Recension of boron nitride phase diagram based on high-pressure and high-temperature experiments

Cubic boron nitride and hexagonal boron nitride are the two predominant crystalline structures of boron nitride.They can interconvert under varying pressure and temperature conditions.However,this transformation requires overcoming significant potential barriers in dynamics,which poses great difficulty in determining the c-BN/h-BN phase boundary.This study used high-pressure in situ differential thermal measurements to ascertain the temperature of h-BN/c-BN conversion within the commonly used pressure range(3-6 GPa)for the industrial synthesis of c-BN to constrain the P-T phase boundary of h-BN/c-BN in the pressure-temperature range as much as possible.Based on the analysis of the experimental data,it is determined that the relationship between pressure and temperature conforms to the following equation:P=a+1/bT.Here,P denotes the pressure(GPa)and T is the temperature(K).The coefficients are a=-3.8±0.8 GPa and b=229.8±17.1 GPa/K.These findings call into question existing high-pressure and high-temperature phase diagrams of boron nitride,which seem to overstate the phase boundary temperature between c-BN and h-BN.The BN phase diagram obtained from this study can provide critical temperature and pressure condition guidance for the industrial synthesis of c-BN,thus optimizing synthesis efficiency and product performance.

Various admixtures to mitigate the long-term strength retrogression of Portland cement cured under high pressure and high temperature conditions

In order to investigate the problem of long-term strength retrogression in oil well cement systems exposed to high pressure and high temperature(HPHT)curing conditions,various influencing factors,including cement sources,particle sizes of silica flour,and additions of silica fume,alumina,colloidal iron oxide and nano-graphene,were investigated.To simulate the environment of cementing geothermal wells and deep wells,cement slurries were directly cured at 50 MPa and 200?C.Mineral compositions(as determined by X-ray diffraction Rietveld refinement),water permeability,compressive strength and Young’s modulus were used to evaluate the qualities of the set cement.Short-term curing(2e30 d)test results indicated that the adoption of 6 m m ultrafine crystalline silica played the most important role in stabilizing the mechanical properties of oil well cement systems,while the addition of silica fume had a detrimental effect on strength stability.Long-term curing(2e180 d)test results indicated that nano-graphene could stabilize the Young’s modulus of oil well cement systems.However,none of the ad-mixtures studied here can completely prevent the strength retrogression phenomenon due to their inability to stop the conversion of amorphous to crystalline phases.

A Comprehensive Method for the Optimization of Cement Slurry and to Avoid Air Channeling in High Temperature and High-Pressure Conditions

Air channeling in the annulus between the casing and the cement sheath and/or between the cement sheath and formation is the main factor affecting the safe operation of natural gas wells at high temperatures and pressures.Prevention of this problem requires,in general,excellent anti-channeling performances of the cement sheath.Three methods to predict such anti-channeling performances are proposed here,which use the weightless pressure of cement slurry,the permeability of cement stone and the volume expansion rate of cement sheath as input parameters.Guided by this approach,the anti-channeling performances of the cement slurry are evaluated by means of indoor experiments,and the cement slurry is optimized accordingly.The results show that the dangerous transition time of the cement slurry with optimized dosage of admixture is only 76 min,the permeability of cement stone is 0.005 md,the volume shrinkage at final setting is only 0.72%,and the anti-channeling performances are therefore maximized.The effective utilization of the optimized cement slurry in some representative wells(LD10–1-A1 and LD10–1-A2 in LD10–1 gas field)is also discussed.

High-pressure and high-temperature sintering of pure cubic silicon carbide:A study on stress-strain and densification

Silicon carbide(SiC)is a high-performance structural ceramic material with excellent comprehensive properties,and is unmatched by metals and other structural materials.In this paper,raw SiC powder with an average grain size of 5μm was sintered by an isothermal-compression process at 5.0 GPa and 1500?C;the maximum hardness of the sintered samples was31.3 GPa.Subsequently,scanning electron microscopy was used to observe the microscopic morphology of the recovered SiC samples treated in a temperature and extended pressure range of 0-1500?C and 0-16.0 GPa,respectively.Defects and plastic deformation in the SiC grains were further analyzed by transmission electron microscopy.Further,high-pressure in situ synchrotron radiation x-ray diffraction was used to study the intergranular stress distribution and yield strength under non-hydrostatic compression.This study provides a new viewpoint for the sintering of pure phase micron-sized SiC particles.

Mechanical Analysis of a Multi-Test String in High-Temperature and High-Pressure Deep Wells

The mechanical behavior of the test string in deep wells is generally relatively complex as a result of the high temperature and high pressure,severe dogleg and buckling effects,which in some circumstances can even lead to string failure.Traditional computational methods for the analysis of these behaviors are often inaccurate.For this reason,here a more accurate mechanical model of the test string is introduced by considering variables such as temperature,pressure,wellbore trajectory,and buckling,as well as combining them with the deformation and string constraint conditions brought in by changes in temperature and pressure during the tripping,setting,and test operations.The model is validated by applying it to a specific high-pressure gas well(located in Northeast Sichuan).

Modeling viscosity of methane,nitrogen,and hydrocarbon gas mixtures at ultra-high pressures and temperatures using group method of data handling and gene expression programming techniques

Accurate gas viscosity determination is an important issue in the oil and gas industries.Experimental approaches for gas viscosity measurement are timeconsuming,expensive and hardly possible at high pressures and high temperatures(HPHT).In this study,a number of correlations were developed to estimate gas viscosity by the use of group method of data handling(GMDH)type neural network and gene expression programming(GEP)techniques using a large data set containing more than 3000 experimental data points for methane,nitrogen,and hydrocarbon gas mixtures.It is worth mentioning that unlike many of viscosity correlations,the proposed ones in this study could compute gas viscosity at pressures ranging between 34 and 172 MPa and temperatures between 310 and 1300 K.Also,a comparison was performed between the results of these established models and the results of ten wellknown models reported in the literature.Average absolute relative errors of GMDH models were obtained 4.23%,0.64%,and 0.61%for hydrocarbon gas mixtures,methane,and nitrogen,respectively.In addition,graphical analyses indicate that the GMDH can predict gas viscosity with higher accuracy than GEP at HPHT conditions.Also,using leverage technique,valid,suspected and outlier data points were determined.Finally,trends of gas viscosity models at different conditions were evaluated.

Fretting Wear Characteristics of Nuclear Fuel Cladding in High-Temperature Pressurized Water

In pressurized water reactor(PWR),fretting wear is one of the main causes of fuel assembly failure.Moreover,the operation condition of cladding is complex and harsh.A unique fretting damage test equipment was developed and tested to simulate the fretting damage evolution process of cladding in the PWR environment.It can simulate the fretting wear experiment of PWR under different temperatures(maximum temperature is 350℃),displacement amplitude,vibration frequency,and normal force.The fretting wear behavior of Zr-4 alloy under different temperature environments was tested.In addition,the evolution of wear scar morphology,profile,and wear volume was studied using an optical microscope(OM),scanning electron microscopy(SEM),and a 3D white light interferometer.Results show that higher water temperature evidently decreased the cladding wear volume,the wear mechanism of Zr-4 cladding changed from abrasive wear to adhesive wear and the formation of an oxide layer on the wear scar reduced the wear volume and maximum wear depth.

Porosity, permeability and rock mechanics of Lower Silurian Longmaxi Formation deep shale under temperature-pressure coupling in the Sichuan Basin, SW China

To investigate the porosity, permeability and rock mechanics of deep shale under temperature-pressure coupling, we selected the core samples of deep shale from the Lower Silurian Longmaxi Formation in the Weirong and Yongchuan areas of the Sichuan Basin for porosity and permeability experiments and a triaxial compression and sound wave integration experiment at the maximum temperature and pressure of 120 ℃ and 70 MPa. The results show that the microscopic porosity and permeability change and the macroscopic rock deformation are mutually constrained, both showing the trend of steep and then gentle variation. At the maximum temperature and pressure, the porosity reduces by 34%–71%, and the permeability decreases by 85%–97%. With the rising temperature and pressure, deep shale undergoes plastic deformation in which organic pores and clay mineral pores are compressed and microfractures are closed, and elastic deformation in which brittle mineral pores and rock skeleton particles are compacted. Compared with previous experiments under high confining pressure and normal temperature,the experiment under high temperature and high pressure coupling reveals the effect of high temperature on stress sensitivity of porosity and permeability. High temperature can increase the plasticity of the rock, intensify the compression of pores due to high confining pressure, and induce thermal stress between the rock skeleton particles, allowing the reopening of shale bedding or the creation of new fractures along weak planes such as bedding, which inhibits the decrease of permeability with the increase of temperature and confining pressure. Compared with the triaxial mechanical experiment at normal temperature, the triaxial compression experiment at high temperature and high pressure demonstrates that the compressive strength and peak strain of deep shale increase significantly due to the coupling of temperature and pressure. The compressive strength is up to 435 MPa and the peak strain exceeds 2%, indicating that high temperature is not conducive to fracture initiation and expansion by increasing rock plasticity. Lithofacies and mineral composition have great impacts on the porosity, permeability and rock mechanics of deep shale. Shales with different lithologies are different in the difficulty and extent of brittle failure. The stress-strain characteristics of rocks under actual geological conditions are key support to the optimization of reservoir stimulation program.

High temperature and high pressure rheological properties of high-density water-based drilling fluids for deep wells

To maintain tight control over rheological properties of high-density water-based drilling fluids, it is essential to understand the factors influencing the theology of water-based drilling fluids. This paper examines temperature effects on the rheological properties of two types of high-density water-based drilling fluids （fresh water-based and brine-based） under high temperature and high pressure （HTHP） with a Fann 50SL rheometer. On the basis of the water-based drilling fluid systems formulated in laboratory, this paper mainly describes the influences of different types and concentration of clay, the content of a colloid stabilizer named GHJ-1 and fluid density on the rheological parameters such as viscosity and shear stress. In addition, the effects of aging temperature and aging time of the drilling fluid on these parameters were also examined. Clay content and proportions for different densities of brine-based fluids were recommended to effectively regulate the rheological properties. Four theological models, the Bingham, power law, Casson and H-B models, were employed to fit the rheological parameters. It turns out that the H-B model was the best one to describe the rheological properties of the high-density drilling fluid under HTHP conditions and power law model produced the worst fit. In addition, a new mathematical model that describes the apparent viscosity as a function of temperature and pressure was established and has been applied on site.

A new and reliable model for predicting methane viscosity at high pressures and high temperatures

In recent years, there has been an increase of interest in the flow of gases at relatively high pressures and high temperatures. Hydrodynamic calculation of the energy losses in the flow of gases in conduits, as well as through the porous media constituting natural petroleum reservoirs, requires knowledge of the viscosity of the fluid at the pressure and temperature involved. Although there are numerous publications concerning the viscosity of methane at atmospheric pressure, there appears to be little information available relating to the effect of pressure and temperature upon the viscosity. A survey of the literature reveals that the disagreements between published data on the viscosity of methane are common and that most investigations have been conducted over restricted temperature and pressure ranges. Experimental viscosity data for methane are presented for temperatures from 320 to 400 K and pressures from 3000 to 140000 kPa by using falling body viscometer. A summary is given to evaluate the available data for methane, and a comparison is presented for that data common to the experimental range reported in this paper. A new and reliable correlation for methane gas viscosity is presented. Predicted values are given for temperatures up to 400 K and pressures up to 140000 kPa with Average Absolute Percent Relative Error （EABS） of 0.794.

Pressure Prediction for High-Temperature and High-Pressure Formation and Its Application to Drilling in the Northern South China Sea

There are plentiful potential hydrocarbon resources in the Yinggehai and Qiongdongnan basins in the northern South China Sea. However, the special petrol-geological condition with high formation temperature and pressure greatly blocked hydrocarbon exploration. The conventional means of drills, including methods in the prediction and monitoring of underground strata pressure, can no longer meet the requirements in this area. The China National Offshore Oil Corporation has allocated one well with a designed depth of 3200 m and pressure coefficient of 2.3 in the Yinggehai Basin (called test well in the paper) in order to find gas reservoirs in middle-deep section in the Miocene Huangliu and Meishan formations at the depth below 3000 m. Therefore, combined with the '863' national high-tech project, the authors analyzed the distribution of overpressure in the Yinggehai and Qiongdongnan basins, and set up a series of key technologies and methods to predict and monitor formation pressure, and then apply the results to pressure prediction of the test well. Because of the exact pressure prediction before and during drilling, associated procedure design of casing and their allocation in test well has been ensured to be more rational. This well is successfully drilled to the depth of 3485 m (nearly 300 m deeper than the designed depth) under the formation pressure about 2.3 SG (EMW), which indicate that a new step in the technology of drilling in higher temperature and pressure has been reached in the China National Offshore Oil Corporation.

Experimental Study on the Electrical Conductivity of Orthopyroxene at High Temperature and High Pressure under Different Oxygen Fugacities

At presure 1.0-4.0 GPa and temperature 1073-1423 K and under oxygen partial pressure conditions, a YJ-3000t multi-anvil solid high-pressure apparatus and Sarltron-1260 Impedance/Gain-Phase analyzer were employed to conduct an in-situ measurement of the electrical conductivity of orthopyroxene. The buffering reagents consist of Ni＋NiO, Fe＋Fe3O4, Fe＋FeO and Mo＋MoO2 in order to control the environmental oxygen fugacity. Experimental results made clear that： （1） within the measuring frequency range from 10-1 to 106 Hz, the complex impedance （R） is of intensive dependence on the frequency; （2） The electrical conductivity （a） tends to increase along to the rise of temperature （T）, and Log a vs. 1/ T fit the Arrenhius linear relations; （3） Under the control of oxygen buffer Fe＋Fe3O4, with the rise of pressure, the activation enthalpy tends to increase whereas the electrical conductivity tends to decrease. The activation energy and activation volume of the main current carders of orthopyroxene have been obtained, which are （1.715±0.035） eV and （0.03±0.01） cm^3/mol, respectively; （4） Under given pressure and temperature, the electrical conductivity tends to increase with increasing oxygen fugacity, while under given pressure the activation enthalpy tends to decrease with increasing oxygen fugacity; and （5） The sample＇s small polarons mechanism has provided a reasonable explanations to the conduction behavior at high temperature and high pressure.

Rheological properties of oil-based drilling fluids at high temperature and high pressure

The rheological properties of two kinds of oil-based drilling fluids with typically composition were studied at pressures up to 138 MPa and temperatures up to 204 ℃ using the RheoChan 7400 Rheometer.The experimental results show that the apparent viscosity,plastic viscosity and yield point decrease with the increase of temperature,and increase with the increase of pressure.The effect of pressure on the apparent viscosity,plastic viscosity and yield point is considerable at ambient temperature.However,this effect gradually reduces with the increase of temperature.The major factor influencing the rheological properties of oil-based drilling fluids is temperature instead of pressure in the deep sections of oil wells.On the basis of numerous experiments,the model for predict the apparent viscosity,plastic viscosity and yield point of oil-based drilling fluids at high temperature and pressure was established using the method of regressive analysis.It is confirmed that the calculated data are in good agreement with the measured data,and the correlation coefficients are more than 0.98.The model is convenient for use and suitable for the application in drilling operations.

Growth and annealing study of hydrogen-doped single diamond crystals under high pressure and high temperature

A series of diamond crystals doped with hydrogen is successfully synthesized using LiH as the hydrogen source in a catalyst-carbon system at a pressure of 6.0 GPa and temperature ranging from 1255 C to 1350 C.It is shown that the high temperature plays a key role in the incorporation of hydrogen atoms during diamond crystallization.Fourier transform infrared micro-spectroscopy reveals that most of the hydrogen atoms in the synthesized diamond are incorporated into the crystal structure as sp 3-CH 2-symmetric（2850 cm-1） and sp 3 CH 2-antisymmetric vibrations（2920 cm-1）.The intensities of these peaks increase gradually with an increase in the content of the hydrogen source in the catalyst.The incorporation of hydrogen impurity leads to a significant shift towards higher frequencies of the Raman peak from 1332.06 cm-1 to 1333.05 cm-1 and gives rise to some compressive stress in the diamond crystal lattice.Furthermore,hydrogen to carbon bonds are evident in the annealed diamond,indicating that the bonds that remain throughout the annealing process and the vibration frequencies centred at 2850 and 2920 cm-1 have no observable shift.Therefore,we suggest that the sp 3 C-H bond is rather stable in diamond crystals.

Gas-Liquid Mass Transfer in a Slurry Bubble Column Reactor under High Temperature and High Pressure

The gas-liquid mass transfer of H2 and CO in a high temperature and high-pressure three-phase slurry bubble column reactor is studied. The gas-liquid volumetric mass transfer coefficients kLa are obtained by measuring the dissolution rate of H2 and CO. The influences of the main operation conditions, such as temperature, pressure, superficial gas velocity and solid concentration, are studied systematically. Two empirical correlations are proposed to predict kLa values for H2 and CO in liquid paraffin/solid particles slurry bubble column reactors.

Effects of a carbon convection field on large diamond growth under high-pressure high-temperature conditions

Large diamond crystals were successfully synthesized by a FeNi C system using the temperature gradient method under high-pressure high-temperature conditions. The assembly of the growth cell was improved and the growth process of diamond was investigated. Effects of the symmetry of the carbon convection field around the growing diamond crystal were investigated systematically by adjusting the position of the seed crystal in the melted catalyst/solvent. The results indicate that the morphologies and metal inclusion distributions of the synthetic diamond crystals vary obviously in both symmetric and non-symmetric carbon convection fields with temperature. Moreover, the finite element method was applied to analyze the carbon convection mode of the melted catalyst/solvent around the diamond crystal. This work is helpful for understanding the growth mechanism of diamond.

Effects of FeNi-phosphorus-carbon system on crystal growth of diamond under high pressure and high temperature conditions

This paper reports the crystal growth of diamond from the Fe Ni–Carbon system with additive phosphorus at high pressures and high temperatures of 5.4–5.8 GPa and 1280–1360°C. Attributed to the presence of additive phosphorus,the pressure and temperature condition, morphology, and color of diamond crystals change obviously. The pressure and temperature condition of diamond growth increases evidently with the increase of additive phosphorus content and results in the moving up of the V-shape region. The surfaces of the diamonds also become coarse as the additive phosphorus added in the growth system. Raman spectra indicate that diamonds grown from the Fe Ni-phosphorus-carbon system have more crystal defects and impurities. This work provides a new way to enrich the doping of diamond and improve the experimental exploration for future material applications.

Polycrystalline cubic boron nitride prepared with cubic-hexagonal boron nitride under high pressure and high temperature

Polycrystalline cubic boron nitride(Pc BN)compacts,using the mixture of submicron cubic boron nitride(c BN)powder and hexagonal BN(h BN)powder as starting materials,were sintered at pressures of 6.5–10.0 GPa and temperature of1750℃without additives.In this paper,the sintering behavior and mechanical properties of samples were investigated.The XRD patterns of samples reveal that single cubic phase was observed when the sintering pressure exceeded 7.5 GPa and h BN contents ranged from 20 vol.%to 24 vol.%,which is ascribed to like-internal pressure generated at grain-to-grain contact under high pressure.Transmission electron microscopy(TEM)analysis shows that after high pressure and high temperature(HPHT)treatments,the submicron c BN grains abounded with high-density nanotwins and stacking faults,and this contributed to the outstanding mechanical properties of Pc BN.The pure bulk Pc BN that was obtained at 7.7 GPa/1750℃possessed the outstanding properties,including a high Vickers hardness(~61.5 GPa),thermal stability(~1290℃in air),and high density(~3.46 g/cm^(3)).

Prospect of HDR geothermal energy exploitation in Yangbajing,Tibet,China,and experimental investigation of granite under high temperature and high pressure

Hot dry rock （HDR） geothermal energy, almost inexhaustible green energy, was first put forward in the 1970s. The development and testing of HDR geothermal energy are well reported in USA, Japan, UK, France and other countries or regions. In this paper, the geological characters of Yangbajing basin were first analyzed, including the continental dynamic environments to form HDR geothermal fields in Tibet, the tectonic characteristics of south slope of Nyainqentanglha and Dangxiong-Yangbajing basin, and the in-situ stresses based on the investigations conducted, and then the site-specific mining scheme of HDR geothermal resources was proposed. For the potential development of HDR geothermal energy, a series of experiments were conducted on large-scale granite samples, 200 mm in diameter and 400 mm in length, at high temperature and high triaxial pressure for cutting fragmentation and borehole stability. For the borehole stability test, a hole of 40 mm in diameter and 400 mm in length was aforehand drilled in the prepared intact granite sample. The results indicate that the cutting velocity obviously increases with temperature when bit pressure is over a certain value, while the unit rock-breaking energy consumption decreases and the rock-breaking efficiency increases with temperature at the triaxial pressure of 100 MPa. The critical temperature and pressure that can result in intensive damage to granite are 400-500℃ and 100-125 MPa, respectively.

P-Wave Velocity in Rocks of Dabieshan, China at High Pressure and High Temperature: Constraints for Composition of Lower Crust and Crust-Mantle Recycling

P-wave velocities in the rocks of Dabieshan, central China were measured at pressures up to 5.0 GPa and temperatures up to 1 300℃. The ultrahigh pressure eclogites have the highest density and P-wave velocity (Vp) and lower anisotropy. Pressure derivatives of the eclogites range from 0. 22 to 0. 33 km. s-1 GPa-1. Average temperature derivative of the eclogites is - 3. 41×10-4 km. s-1. °C -1. The density and VP of the eclogites imply that there will be two united possibilities related to crust-mantle recycling after the eclogite formed in the deep lithosphere. One is that some eclogites in the deep lithosphere were detached and sunk into deeper mantle due to their denser density. Another is that some eclogites returned to the crust and exposed to the surface.Small amounts (<12%) of eclogites may be still exist in the deep crust beneath Dabieshan based on our calculation.