Effective thermal conductivity of Mexican geothermal cementing systems in the temperature range from 28°C to 200°C

The effective thermal conductivity of six Mexican cementing systems used in geothermal well completion were experimentally determined in the temperature range from 28 degreesC to 200 degreesC. Measurements were carried using the classical line-source method. The experimental system was calibrated by measuring the thermal conductivity of standard fused quartz samples. An experimental procedure for preparation of the cement specimen samples was also developed. Results show that thermal conductivity depends on the particular cement system and tends to increase with temperature for most cement systems. Experimental uncertainties of thermal conductivity were less than 4%. From this experimental work, new empirical equations for correlating thermal conductivity with temperature for geothermal cementing samples were obtained. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.