An empirical model for calculating uniaxial compressive strength of oil well cements from ultrasonic pulse transit time measurements

Thirty-five cement samples were tested in an Ultrasonic Cement Analyzer (UCA) at varying curing conditions and for varying curing times, and then uniaxially compressed to failure in a hydraulic press. An attempt was made, using the ultrasonic transit time data measured with a UCA and the uniaxial compressive strength data measured using a hydraulic press, to derive an empirical model capable of accurately predicting uniaxial compressive strength from the ultrasonic transit time. Using the Levenberg-Marquardt algorithm, the experimental data was fit to two models. In addition to the transit time dependence, the first model presented incorporates a term that accounts for the curing time while the second model contains terms that account for both the curing time and cement composition. The results obtained illustrate the complexity of deriving a correlation with general applicability to all well cements. The best performing model based on both curve fit error and prediction performance for the samples tested was the model that accounted only for the curing time dependency of the cement strength development rate in addition to the measured transit time, indicating that the transit time measurement history is sufficient as a tool for characterizing well cement strength development.