Arab J Sci Eng

DOI 10.1007/s13369-014-1028-4

RESEARCH ARTICLE - PETROLEUM ENGINEERING

Prediction Equation for Permeability of Class G Oilwell

Cement Under Reservoir Conditions
Syahrir Ridha · Sonny Irawan ·
Bambang Ariwahjoedi

Received: 17 March 2012 / Accepted: 15 April 2013

© King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals 2014

Abstract Experimental assessment of cement permeabil-

ity is difficult to perform once the cement has been displaced
into the wellbore, especially during early hydration. Fail-
ure to do so, it may lead to secondary cementing operation
that requires additional cost or in the worst case may dam-
age the well. This study proposes an empirical equation for
permeability prediction using electrical conductivity at ele-
vated pressure up to 3,000 psi and temperature up to 65 ◦ C
during the first 24 h of hydration. The relationship between
permeability and normalized conductivity follows power law
equation. Better correlation is achieved once the pore diam-
eter parameter is included. The resulting equation is similar
to that of Katz–Thompson equation with different constant
values. Better agreement is observed for the new proposed
equation during 24 h of hydration and also up to 28 days
using other cement data. This paper also discusses a rela- 1 Introduction
tionship between permeability and compressive strength of
oilwell cement under reservoir conditions. Cement permeability is one of the most useful criteria in
assuring the durability of an oilwell throughout its produc-
Keywords Permeability · Electrical conductivity · tion life. It provides good zonal isolation of formations that
Early hydration · Pore radius · Compressive strength prevent fluids from migrating both to casing and surface. Fail-
ure to control this property may lead to secondary cementing
operation that requires additional cost or in the worst cases
may damage the well.
It is well accepted that fluids migration mainly occurs due
to high permeability within the transition state. Early work
of cement transition time by Sabins et al. [1], suggested that
S. Ridha (B) · S. Irawan a gel strength range from 120 to 250 Pa may be sufficient to
Department of Petroleum Engineering,
Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS, Bandar Seri Iskandar,
prevent gas percolation. It was then adopted to be an indus-
31750 Tronoh, Perak, Malaysia trial standard by which gel strength of 240 Pa was defined
e-mail: syahrir.ridha@petronas.com.my as the end of transition time and fluids considered cannot be
transmitted [2]. However, during the transition state from liq-
B. Ariwahjoedi
uid phase to impermeable solid, some channels or voids may
Department of Fundamental and Applied Sciences,
Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS, Bandar Seri Iskandar, form which may potentially contribute to causing fluid infil-
31750 Tronoh, Perak, Malaysia tration in the future [3]. By this, accurate prediction of perme-

123
 Arab J Sci Eng

ability at early ages of in situ cement will warrant long-term

durability, and at the same time can prevent extra expenses
due to cement failure.
Promising technique using electrical impedance to eval-
uate microstructural properties of cement, including perme-
ability, has been successfully applied [4–9]. The well known
Katz–Thompson equation [10] and Johnson’s equation [11]
are most frequently discussed in the literature in relating
permeability to electrical properties. These equations were
theoretically generated based on reservoir rock samples and
however may not be fully applicable to cement as the cement
has more rigid system [5,12].
Several researchers have obtained a fair agreement
between measured and calculated permeability using Katz–
Thompson equation [5,6,12], and also its application on
cement pore structure [13]. However, since these samples
were treated at mature stage with concrete-based cement,
further study is required for neat cement sample during early
hydration and under reservoir conditions. In this study, we
generate an empirical equation based on the relation between
permeability data, pore radius and electrical responses of
Class G oilwell cement at elevated pressure up to 3,000 psi
and temperature up to 65 ◦ C during the first 24 h of hydration.
Furthermore, this paper also discuses a relationship between
permeability and compressive strength of oilwell cement.

2 Experimental Method

Five batches of cement slurry were mixed with tap water at
water–cement ratio (w/c) of 0.55, 0.5, 0.4, 0.3 and 0.25. In
this case, some samples with w/c of 0.25 and 0.55 acted
as a controller variable. In this study, API cement Class G
High Sulfate Resistant (G-HSR) with the specific gravity of
3.2 g/cm3 obtained from LaFarge Malaysia was used. The
cement composition measured by XRF analysis was given in
Table 1. It was mixed in a constant speed mixer at 4,000 rpm
for 30 min according to API 10A recommended practice [14].
Table 1 Composition of Class G-HSR cement
Raw oxide wt.% Bogue phasesa
Fig. 1 Schematic of core holder in the CoreTestSystem™
Then the mixing speed was increased to 12,000 rpm and the
mixing process was continued for another 35 min. During
the first 30 min, cement powder was poured gently into the
mixer that had been filled with water until it was well mixed;
then the mixing was continued for 35 min longer. Once the
slurry has been prepared, it was immediately placed into a 1-
in.-diameter × 1-in.-length cylinder rubber jacket. Then the
sample was weighed using a digital balance, and the weight
measurement was used as an input in the electrical conduc-
tivity measurement.
wt.%

CaO 64.3 C3 S (tricalcium silicate) 62.5 2.1 Electrical Impedance Measurement

SiO2 21.2 C2 S (dicalcium silicate) 9.3
Al2 O3 3.8 C3 A (tricalcium aluminate) 2 Electrical impedance information was obtained using
Fe2 O3 4.76 C4 AF (tetracalcium aluminoferrite) 14.5
CoreTestSystem™ AutoLab from New England Research.
Figure 1 depicts a schematic diagram of electrical impedance
SO3 2.61
measurement [15]. The instrument was allowed to perform
MgO 2.3
both the two-electrode and the four-electrode impedance
K2 O 0.32
measurement as a function of temperature, pressure and fre-
Na2 O 0.46
quency. The mixed cement samples were placed in accor-
a Cement chemistry notation: C = CaO, S = SiO2 , A = Al2 O3 , F = Fe2 O3 dance with the core-holder apparatus. Prior to installing the

123
Arab J Sci Eng

Table 2 Measurement scenarios for conductivity measurement

1 Hz
Sample no. w/c Temp. (◦ C) Pres. (psi)

1 0.25 70 3,000
2 0.3 25 14.7
3 0.3 40 1,500
4 0.3 65 3,000
5 0.4 25 14.7
0.2 MHz
Bulk
6 0.4 40 1,500
Resistivity
7 0.4 65 3,000
8 0.5 25 14.7
9 0.5 40 1,500
10 0.5 65 3,000
11 0.55 70 3,000 Fig. 2 Typical Nyquist plot of early age cement sample at w/c = 0.5
at atmospheric conditions

apparatus, the cement samples were first jacketed by a flexi-
ble rubber to avoid leakage or fluid loss. To measure electrical
properties, the electrode was carefully aligned with each end
of the sample. The standardized electrode materials consist-
ing of porous silver membrane filters produced by Osmonics
Inc were used here.
Samples were inserted in a core-holder component con-
sisting of two silver electrical contacts embedded in the face
of each end cap. Here, the frequency measurement, totally
involving 25 data points of frequencies for each execution
stored, was set from 0.2 MHz to 1 Hz in a logarithmic sweep.
These measurements were performed repeatedly until the
sample reached 24 h of hydration which is considered as
early hydration period [16]. The device can apply both ele-
vated pressure and temperature simultaneously. The confin-
ing pressure of 3,000 psi, on the other hand, was manually
conditioned using a hydraulic pump. The output from the
measurement system subsequently was recorded by the data
acquisition system. The system temperature of about 65 ◦ C
was then obtained by heating the oil chamber and recorded
by an integrated thermocouple of the system. Measurements
were gradually collected at several 30-min intervals for the
first 5 h, followed by the 1-hour increment for the next mea-
surement up to 10 h and continued at the 2-h interval until
reaching 24 h of hydration. The experimental conditions for
this measurement are presented in Table 2.
A typical Nyquist plot is shown in Fig. 2. The cement
bulk conductivity (σb ) is calculated from the bulk resistivity
(Rb ) in the Nyquist plot at the cut-off frequency after it has
been normalized for geometry factor (k), according to the
equation below:
G
σb = (1)
Rb
where G = l/A is the geometry factor, l is the length of the
specimen (2.54 cm), and A is the surface area perpendicular
to the direction of electrical current (5.06 cm2 ).
To adjust and enhance data quality, it was done by bal-
ancing Z-meter interfacing box with a reference resistor and
by selecting the reference resistor that most closely matched
to the effective (low frequency) resistance of the sample,
respectively. This effectively balanced the voltage that was
measured by the two amplifiers. In addition, correcting for
parasitic impedances at high frequencies required the refer-
ence resistor to be equal to or larger than the effective resis-
tance of the sample.
The effect of elevated temperature on conductivity mea-
surement was corrected using Hammond and Robson corre-
lation [17]. This equation was theoretically generated using
Arrhenius equation that expressed the influence of tempera-
ture on conductivity on various cements and concretes. The
equation is shown below:
   
σ (T ) 1 1
ln =α − (2)
σ (Tref ) Tref T
where T (K) and Tref (K) are the absolute and reference tem-
perature and α (K) is an empirical coefficient. The authors
suggested a = 2,900 (K) for concrete and a = 2,200 (K)
for cement paste.
Pore fluid was obtained through an extraction of the
cement sample at certain pressure using Fann 175 ml HPHT
API Filter Press which could be pressurized to 1,800 psig on
the cell and 750 psig on the back pressure receiver. At this
point, the maximum operating temperature was at 350 ◦ F
(177 ◦ C). Pore fluid consisted of a filter paper connected to
the orifice for fluid expulsion. Once removed, it was collected
directly into a glass flask for the conductivity measurement.
To obtain about 5 ml, the pore fluid was collected at several
points of time period that were about 1, 3, 5, 10, 16 and 24 h
of hydration period and then followed by sealing off the ori-
fice using filter press. The pressure profile was generated by
pumping Nitrogen (N2 ) until reaching the desired pressure.
At last, the conductivity measurement after fluid extraction
was immediately performed using conductivity meter.

123

2.2 Permeability Measurement
Permeability measurements were performed on samples
using gas permeameter-coreval 30 (Vinci Technology™)
based on an unsteady-state (transient) method. The pressure
falling-off technique was applied on cores placed in a core
holder under a hydrostatic confining pressure. The down-
stream end of the sample was conditioned to an atmospheric
pressure whilst the upstream pressure used was at 200 psig.
This method, a relatively fast technique compared to the
steady-state method, made possible for the calculation of
slip-corrected permeability and Klinkenberg slip factor dur-
ing the single transient test [18]. Helium (He) was then passed
through the core sample, and the pressure difference between
the inlet and outlet was the main parameter to determine the
permeability.
After mixing, cement slurry was directly placed into a
curing chamber under elevated temperature and pressure.
The curing duration was designed into several periods of
around 5, 10, 16 and 24 h of hydration. After achieving
some curing periods, the samples were directly cored into
the 1 × 1-in. cylinder core plugs to fit the core holder of
permeability measurement device. All samples for each cur-
ing period were immersed in the acetone solution to cease
the cement hydration according to a solvent exchange proce-
dure as suggested by Zhang [7]. About 100–150 g of cement
plugs were rinsed in a 250-ml acetone in a sealable con-
tainer and shaken vigorously. The solvent was renewed reg-
ularly 2 to 3 times during the first 24 h and repeated about
once per day for the rest 2 days. After soaking in acetone,
the samples were oven dried at 80 ◦ C for 24 h and fol-
lowed by permeability measurement. Three measurements
were made for each sample condition to ensure data repro-
ducibility, and the result was finally calculated by averaging
these
measurements.
2.3 Compressive Strength Measurement
The development of compressive strength of all samples
for the 24 h of hydration was monitored using Ultrasonic
Cement Analyzer (UCA) whose performance was based on
the transmission characteristics of ultrasonic compressional
wave through cement slurry. It was done by measuring the
transit time by an analyzer and converting it to an apparent
compressive strength. The widespread use and acceptance of
the UCA, as a result, has made it to be acceptable as a recom-
mended practice for determining sonic strength in API RP
10 B [19]. This study, in turn, used the Model 200 UCA from
Cement Test Equipment© .
Soon after mixing, the sample was placed in the test cell
until the proper fill level was obtained using the slurry level
gage. Extra water, afterward, was added until reaching the
123
Arab J Sci Eng
Fig. 3 Bulk and pore solution conductivity at atmospheric conditions
as a function of hydration time
water filled line on the slurry level gage. The measurement
was performed for 24 h of hydration with the setting maxi-
mum pressure and temperature of 3,000 psi and 65 ◦ C sub-
jected to the same conditions as mentioned in Table 2.
3 Results and Discussions
3.1 Electrical Conductivity Profile at Early Hydration
A slight increase in bulk conductivity was observed at the
beginning of hydration for all water–cement ratios (Fig. 3).
This, as observed, was caused by the dissolution of ions of
cement into the mixing water. However, as the hydration of
cement progressed, the bulk conductivity decreased due to a
combination of physical effects; one was the reducing vol-
ume fraction of solution and the other was the increasing
tortuosity of pore connecting path [20]. In a similar period,
an increasing trend was observed for pore solution conduc-
tivity which was attributed to the effect of ion movement in
domination of Ca2+ , OH− , Na+ , K+ and SO4 2− [8]. In the
literature, values [6,9] vary between 0.6 and 15 S/m, but the
pore solution conductivity reported in this study was rela-
tively high, possibly due to the use of tap water instead of
distilled water for cement mixing. The former, on the other
hand, was electrically more conductive due to the existence
of a number of additional active ions, such as Cl− , Cu2+
and F− .
The ratio of bulk and pore solution conductivity gave nor-
malized conductivity (inverse formation factor) which was a
useful parameter in describing the connectivity of pore space.
One of the important points to mention was that the normal-
ization was required when comparing fresh and saltwater
slurries because the bulk conductivity of the latter was two
to three times higher than that of the former. Once the water–
cement ratio increased, a linear increase in normalized con-
ductivity was observed as shown in Fig. 4. A non-uniform
increase of these relations was due to different curing periods
at which in the early curing time (5 h) the effect of water–
Arab J Sci Eng

Table 3 Measured permeability of Class G cement at various curing

conditions
Sample no. Permeability (µm2 )
Hydration time (h)

5 10 16 24

1 0.025441 0.00252 0.00054 0.000032

2 0.01155 0.0026 0.00041 0.00018
3 0.00918 0.00188 0.00033 0.00007
4 0.0057 0.0013 0.00009 0.00002
5 0.03474 0.01074 0.0022 0.00097
6 0.0251 0.0071 0.00143 0.0007
7 0.01494 0.00337 0.00128 0.0002
Fig. 4 Relationship between water–cement ratio and normalized
8 0.06356 0.02297 0.0076 0.00314
conductivity as a function of hydration time
9 0.0407 0.0149 0.0057 0.0028
10 0.02319 0.00693 0.00154 0.00096
11 0.02259 0.00215 0.00029 0.000046

vated curing temperature and pressure were applied, a rapid

Fig. 5 Conductivity profile for w/c 0.4 mixture at elevated tempera-
ture and pressure
cement ratio was still dominant compared to that of the latter
periods (24 h).
Electrical conductivity of cement pore solution increased
with an increase in temperature, this observation was mainly
due to activated energy processes [21] that enhanced the
mobility of ions and collides more vigorously in the pore
solution. In this study, the conductivity for all samples at the
different curing temperatures was corrected using Hammond
and Robson correlation.
The conductivities of cement mixture with w/c 0.4 as a
function of hydration time at specific curing temperature and
pressure are plotted in Fig. 5. The trend of decreasing con-
ductivity, as shown by three different conductivity profiles in
the graph, was due to the effect of accelerated hydration and
as consequence the pore opening and connected pore become
diminished and tortuous.
3.2 Relationship Between Permeability and Normalized
Conductivity
The measured permeability for all samples at some specific
curing conditions is presented in Table 3. It can be seen that
permeability decreased as hydration proceeded. Once the ele-
decrease of permeability was observed by comparing it at
normal condition for similar hydration periods and water–
cement ratio. This was done due to the accelerated hydration
experienced by the cement mixture as temperature increased,
and at the same time the pore size was reduced due to the
applied elevated pressure. However, the elevated pressure
may affect the change of hydration rate, but not altering the
hydration of the product [22]. A similar trend of permeabil-
ity reduction was also observed when water-to-cement ratio
decreased; this was because of the limited pore connection
generated in the mixtures with small w/c ratio.
The result of measured permeability data was found to
be relatively comparable to the outcome of typical Class G
cement during transition period with larger values as gen-
erated in this study, which is about an order of magnitude
compared to that of in the literature [23]. This was possi-
bly due to the effect of oven-drying treatment that altered the
pore structure of cement samples contributing to the increase
of inter-connecting pores as suggested by [24].
The comparisons of permeability to normalized conduc-
tivity of individual curing sample in addition have provided
a reasonable agreement. Some typical results can be seen in
Fig. 6. In this case, all samples followed power law with the
least square error of approximately 0.952. A similar perfor-
mance was also observed for a variety of porous materials
[25]. However, as the physical properties of cement were
changing over time, its conductivity responses in the form
of normalization were also changing and it might be used
for monitoring any changes in permeability during cement
hydration as a function of time.
Since the aim was to generate a representative single cor-
relation based on these data, all the permeability data were
then plotted on the same graph. The resulting plot tended to

123

Fig. 6 Relationship of (a)
measured permeability and
normalized conductivity a
w/c = 0.5 at 40 ◦ C and
1,500 psi with R 2 0.975,
and b w/c = 0.3 at 65 ◦ C and
3,000 psi with R 2 0.904
Fig. 7 Generalized relationship of measured permeability and normal-
ized conductivity
be identical with the individual plot in the form of power
law as presented in Fig. 7. The least square error showed
a number of about 0.909. The correlation obtained has the
following form of equation.
 2.16
σb
k = 11.06 (3)
σo
It has been suggested that the microstructural parameter in the
form of characteristic length was sensitive to the permeability
profile. The permeability depended mainly on the connected
pores and pore length scale at which the former represented
normalized conductivity, and the latter corresponded to char-
acteristic length. The length scale could be generated from
Mercury Intrusion Porosimetry (MIP) experiment that cor-
responded to the pore diameter at the inflection point on a
cumulative volume versus pressure diagram [4]. However, in
this study the pore length of cement sample was calculated
using a simple particle expansion model [26] which was easy,
fast and comparably accurate. This model simulated cements
a regular cubic lattice in the form of a spherical particle that
had the same radius and growth, and then the pore size was
estimated to be a diameter of the pore between the edge to
edge. The resulting relationship between normalized conduc-
tivity and pore length scale complied to power law with the
least square error of about 0.910 as can be seen in Fig. 8 with
123
Arab J Sci Eng
(b)
Fig. 8 Generalized relationship of measured permeability and pore
diameter
the following correlation equation:
k = 2 × 10−7 (dc2 )2.326 (4)
3.3 Empirical Equation for Permeability Prediction
To have a comprehensive correlation for permeability pre-
diction that represented the pore diameter and normalized
conductivity, a multiple non-linear regression analysis was
performed by nominating permeability as the independent
variable, whilst normalized conductivity and pore diameter as
the dependent variables. A non-linear plot is shown in Fig. 9
and the following equation was obtained after the regression
analysis:
1
k= (σb /σ0 )1.15 (dc2 )1.25 (5)
828
The natural log symbols for each axis in Fig. 9 were meant
to provide an ease in calculating a non-linear form by taking
the natural log of the data, performing the multiple linear
regressions on the logged data, and then transforming the
resulting equation into the non-linear form by taking the nat-
ural exponential of both sides. The resulting Eq. (5) is similar
to that of proposed by Katz–Thompson equation with differ-
ent constant values.
Arab J Sci Eng

An interesting result from this regression was that it had a

Fig. 9 Relationship of measured permeability to normalized conduc-
tivity and pore diameter square at elevated pressure and temperature
Different from the Katz–Thompson constant that was
based on theoretical considerations by assuming local cylin-
drical pore geometry, the constant values in Eq. (5) were
empirically generated to provide the best fit to the experimen-
tal data. It was stated that an oven-drying procedure would
alter the pore structure [24] and, however, its constant values
in the Katz–Thompson equation did not reflect the true value
of critical pore diameter. As such, its constant values were
less likely to be accurate.
better value of least square error of about 0.973 compared to
that of single-dependent variable. A similar appearance was
also observed for other sample conditions with w/c 0.25 at
70 ◦ C and 3,000 psi and w/c 0.55 at 70 ◦ C and 3,000 psi.
The plot between permeability to normalized conductivity
and pore diameter had a least square error of about 0.948,
higher than those between permeability and normalized con-
ductivity of about 0.894 and between permeability and pore
diameter of about 0.874. This may indicate that a poor per-
meability result will be generated if only the contribution
of normalized conductivity is considered, and vice versa for
pore diameter.
A reasonably good comparison of permeability values
between measured and calculated data of new cement condi-
tions with w/c 0.25 at 70 ◦ C and 3,000 psi and w/c 0.55 at
70 ◦ C and 3,000 psi was observed as shown in Fig. 10. This
may confirm its applicability for other Class G cement sam-
ples at different water–cement ratios and curing conditions
for a given hydration period.
The comparison of Katz–Thompson equation with Eq. (5)
can be seen in Fig. 11. It was observed that, for samples
at later stages of about above 10 h of hydration, the Katz–
Thompson equation gave less accurate results compared to
the results given by the new proposed equation. This could
be due to much more complicated pore structure found in
cement compared to that of porous rocks. In addition, the
pore space of cement was subject to change as an effect of

Fig. 10 Comparison of (a) (b)

measured and calculated
permeability on new cement
samples a w/c = 0.25 at 70 ◦ C
and 3,000 psi and (b)
w/c = 0.55 at 70 ◦ C and
3,000 psi

Fig. 11 Comparison of the (a) (b)

Katz–Thompson model and
Eq. (5) for a cement sample
with w/c = 0.5 at 40 ◦ C and
1,500 psi and b cement sample
with w/c = 0.4 at 40 ◦ C and
1,500 psi

123
 Arab J Sci Eng

Table 4 Measured data of Class

G cement obtained from Nyame w/c Hydration time (days) σb (S/m) [5] σo (S/m) [5] dc (µm) [5] k (µm2 ) [27]
and Illston [27] and Christensen
et al. [5] 0.47 3 0.131 6.58 1 2.55E−05
7 0.111 5.53 0.38 3.06E−07
14 0.101 5.01 0.16 4.60E−08
28 0.0902 4.16 0.078 7.15E−09
0.71 3 0.265 2.19 2.2 1.02E−03
7 0.198 1.93 0.8 3.17E−05
14 0.157 1.45 0.3 3.06E−06
28 0.148 1.71 0.2 2.04E−07

curing hydration conditions and oven-drying treatment. By

that, these conditions may be improved using empirical con-
stant values in the Eq. (5) and better prediction of perme-
ability in cement system can be obtained as demonstrated in
Fig. 11.
Furthermore, although this equation was empirically gen-
erated within 24 h of hydration period, its applicability may
be extended to a longer hydration period. To confirm this,
the measured permeability (k) data of neat Class G cement
from Nyame and Illston [27] and impedance measurement
(σb and σo ) and pore diameter (dc ) with similar samples treat-
ment from Christensen et al. [5] were used. These data were
obtained within 3, 7, 14 and 28 days of hydration time as
presented in Table 4. Results of the calculated permeability Fig. 12 Comparison of permeability as a function of hydration time
using the proposed equation and the Katz–Thompson can be with permeability data obtained from Nyame and Illston [27] and nor-
malized conductivity and pore diameter data obtained from Christensen
seen in Fig. 12. A better agreement between experimental et al. [5]
permeability and Eq. (5) was observed compared to that of
Katz–Thompson equation. However, the general applicabil-
ity of this approach on cement at mature stages and cement
that contained additives should be further studied. more pronounce at elevated curing temperature and pressure
as an effect of acceleration mechanism of cement system.
It can be seen that the strength increased about 790 psi for
3.4 Permeability and Compressive Strength Relationship w/c 0.5 once the curing conditions increased from 25 ◦ C
and 14.7 psi to 65 ◦ C and 3,000 psi. For w/c 0.3, the strength
The variation of strength with hydration time for different increased of about 1,047 psi, which was higher than w/c 0.5.
curing temperatures and pressures is shown in Fig. 13. The This corresponded with the result of strength development
figure showed an increase of strength with time in linear between w/c 0.5 and 0.3 at which the strength for the latter
pattern. During 24 h of hydration, the increase of strength was was higher at similar hydration period.

Fig. 13 Compressive strength (a) (b)

development as a function of
hydration time at different
curing temperatures and
pressures for a w/c 0.5
and b w/c 0.3

123
Arab J Sci Eng
Fig. 14 Relationship between strength and permeability of oilwell
cement at different w/c
The relationship between compressive strength and per-
meability of oilwell cement is shown in Fig. 14. The rela-
tionship followed power law in nature for all w/c at differ-
ent curing conditions. The least square error (R 2 ) for w/c
0.5, 0.4 and 0.3 of about 0.88, 0.89 and 0.839 indicated a
strong relationship between permeability and strength of oil-
well cement. A point need to be mention was that at w/c 0.5
for 24 h hydration the permeability decreasing and strength
increasing were not as much as w/c 0.3 which made R 2
smaller. The results suggested an indication that electrical
properties may be used to predict the strength development
of oilwell cement under elevated conditions.
4 Conclusion
Pore diameter and electrical properties in the form of nor-
malized conductivity were important parameters in calcu-
lating permeability of cement sample. Once these parame-
ters were plotted, the resulting empirical formula follows
the Katz–Thompson equation with different constant values.
These constant values may reflect the alteration process of
pore structure during hydration. Although Eq. (5) was gen-
erated in periods up to 24 h of hydration, it has better pre-
diction of permeability until 28 days of hydration compared
to the prediction result from Katz–Thompson equation. This
approach can be used to identify simultaneously the potential
leakage or migration of fluids once the cement has been dis-
placed in the wellbore. Furthermore, a potential prediction of
strength development using electrical properties was reached
as a result of clear interrelationship between permeability and
strength.
Acknowledgments The authors express their gratitude for UTP finan-
cial assistance under internal URIF Project No. 22/2011.
References
1. Sabins, F.L.; Tinsley, J.M.; Sutton, D.L.: Transition time of cement
slurries between the fluid and set states. SPE J. 22(6), 875–882
(1982)
2. Rogers, M.J.; Dillenbeck, R.L.; Eid, R.N.: Transition time of
cement slurries, definition and misconception, related to annular
fluid migration. SPE Paper 90829 (2004)
3. Bahramian, Y.; Movahedinia, A.: Prediction of slurry permeability,
k, using static gel strength (SGS), fluid loss value, and particle size
distribution. SPE Paper 106983 (2007)
4. Nettelblad, B.; Ahlen, B.; Niklasson, G.A.; Holt, R.M.: Approx-
imate determination of surface conductivity in porous media. J.
Phys. D Appl. Phys. 28(10), 2037–2045 (1995)
5. Christensen, B.J.; Mason, T.O.; Jennings, H.M.: Comparison
of measured and calculated permeabilities for hardened cement
pastes. Cem. Concr. Res. 26(9), 1325–1334 (1996)
6. Shane, J.D.: Electrical conductivity and transport properties of
cement based-materials measured by impedance spectroscopy.
Ph.D. Thesis, Northwestern University (2010)
7. Zhang, J.: Microstructure study of cementitious materials using
resistivity measurement. Ph.D. Thesis, The Hong Kong University
of Science and Technology (2008)
8. Backe, K.R.; Lile, O.B.; Lyomov, S.K.: Characterizing curing
cement slurries by electrical conductivity. SPE paper 74694 (2001)
9. McCarter, W.J.; Puyrigaud, P.: Water content assessment of fresh
concrete. Proc. Inst. Civil Eng. Struct. Build. 110(4), 417–425
(1995)
10. Katz, A.J.; Thompson, A.H.: Prediction of rock electrical con-
ductivity from mercury injection measurements. J. Geophys. Res.
92(B1), 599–607 (1987)
11. Johnson, D.L.; Koplik, J.; Schwartz, L.M.: New pore-size para-
meter characterizing transport in porous media. Phys. Rev. Lett.
57(20), 2564–2567 (1986)
12. El-Dieb, A.S.; Hooton, R.D.: Evaluation of the Katz–Thompson
model for estimating the water permeability of cement-based mate-
rials from mercury intrusion porosimetry data. Cem. Concr. Res.
24(3), 443–455 (1994)
13. Sumanasooriya, M.S.; Neithalath, N.: Pore structure features of
pervious concretes proportioned for desired porosities and their
performance prediction. Cem. Concr. Compos. 33(8), 778–787
(2011)
14. API Specification 10A.: Specification for Cements and Materi-
als for Well Cementing, 23rd edn. American Petroleum Institute
(2002)
15. Autolab-500 Petronas manual book. New England Research Inc
(2007)
16. Elahi, A.; Khan, Q.U.Z.; Barbhuiya, S.A.; Basheer, P.A.M.; Rus-
sell, M.I.: Hydration characteristics of cement paste containing
supplementary cementitious materials. Arab. J. Sci. Eng. 37(3),
535–544 (2012)
17. Hammond, E.; Robson, T.D.: Comparison of electrical properties
of various cements and concretes. Engineer 199, 78–80 (1955)
18. API RP 40.: Recommended Practices for Core Analysis, 2nd edn.
American Petroleum Institute (1998)
19. API RP 10B-2.: Recommended Practices for Testing Well
Cements, 1st edn. American Petroleum Institute (2005)
20. Lin, F.; Meyer, C.: Hydration kinetics modeling of Portland cement
considering the effects of curing temperature and applied pressure.
Cem. Concr. Res. 39(4), 255–265 (2009)
21. Arrhenius, S.: Z. Phys. Chem. 4, 226 (1889). Translated into Eng-
lish in Selected Readings in Chemical Kinetics, edited by M.H.
Back and K.J. Laidler, Oxford, NY (1967)
123

22. Scherer, G.W.; Funkhouser, G.P.; Peethamparan, S.: Effect of pres-
sure on early hydration of class H and white cement. Cem. Concr.
Res. 40(6), 845–850 (2010)
23. Appleby, S.; Wilson, A.: Permeability and suction in setting
cement. Chem. Eng. Sci. 51(2), 251–267 (1996)
24. Galle, C.: Effect of drying on cement-based materials pore struc-
ture as identified by mercury intrusion porosimetry: a comparative
study between oven, vacuum, and freeze-drying. Cem. Concr. Res.
31(10), 1467–1477 (2001)
25. Torquato, S.: Random Heterogeneous Materials; Microstructure
and Macroscopic Properties. Springer, New York (2002)
123
Arab J Sci Eng
26. Ridha, S.; Irawan, S.; Ariwahjoedi, B.: Microstructure parameter
estimation in permeability calculation of well cement during early
hydration by a simple particle expansion model. In: National Post-
graduate Conference (NPC), pp. 1–5 (2011)
27. Nyame, B.K.; Illston, J.M.: Relationships between permeability
and pore structure of hardened cement paste. Mag. Concr. Res.
33(116), 139–146 (1981)