Rheological Behaviors of Fresh Cement Pastes with Polycarboxylate Superplasticizer

The rheologicalbehaviors of fresh cement paste with polycarboxylate superplasticizer were systematically investigated.Influentialfactors including superplasticizer to cement ratio（Sp/C）,water to cement ratio（w/c）,temperature,and time were discussed.Fresh cement pastes with Sp/Cs in the range of 0 to 2.0% and varied W/Cs from 0.25 to 0.5 were prepared and tested at 0,20 and 40 °C,respectively.Flowability and rheologicaltests on cement pastes were conducted to characterize the development of the rheologicalbehavior of fresh cement pastes over time.The exprimentalresults indicate that the initialflowability and flowability retention over shelf time increase with the growth in superplasticizer dosage due to the plasticizing effect and retardation effect of superplasticizer.Higher temperature usually leads to a sharper drop in initialflowability and flowability retention.However,for the cement paste with high Sp/C or w/c,the flowability is slightly affected by temperature.Yield stress and plastic viscosity show similar variation trends to the flowability under the abovementioned influentialfactors at low Sp/C.In the case of high Sp/C,yield stress and plastic viscosity start to decline over shelf time and the decreasing rate descends at elevated temperature.Moreover,two equations to roughly predict yield stress and plastic viscosity of the fresh cement pastes incorporating Sp/C,w/c,temperature and time are developed on the basis of the existing models,in which experimentalconstants can be extracted from a database created by the rheologicaltest results.

The use of grass as an environmentally friendly additive in water-based drilling fluids

Excellent drilling fluid techniques are one of the significant guaranteed measures to insure safety, qual- ity, efficiency, and speediness of drilling operations. Dril- ling fluids are generally discarded after the completion of drilling operations and become waste, which can have a large negative impact on the environment. Drilling mate- rials and additives together with drill cuttings, oil, and water constitute waste drilling fluids, which ultimately are dumped onto soil, surface water, groundwater, and air. Environmental pollution is found to be a serious threat while drilling complex wells or high-temperature deep wells as these types of wells involve the use of oil-based drilling fluid systems and high-performance water-based drilling fluid systems. The preservation of the environment on a global level is now important as various organizations have set up initiatives to drive the usage of toxic chemicals as drilling fluid additives. This paper presents an approach where grass is introduced as a sustainable drilling fluid additive with no environmental problems. Simple water- based drilling fluids were formulated using bentonite, powdered grass, and water to analyze the rheological and filtration characteristics of the new drilling fluid. A particle size distribution test was conducted to determine the par- ticle size of the grass sample by the sieve analysis method. Experiments were conducted on grass samples of 300, 90, and 35 μm to study the characteristics and behavior of the newly developed drilling fluid at room temperature. The results show that grass samples with varying particle sizes and concentrations may improve the viscosity, gel strength, and filtration of the bentonite drilling fluid. These obser- vations recommend the use of grass as a rheological modifier, filtration control agent, and pH control agent to substitute toxic materials from drilling fluids.