@article {219, title = {Reactive elastomeric composites: When rubber meets cement}, journal = {Composites Science and Technology}, volume = {75}, year = {2013}, month = {Feb-11-2013}, pages = {77 - 83}, abstract = {

This paper describes a novel reactive composite material comprised of hydrogenated nitrile butadiene rubber (HNBR) compounded with slag cement. The composite initially looks and behaves like rubber, but when exposed to water it simultaneously swells and stiffens due to hydration of the cement component. The material eventually reaches a stiffness that is intermediate between that of HNBR and hydrated cement, while maintaining a relatively large ductility that is more characteristic of rubber. This behavior, which is ideal for sealing applications, differentiates this material from conventional swellable materials that become less stiff upon swelling. The development of this new type of material was motivated by the requirements of oilfield zonal isolation, where alternatives to cement are needed for some challenging sealing applications. A mechanism for the swelling and stiffening of the reactive composite is proposed: water diffuses into the HNBR matrix and is converted to bound water through hydration reactions with the cement, causing the effective solid filler content of the composite to increase. A model is proposed that treats the composite as a cellular solid with a continuous filler phase (hydrated cement). This model is able to reproduce the observed increase in the elastic modulus with time during exposure to water.

Elastic modulus ratio (current/initial) as a function of swelling, for HNBR ...

Kinetics of swelling of all three materials during approximately 1month of ...

Evolution of the elastic modulus of all three materials during approximately ...

Tensile stress{\textendash}strain curves for HNBR-cement (61{\textendash}39\% by volume, pre-exposure) ...

Schematic of the hydration process occurring inside the HNBR-cement material, ...

SEM images of HNBR-cement material before (left) and after (right) hydration. It ...

}, issn = {02663538}, doi = {10.1016/j.compscitech.2012.11.012}, author = {Robisson, Agathe and Sudeep Maheshwar and Musso, Simone and Jeffrey J. Thomas and Auzerais, Francois M. and Han, Dingzhi and Qu, Meng and Franz-Josef Ulm} }