Engineering of high specific strength and low thermal conductivity cementitious composites with hollow glass microspheres for high-temperature high-pressure applications

Lightweight cement-based composites with high specific strength and low thermal conductivity are highly sought in the energy and construction industries. These characteristics are important in designing cement liners for high-temperature, high-pressure (HTHP) wells, in addition to those operating in permafrost. Similar attributes are also desirable in designing cementitious composites for energy efficient building envelopes. This work reports the results of an experimental campaign focused on engineering lightweight cementitious composites with hollow glass microspheres. It is demonstrated that the chemical stability of microspheres at HTHP conditions can be directly controlled by modulating the specific surface area and dissolution rate constant of supplementary siliceous additives. In addition to the stabilizing effect, such additives lead to the pore structure refinement and the enhancement of interfacial transition zone (ITZ). Introduced lightweight composites are capable of delivering significant load bearing capacity when normally cured, which is greatly increased by hydrothermal curing. Such high specific strength composites possess thermal conductivity below 0.3 W/mK at the oven dry density <1000 kg/m(3) and cement dosage <400 kg/m(3). This class of cementitious composites bears potential to enhance zonal insulation and well integrity, as well as increasing energy efficiency of building envelopes.