite
The authors are grateful to the Research Institute of cements, Materials Letters. 61, pp. 1889-1892.
Petroleum Industry (RIPI) of Tehran and Amirkabir [9] Doladoa, J.S. , Campillo, I. Erkizia, E. Ibanez, J.A. Porro, A.
University of Technology research funds for the financial Guerrero, A. and Goni, S., 2007. Effect of Nanosilica Addition on
support. In addition, the authors wish to thank Mr. Yaser Belite Cement Pastes Held in Sulfate Solutions, Journal of the
American Ceramic Society. 90, pp. 3973-3976.
Pourmazaheri and Mr. Mehdi Fathi for their sincerely
cooperation during laboratory tests. [10] Daou, F. and Piot, B., 2008. Cement Slurry Performance and Set
Cement Properties vs. Microsilica Densification, Society of
Petroleum Engineers(SPE112701)
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