Impact of Mechanical Degradation on Polymer Injectivity in Porous Media

Al-Shakry, Badar; Skauge, Tormod; Shiran, Behruz Shaker; Skauge, Arne

doi:10.3390/polym10070742

Cited by 51 publications

(35 citation statements)

References 59 publications

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“…Despite the current efforts made both experimentally and theoretically to clarify the problem of mechanical degradation, the current understanding is not complete, and further analyses are required. This paper extends our previous work [67] that provides a basis for this study on experimental investigation of the impact of mechanical degradation on polymer in-situ rheology. This work extends the analyses to address the influence of polymer physicochemical properties, particularly molecular weight and concentration on polymer mechanical degradation and its in-situ behavior.…”

Section: Polymer Injectivity and Mechanical Degradationsupporting

confidence: 74%

“…Note that, backpressure regulator was used during permeability measurements to dissolve any air in the setup and it was removed during polymer injection to avoid polymer degradation. Core flood experiments were conducted at room temperature (22 o C) and consisted of three stages as detailed in the previous study [67]. The core flood procedure was performed as follows:…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A recent study given by Jouenne et al [66] highlighted the observation of mechanical degradation at entry face and limited it for the first 6mm of porous media based on studies performed in a ceramic disk. However, Al-Shakry et al [67] conducted experimental studies using HPAM polymers that showed high Mw polymer underwent successive degradation as reinjected into the porous media. This suggests that the degree of degradation may depend on exposure time and number of exposures to high strain beside polymer Mw and concentration.…”

Section: Polymer Injectivity and Mechanical Degradationmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Polymer Injectivity: Investigation of Mechanical Degradation of Enhanced Oil Recovery Polymers Using In-Situ Rheology

et al. 2018

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Water soluble polymers have attracted increasing interest in enhanced oil recovery (EOR) processes, especially polymer flooding. Despite the fact that the flow of polymer in porous medium has been a research subject for many decades with numerous publications, there are still some research areas that need progress. The prediction of polymer injectivity remains elusive. Polymers with similar shear viscosity might have different in-situ rheological behaviors and may be exposed to different degrees of mechanical degradation. Hence, determining polymer in-situ rheological behavior is of great significance for defining its utility. In this study, an investigation of rheological properties and mechanical degradation of different partially hydrolyzed polyacrylamide (HPAM) polymers was performed using Bentheimer sandstone outcrop cores. The results show that HPAM in-situ rheology is different from bulk rheology measured by a rheometer. Specifically, shear thickening behavior occurs at high rates, and near-Newtonian behavior is measured at low rates in porous media. This deviates strongly from the rheometer measurements. Polymer molecular weight and concentration influence its viscoelasticity and subsequently its flow characteristics in porous media. Exposure to mechanical degradation by flow at high rate through porous media leads to significant reduction in shear thickening and thereby improved injectivity. More importantly, the degraded polymer maintained in-situ viscosity at low flow rates indicating that improved injectivity can be achieved without compromising viscosity at reservoir flow rates. This is explained by a reduction in viscoelasticity. Mechanical degradation also leads to reduced residual resistance factor (RRF), especially for high polymer concentrations. For some of the polymer injections, successive degradation (increased degradation with transport length in porous media) was observed. The results presented here may be used to optimize polymer injectivity.

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Section: Polymer Injectivity and Mechanical Degradationsupporting

confidence: 74%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Polymer Injectivity and Mechanical Degradationmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Polymer Injectivity: Investigation of Mechanical Degradation of Enhanced Oil Recovery Polymers Using In-Situ Rheology

et al. 2018

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“…During the study of the rheological behavior of HPAM, hydrostatically modified copolymer, and xanthan gum in porous media, Wei found that the significant polymer adsorption induced by the hydrophobic interactions led to reduced permeability. In a similar porous media experiment, Al‐Shakry et al . found that HPAM solution showed predominant shear thickening behavior at high flow velocities, which was due to successive contraction/expansion flowed in pores.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 90%

Adsorption behavior and shear degradation of ultrahigh‐molecular‐weight hydrolyzed polyacrylamide in a capillary flow

Sun

Wang

Dong

et al. 2019

J of Applied Polymer Sci

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Ultrahigh-molecular-weight partially hydrolyzed polyacrylamides (HPAMs) are commonly used in polymer flooding to enhance oil recovery. However, the viscosity of the HPAM solution is susceptible to shear action. Viscosity change affects sweep range and displacement efficiency of the displacement fluid. Here, a macromolecular adsorption model in microcapillary is proposed to reveal the shear variation mechanism at low flow rates. The rheological behaviors of HPAMs with three different molecular weights are investigated using a stainless steel capillary. The shear rate distributions near contraction and within capillary are compared by numerical calculation using the laminar flow model. Experimental and numerical results show that the polymer solution was mechanically degraded at low flow rates, which is in agreement with the results predicted by the adsorption theory model. A new calculation method for the thickness of polymer adsorption layer at lower flow rates is proposed based on the adsorption model proposed in this study. It is found that the viscosity and adsorption of HPAM were changed with flow rate, and their changes are closely related to the displacement efficiency in the micropores of reservoirs. This study provides new perspectives for the selection of polymer injection flow rates and the water shutoff in reservoirs.

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“…However, in the process of polymer injection into the formation, the polymer solution will be subject to strong shearing action, resulting in mechanical degradation, especially when flowing through injection pump, borehole, perforation hole, and so forth . Thus, the polymer solution properties will be dramatically reduced, leading to a poor displacement performance…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effect of microscopic aggregation behavior on polymer shear resistance

Shi

Zhu

et al. 2019

J of Applied Polymer Sci

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The study of polymer aggregation behavior effect on shear resistance shed light on the synthesis of antishear polymer for oil displacement and enhances the application effect of polymer flooding. The effects of mechanical degradation on the properties of polymer solutions were studied by using partially hydrolyzed polyacrylamide (HPAM), hydrophobically modified HPAM (HMPAM), and dendritic hydrophobic associative polymers (DHAP), which are characterized by "granular," "chain," and "cluster" aggregation behavior, respectively. The results show that mechanical shearing can dramatically reduce the performance of polymer solution. The shearing resistance can be effectively enhanced by improving the polymer aggregation behavior. After being strongly sheared, hydrophobically associating polymers can still partially restore its network through hydrophobic association, therefore rebuild the solution viscosity. For DHAP, the broken molecular chains distribute more evenly in solution after shearing. In addition, the strength of reconstructed network structure of DHAP is better than that of HMAPM, which implies a better shear resistance. Furthermore, the hydrophobic association of linear polymers will increase their static adsorption on quartz sand. Meanwhile, DHAP with stronger spatial structure has less static adsorption, which is beneficial to maintain a higher polymer concentration in solution.

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Impact of Mechanical Degradation on Polymer Injectivity in Porous Media

Cited by 51 publications

References 59 publications

Polymer Injectivity: Investigation of Mechanical Degradation of Enhanced Oil Recovery Polymers Using In-Situ Rheology

Polymer Injectivity: Investigation of Mechanical Degradation of Enhanced Oil Recovery Polymers Using In-Situ Rheology

Adsorption behavior and shear degradation of ultrahigh‐molecular‐weight hydrolyzed polyacrylamide in a capillary flow

Effect of microscopic aggregation behavior on polymer shear resistance

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