Abstract
We investigate experimentally the alteration of fractured class-G cement flowed by CO2-rich brine. The experiment mimics a mechanically damaged rough-walled fractured cement annulus at temperature 60 °C and pressure 10 MPa. The experiment consists of flowing a reservoir-equilibrated brine mixed with CO2 (partial pressure of 2.3 MPa) through the fracture of average aperture 14 μm at constant flow rate (100 μL min−1). This flow rate corresponds to pressure gradient representative of an average in situ hydrodynamic condition. Results indicate an intense alteration of the cement with a large removal of mass at the scale of the sample. However, the fracture alteration patterns are triggered by the initial heterogeneity of the fracture aperture; the aperture of the low aperture zones tends to decrease due to calcite precipitation whereas preferential paths develop in the zones of higher aperture associated. Nevertheless, the expected large permeability increase triggered by the mass removal is mitigated by the precipitation of a low density Si-rich amorphous material. The alteration rate will decrease with time because of the increasing distance of diffusion between the fracture where the reactants are actively renewed by advection and the portlandite and C-S-H dissolution fronts. The different zones of reaction can be adequately modeled by a simple 1D diffusion-reaction model using published kinetics coefficients and extrapolation to larger times than the experiment time can be drawn. Altogether, and in addition to the previous studies of the alteration of fractured well cement annulus, this study shows that the leakage potential is strongly controlled by the initial distribution of the aperture along the fracture: low aperture zones will tend to self-heal while localized flow in connected high aperture paths will be perennial.