Effects of a Cement Cap on the Bulk Properties of Cement Cores Embedded with Optical Fiber Sensor Prototypes

摘要

Embedded optical fiber sensors (OFS) are an emerging technology that can address real-time monitoring of wellbore integrity for carbon storage, oil/gas, and geothermal systems. Optical fiber sensors are capable of physical and chemical monitoring to observe the structural health of wellbores during operations. While embedded sensors add real-time monitoring capabilities, it is vital to understand how they interact with cement to impact the physical, mechanical, and flow properties of the cement in a well. Previous results showed that embedded OFS prototypes improved cement mechanical strengths and increased the axial permeability when OFS ran through the full length of the cement core. To simulate the most susceptible part of a cemented well, OFS prototypes were embedded within cement with a cement end cap at one end. The samples were then CT scanned for sample visualization and to determine the end cap thickness. Physical and mechanical properties (porosity, permeability, Young's modulus, etc.) were measured on the sensor embedded cement samples. The cement cap demonstrated promising results in mitigating the undesired permeability increase for the OFS prototypes, while largely maintaining the mechanical enhancement.