Petroleum Science and Technology, 24:12671282, 2006

Copyright Taylor & Francis Group, LLC

ISSN: 1091-6466 print/1532-2459 online
DOI: 10.1081/LFT-200056771

A Novel Oil Well Cementing Technology

Using Natural Fibers
M. M. Al-Darbi
Department of Materials Engineering, The University of British Columbia,
Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

N. O. Saeed, L. O. Ajijolaiya, and M. R. Islam

Department of Civil Engineering, Dalhousie University, Halifax,
Nova Scotia, Canada

Abstract: In many industrial processes, the pipeline systems are lined with a protective layer of cement mortar. In petroleum wells, cement slurry is placed in a wellbore
to be hardened into an impermeable mass that seals the annulus from fluid flow and
protects the casing from corrosion for the life of the well. When uniform linings of
neat cement fail in tension, one or more large cracks are formed and the pressurizing
fluid or mud easily flows through the cracks. The necessity to check the damaging
effect of plastic shrinkage in cement mortar, and thus the formation of cracks, has
called for further studies in this topic. In the past, the most common research topic
has been in the areas of polymer fibers that are expensive and environmentally unacceptable. In the quest of pursuing technologies that are environmentally friendly,
inexpensive, and innovative, this paper suggests the use of human hair, a waste material, in order to replace polymer fibers. Hair waste has been used as a new natural
fiber to reinforce mortar and cement and improve their impermeability. The investigation reported herein concerns the effects of human hair fibers on the reduction of
shrinkage cracking of mortar. The influence of mix proportions on the plastic shrinkage of human hair fiber reinforced mortar has been studied. The approach selected
in this study is based on the factorial design of experiments, in which the considered
parameters are cement/sand ratio, water/cement ratio, and human hair fibers content.
The results show that human hair fibers are effective in reducing the plastic shrinkage
cracks area of mortar by a remarkable percentage up to 92%.
Keywords: shrinkage cracking, mortar, human hair waste, petroleum well cementing

Address correspondence to M. M. Al-Darbi, Killam & NSERC Post-Doctoral Fellow, Department of Materials Engineering, The University of British Columbia, 3096350 Stores Road, Vancouver, B.C. V6T 1Z4, Canada. E-mail: aldarbi@interchange.
ubc.ca
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M. M. Al-Darbi et al.

INTRODUCTION
Cement mortar lining is a process by which metal pipelines are coated internally to protect their structures. There are several advantages of the cement
mortar lining of pipes compared to other pipeline protection methods. Some
of those advantages are: preventing pipe leakage, protecting the inner surface
of the pipe against corrosion by forming an alkaline environment in contact
with the pipe material where corrosion of the steel is inhibited, decreasing
the pumping energy consumption by providing a smooth interior surface with
a high flow coefficient, and as a result, reducing pipe maintenance.
The objective of cementing the annulus, which is present between the
casing and the formation, is to provide zonal isolation of the formations
that have been penetrated by the wellbore. It has been known for decades
that cemented annuli in the wellbore are prone to leaks and hence can lead
to corrosion (Gollapudi, 1993; Talabani and Islam, 2000). However, no fluid
communication should develop during the life of the well among these various
formations, whether they are saturated with water, oil, or gas, and the surface
(Thiercelin et al., 1998; Nowak and Patout, 1997). When uniform linings of
neat cement fail in tension, one or more large cracks are formed and the
pressurizing fluid or mud easily flows through them. When fiber containing
cement fails in tension, they usually form large numbers of small cracks. The
cement matrix fails first by forming microcracks, and then the fibers take over
the loading. The fiber-laced cracks give a high resistance to fluid leak off.
When fiber cement samples are subjected to high impact loads, the cement
matrix shatters, but the fibers hold the broken matrix together (Stewart et al.,
1997).
In addition, fibers reduce the plastic shrinkage of cement. In the setting
process, cement slurries shrinkage and that causes the cement hydrostatic
pressure to drop. The hydrostatic pressure is important, as gas starts to flow
into the cement when the pressure of the cement column falls below that
of a gas-bearing formation. After the gas has entered the pore system of the
cement, the gas inside may overcome the tensile strength of the cement structure, break the cement matrix, and migrate through the microfractures. A low
shrinkage rate is preferable because the decline in the resulting hydrostatic
pressure will be slower than that for slurry with a higher shrinkage rate. Slow
shrinkage has two advantages: (a) the pressure equilibrium between formation and slurry columns can be reached, and (b) the driving force behind the
flow of pore fluid into the cement will be lower. Both factors should reduce
the risk of early time gas migration (Backe et al., 2001, 1999; Sabins and
Wiggins, 1997).
The cement sheath integrity is important for safe and economical operation of gas storage, geothermal and producing wells. Loss of cement integrity
can cause the following serious events: loss of gas reserves, unsafe operations,
premature water of gas cap production, extra costs because of unplanned remedial operations, and well shutdown (Bybee, 2002).

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Plastic shrinkage cracks are random cracks that occur in the exposed
surface of fresh mortar during the first few hours after the mortar is placed,
while the mortar is still plastic and before attaining any significant strength
(Shaeles and Hover, 1988; Samman et al., 1996). As drying starts, the mortar
near the surface dries and shrinks faster than the inner mortar, causing tensile
stress and possible cracks. Plastic shrinkage cracking is usually associated
with hot-weather concreting; however, it can occur within ambient conditions
that produce rapid evaporation of moisture from the mortar surface (Kosmatka
et al., 1995).
Cement and mortar products are notable for their weakness in tension
and for their lack of toughness, which gives risk to frequent cracking under
impact loads, thermal shocks, or dimensional changes due to humidity variation. Fibers have been used for decades to overcome such deficiencies and
to improve the impermeability and minimize shrinkage, which are essential
requirement properties of concrete besides its strength. The three main types
of fibers that may be used as reinforcement for concrete are steel, glass, and
organic (natural and synthetic) fibers. As far as natural fibers are concerned,
animal and vegetable fibers (i.e., wood-cellulose, sisal, bast, coconut, and
bagasse) are all being used in various sheet materials (Padron and Zollo,
1990; Krenchel and Jensen, 1980; Majumdar and Nurse, 1978). The drawbacks of using these natural materials are: the high water absorption which
must be allowed for in the mixing process, the biological deterioration of the
fiber if not treated, and the strength loss that may occur in alkaline environments. Additional processing may be required, as in the case of bagasse, to
remove the sugar from the fiber (Soroushian and Ravanbakhsh, 1998; Cook,
1980).
In this paper, human hair waste is introduced as a new mortar-reinforcing
material. It would be highly pertinent to talk about the hair morphology, mechanical, chemical, physical, and electrical characteristics, to elucidate and
provide the reader with the unique characteristics of hair that make it potentially usable as a composite in cement matrix. Human hair consists of five
definite morphological components: cuticle, cortex, medulla, melanin granules, and cell membrane complex, each distinct in morphology and chemical
composition. Human hair consists of approximately 80% protein, 15% water,
and 5% lipids. The water content of hair varies directly with the ambient
relative humidity (Potsch, 1995).
Regarding the hair mechanical properties, the load required to obtain
breakage of a natural and healthy hair varies between 50 and 100 g. The
average healthy human head, which contains approximately 120,000 hairs,
may handle 12 metric tons (Katz and Chatt, 1988). For an average hair, the
distribution point corresponds to a load of 12 kg/mm2 , and this exceeds that of
aluminum. The unusual hair strength is caused by the keratin, which is a type
of protein found in the hair cortex. The long keratin molecules in the cortex
are compressed to form a regular structure, which is not only strong but also
flexible. Keratin is unique in that its chains contain high concentrations of a

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M. M. Al-Darbi et al.

particular amino acid called cystine. Every cystine unit contains two cystine
amino acids in different chains that have come to lie near to each other and
are linked together by two sulfur atoms, forming a very strong chemical bond
known as a disulphide linkage. Many disulphide bonds form down the length
of the keratin chains, joining them together like the rungs of a ladder (Gray,
2000).
Hair has a high frictional coefficient, higher than that of vegetable or
synthetic fibers. The high frictional coefficient of hair is attributed to its
special surface structure (presence of scales), as can be seen in Figure 1
(Katz and Chatt, 1988). Hair is permeable to water in liquid form as well as
to water vapor. After sufficient contact, hair keratin can absorb water up to
35 or 40% of its weight. The absorbed water is partially linked to the keratin
protein by hydrogen bonds, but it can also exist in the free form. When water
is absorbed by keratin the hair diameter can increase by 1520% and its
length can increase only by 0.52%. The water absorption and subsequent
swelling depends mainly on the pH level. Swelling is limited if the pH is
low, and greatly enhanced if the pH is high (Zviak, 1986).
It was found recently that human hair is a good absorbent material. For
instance, in 1998 the US EPAs (Environmental Protection Agency) Oil Spill
Program Internal Journal published an astonishing report on hair as a good
absorbent material for crude oil spill clean up. It was reported therein that
NASA (the National Aeronautical and Space Administration) was testing an
unusual absorbent material for oil spill clean up with human hair, after a

Figure 1. Scanning electron microscope (SEM) photomicrograph for a human hair

fiber.

A Novel Oil Well Cementing Technology

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series of experiments conducted by McCrory (1998). The use of human hair

waste as a phenol biosorbent was also reported by Fawazi and Sameer (2001).
This property was established as well for the removal of different metal ions
by Tan et al. (1985).
The objective of this research is to optimize the mortar mix composition
(i.e., water-cement ratio, cement-sand ratio, and hair-fiber volume fraction) in
order to minimize the plastic shrinkage process. To achieve this, the factorial
design method was used. Some of the advantages of this method compared to
traditional methods are: it is much faster and shorter; it reveals the variables
with the most significant effect on the process, and it measures the interactions between them. In contrast, and in the traditional methods, everything
used to be kept constant while changing only one variable at a time. Also,
using traditional methods for investigating scientific experiments with many
variables is time consuming and fails to measure the interaction between the
variables (Box et al., 1978).

EXPERIMENTAL
Materials and Methods
Portland cement (type I) was selected for the entire program of work. The
chemical properties of this cement are listed in Table 1. Silica sand with
grains proportioned greater than 0.125 mm, waste human-hair pieces with
length greater than 2 cm, and tap water were also used.

Table 1. Chemical composition

of ordinary Portland cement
(Kraai, 1985)
Oxide

wt%

SiO2
Fe2 O3
TiO2
P 2 O5
Mn2 O3
Al2 O3
CaO
MgO
Na2 O
K2 O
SO3
Loss on ignition
Free lime

21.6
1.84
0.31
0.35
0.15
4.3065
65.28
1.18
0.15
0.42
3.06
1.04
1.94

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M. M. Al-Darbi et al.

Preparation of Hair Fiber and Mix Proportions

The human hair was first washed, dried at room temperature, and then cut
into small fibers before being used in the mixing process. ASTM standard
C305 for mechanical mixing of mortar was used for mixing of the mortar
components. The hair fibers were added to the cement manually to ensure
a good distribution. The mix proportions for the preliminary experiments to
investigate the effect of using hair fibers to reduce shrinkage cracks of mortar
in the plastic state are shown in Table 2.
Test Procedure: Plastic Shrinkage Cracking
The test procedure was conducted in two steps: first, the preliminary investigation to briefly see whether it is worthwhile to study human hair as a fibrous
material, and second, the factorial design test to study the effect of cement to
sand ratio (c/s), water to cement ratio (w/c), and hair fiber volume percentage
(fh ) on the rate of plastic shrinkage cracks.
The test procedure proposed by Kraii (1985) and refined by Shaeles
and Hover (1988) was used for evaluating the effects of human hair fibers
on plastic shrinkage cracking of mortar. In spite of the extensive use of
synthetic fiber in the field, and the importance of shrinkage crack reduction,
a standardized test method is not available for evaluating the shrinkage cracks
reduction potential of fiber (Balaguru, 1994).
In order to examine the tendency of using human hair as a fibrous material, preliminary experiments were first conducted. Two 30 30 cm slabs
of plain and fibrous mortar, with a thickness of 3 cm, were cast side-by-side
and exposed to identical environmental conditions (temperature 20 1 C,
humidity 56 1). A vertical partition was used between the two panels to
prevent non-uniformity arising from interference between the three fans and
slabs. The initial formation of plastic shrinkage cracks was monitored by the
naked eye. Generally, the cracks began to form within 60 to 75 min after
starting the fans. The fans were stopped after 4 h. Subsequently, the crack
widths and lengths were measured using optical lenses and the total cracks
area was calculated by multiplying the width of each crack by its length.
The crack width was taken to be the average of three measurements. Characterizing the cracks by their total area instead of their total length helped
to account for the fact that some cracks were simply hairlines, while others
were much wider. Figure 2 shows the experiment setup.
Table 2. Mix proportions for the preliminary test
Sample

Hair fiber (vol. %)

c/s

w/c

Plain
Fibrous

0
0.4

1:1
1:1

0.42
0.42

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Figure 2. Experimental setup for shrinkage cracking test.

The same procedure was followed for the factorial design study after an
encouraging breakthrough. The upper and lower values for each variable are
listed in Table 3.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Preliminary Tests
The results of the preliminary tests in which two mortar slabs (plain and
fibrous) of the same w/c and c/s ratios that were exposed to the same environmental conditions showed different shrinkage cracks rates. A tremendous
reduction in crack areas of 92% was noticed in the mortar containing hair
fibers compared to the plain mortar. This result is shown in Figure 3 and
depicted graphically in Figure 4, which shows the shrinkage cracks percentages in both the plain and fibrous mortar slabs. The length of some cracks
in the plain mortar reached up to 32 cm. The cracks area percentages were
calculated by dividing the total area of cracks by the total area of the slab.
This tremendous and interesting reduction of shrinkage cracking in the
mortar samples containing hair fibers is believed to be the result of several
factors. Some of those factors are related to the fiber dimensions (i.e., length
and diameter) (Ali et al., 1978), while other factors are related to the bonds
Table 3. The upper and lower levels for fh
(vol %), c/s, and w/c
Variables

Lower value

Upper value

fh (vol. %)
c/s
w/c

0
1:1
0.38

0.4
1:1.5
0.50

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M. M. Al-Darbi et al.

Figure 3. Cracks in plain and hair fibrous mortar slabs.

type and strength between the matrix and the fiber. It can also be observed
from Figure 3 that the sheen disappeared from the surface of the plain mortar
slab, whereas the sheen remained in the fibrous mortar slab. Generally, the
disappearance of the sheen from the surface of concrete indicates the time
when the rate of evaporation exceeds the rate at which bleeding water rises

A Novel Oil Well Cementing Technology

1275

Figure 4. Reduction in the shrinkage cracks area in the fibrous mortar compared to
plain mortar slabs.

to the surface (Shah et al., 1998). This shows that the rate of evaporation is
greater than the rate of rise of the bleeding water in the plain mortar, but in the
fibrous mortar the bleeding rate is retarded by the hair fibers. From that it can
be concluded that the quantity of surface water is significantly reduced by the
addition of fibers. Also, fibers seem to cause a reduction in consolidation, thus
eliminating the damaging capillary bleed channels and causing an increase
in intergranular pressure in the plastic mortar. It was also observed that the
first portion of shrinkage developed slowly. The evaporation of water caused
an increase in the capillary pores (vacuum) pressure and decrease in volume,
which in turn caused contraction (Soroushian et al., 1995).
The high reduction of shrinkage cracks can also be a result of effective
diameter of the hair fibers, which varies between 57 to 120 m (Gray, 2000),
and is comparable to the cement particles size. This promotes a close and
very effective packing and development of a dense bulk and interface microstructure in the matrix (Walton and Majumdar, 1978). The relatively high
surface area and the close spacing of hair fibers make them quite effective in
the stabilization and suppression of microcracks in the mortar samples.
The length of the fibers and their distribution affect the reduction of
cracks in two ways. If the fibers are relatively long and far apart, they will
have no ability to arrest micro-cracks, but they can arrest the propagation of
macro-cracks and substantially improve the toughness of the composite. This
is probably due to the fact that matrix cracking first occurs at the micro level.
However, small fibers could bridge even the micro-cracks.
The high aspect ratio of the fiber (length/diameter) may be accountable
for high reduction of cracks. The hair fibers used in this study have small
diameter range. The small diameter gives the fiber less surface area and,
consequently, fewer flaws that might propagate during cracking. The aspect
ratio for the hair fiber used with a length of 2 cm ranges between 160 and 350.

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M. M. Al-Darbi et al.

For the same length (2 cm) and a diameter range between 0.20 to 0.38 mm,
the aspect ratio for steel fibers would range between 26 and 80, and for
polypropylene with a diameter of 0.38 mm, the aspect ratio would be 53
(Lee, 1992). Another explanation would be that the hair fibers increase the
amount of large pores in cement paste. These groups of pores are probably
attributed to the interfacial zone between the fiber and the cement paste. The
formation of large pores may reduce capillary pressure in the cement paste,
thus reducing plastic shrinkage cracking.
Concerning the effect of the hair morphology on the reduction of shrinkage cracks, hair has a high friction coefficient, higher than that of vegetable
or synthetic fibers, as was shown in Figure 1. These high frictional values
could be due to its special surface structure and the presence of scales and
their orientations. The high friction increases the shear and friction forces
between the fibers and the cement matrix. As the matrix shrinks, a shear
stress along the fiber and matrix interface develops. The fiber is subjected
to tension, and the matrix is subjected to compression. The shrinkage of the
matrix in any direction can be considered to be restrained by an aligned fiber
of effective length parallel to the direction of the shrinkage strain (Zhang and
Li, 2001).
Another explanation could be the behavior of hair when in contact with
fluids. Hair is permeable to water in liquid form as well to water vapor.
It was reported that after sufficient contact, hair keratin could absorb up to
35 or 40% of its weight in water (Katz, 1988). This apparently explains
why hair could be a good sorbent material in the oil spill clean up. With
absorption of water as high as the above values, the hair fibers are capable of
retaining a substantial amount of evaporation from the mortar surface and this
reduces the shrinkage cracks. The water absorption and subsequent swelling
depends mainly on the pH level. Swelling is limited if the pH is low (acidic),
and greatly enhanced if the pH is high (alkaline). Since mortar has a high
pH value, approximately 1112, the swelling of mortar is high and, as a
consequence, this results in a high shrinkage reduction.

Factorial Design Tests

To obtain the optimum matrix composition and hair-fiber content of the composite, the Box-Hunter statistical method was applied. The purpose of optimizing the mortar composition was to have a reasonably low plastic shrinkage values (Box et al., 1978). The experimental design described here for
optimizing the mortar mix includes three variables: cement/sand (c/s) ratio,
water/cement (w/c) ratio, and hair-fiber content (fh , vol%). The upper and
lower values for each variable are listed in Table 3. In the factorial design
method we can consider as many factors as possible and see which individual
factors, or interactions between factors, appear to have the most effect on the
measurements of interest, which is the shrinkage cracks area in this work.

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This type of experimental design with three variables requires eight experiments. These sets of experiments are represented as the number of spheres
at the corners of the cube (Box-Hunter Cube). From the possible combinations, 23 , and according to the factorial design method, the sets of experimental data sets were generated and presented in Figure 5.
Using the Box-Hunter statistical method, the main effect of each variable
was determined, then the interaction effect between two factors was evaluated.
Finally, the effect of the three variables together was calculated. The main
effect, which is the average effect of a variable over all conditions of the
other variables, is calculated from the data, Yi , obtained at the eight corners
i = 18 as follows:
Main effect = Y + Y

(1)

where Y + is the average response for the upper level of the variable, and Y
is the average response for the lower level.
fh effect =

Y2 + Y4 + Y6 + Y8 Y1 + Y3 + Y5 + Y7
4
4

(2)

c/s effect =

Y3 + Y4 + Y7 + Y8 Y1 + Y2 + Y5 + Y6
4
4

(3)

w/c effect =

Y5 + Y6 + Y7 + Y8 Y1 + Y2 + Y3 + Y4
4
4

(4)

Figure 5. A schematic representation of the 23 factorial design method.

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M. M. Al-Darbi et al.

The two-factor interaction is the difference between the average effect

of the first factor on the lower value of the second factor, and the average
effect of the first factor on the upper value of the second factor. The interactions between each of the two factors have been calculated according to the
following equations:
fh c/s effect =

Y 1 + Y 4 + Y 5 + Y 8 Y2 + Y 3 + Y 6 + Y 7
4
4

(5)

fh w/s effect =

Y 1 + Y3 + Y6 + Y8 Y 2 + Y4 + Y5 + Y7
4
4

(6)

c/s w/c effect =

Y1 + Y2 + Y7 + Y8 Y3 + Y4 + Y5 + Y6
4
4

(7)

Finally, the interaction between all the three parameters is given by:
fh c/s w/c effect =

Y 5 + Y 6 + Y7 + Y 8 Y 1 + Y 2 + Y 3 + Y 4
4
4

(8)

Figure 6 shows the shrinkage area vs. the c/s and w/c ratios for both
plain mortar (fh = 0 vol%) and fibrous mortar (fh = 0.4 vol%). It can be
observed that the highest crack areas were in the mixture with w/c = 0.47,
c/s = 1, and fh = 0 vol%. This result was expected, since the higher level
of w/c ratio was used with lower level of c/s ratio, and no fiber was added.
This is in contrast to the mix with c/s ratio = 0.47, w/c ratio = 1:1.5, and

Figure 6. The percentage of shrinkage cracks areas vs. the c/s and w/c for plain
mortar (fh = 0 vol%) and fibrous mortar (fh = 0.4 vol%).

A Novel Oil Well Cementing Technology

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hair fiber volume fraction = 0.4%. It was observed that the least number of
cracks was formed with these combinations. Again, this met the expectations,
since the lower level of w/c ratio was used with the higher level of c/s ratio.
Table 4 represents the results of the factorial design analysis. The main
effect of a factor should be individually interpreted only if there is no evidence that the factor interacts with other factors. When there is evidence that
one or more of such interactions are there, the interacting factors should be
considered jointly. The negative sign of the values shows a reduction effect
on shrinkage area. For example, the effect of c/s ratio is to reduce the shrinkage by 11 units, and this is the highest main effect in reducing shrinkage
cracks area. That was expected (Popovics, 1982) since sand is more or less
an inert material that greatly reduces the amount of cement in the mixture,
thus decreasing the creep and shrinkage of the concrete. Besides that, the
quartz sand which is the type of aggregate used in the entire program is a
low adsorption aggregate. Low adsorption aggregates have a low shrinkage
property and vice versa (Kosmatka et al., 1995).
It can be observed from Table 4 that there is a large c/s ratio and fh
volume fraction effects, 11 and 9 units, respectively. From that we conclude
that the hair fiber effect in the reduction of shrinkage cracks is comparable
to the effect of c/s ratio. But, since cement ratio interacts well with hair fiber
(the fh c/s interactions is 8 units), we make no statement about the effect
of hair fiber or c/s ratio alone.
The main effect of w/c ratio shows an increase in shrinkage by only
1.53 units, and there is no evidence of any interactions involving w/c ratio.
That was not expected since the most important controllable factor affecting shrinkage is the amount of water per unit volume of concrete. Many
Table 4. Estimated effects from the
23 factorial design
Main effects and
interactions (102 )

Parameter

Main effect
fh
c/s
w/c

9.21
11.01
1.53
Two factor interactions

fh w/c
fh c/s
c/s w/c

1.67
8.66
0.927

Three factor interactions

fh c/s w/c

6.00

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M. M. Al-Darbi et al.

researchers have reported the importance of the effect of w/c ratio. For instance, the work performed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
showed that for each 1% increase in mixing water, concrete shrinkage increased by 2% (Kosmatka et al., 1995). However, the result as presented here
shows the opposite. It is my belief that this could be due to the fact that
this study is the first of its kind to use human hair as a cementing fiber, thus
further research is needed to study this effect.
Thus, we draw the following tentative conclusions from the factorial
design: the effect of w/c ratio is to increase the shrinkage by 1.5 units, and
this is irrespective of the tested levels of the other factors. The effects of hairfiber volume fraction and c/s ratio cannot be interpreted separately because
of the large fh c/s interaction. The shrinkage cracks increase as the hair
fiber volume fraction and c/s ratio decrease.
CONCLUSIONS
A novel method for reducing the shrinkage of a cement mortar is developed.
This shrinkage arises from unequal dissipation of water from the cement
mortar and the rising of bleeding water to the mortar surface. The proposed
process involves the use of human hair, a waste material, to improve the
quality of cement, as applied in petroleum wells or in lining pipelines. From
this study, the following tentative inferences can be drawn. The hair reduced
the shrinkage cracks area by 92%. The hair-fiber volume fraction effect in
reducing the shrinkage cracks is close to the established cement/sand ratio
effect. The experimental results indicate that the water/cement ratio does not
have significant impact on shrinkage whenever hair fibers were added to the
cement sample. This may be responsible for the reduction in shrinkage with
hair fibers. The results of this study also show that the commercial application
of human hair waste fiber on shrinkage reduction is feasible, such as in cement
coated pipelines and cementing hydrocarbon wells.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The authors would like to thank the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), Petroleum Research Atlantic Canada,
Atlantic Innovation Fund, and Shell Canada for their funding. Special thanks
from the first author to NSERC and Killam Foundation for their prestigious
scholarships and the generous financial support.
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