A model for foamed cementing of oil and gas wells

We present a two-dimensional model of the primary cementing process for foamed cement slurries. Foamed cement slurries have a number of claimed advantages, but also have a pressure-dependent density and rheology. The rheology is hard to quantify fully over all ranges of foam quality, which compromises the accuracy of models. The density variation is due to expansion/compression of the gas phase along the well, caused by variations in the static pressure. We show that in the absence of careful control, buoyancy-driven instabilities can result in the annulus, as the foamed slurry expands and the density drops below that of the displaced drilling mud. These instabilities appear to be of a classic porous media/Hele-Shaw cell fingering type, triggered by a threshold unstable density difference. We show that these instabilities are amplified by wellbore eccentricity, occurring lower in the well than in a concentric annulus. Our results question the safe usage of foamed cements in primary cementing.