Experimental Study on the Molecular Dimension and Configuration of Polymer and Its Flow Characteristics from Electrolyte Effect

Abstract

AbstractMolecular clew dimension and configuration of polymer, and flow characteristics of polymer solution were studied from electrolyte effect, by making use of dynamic light scattering (DLS), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), apparent viscosity method and core flow experiment. It can be observed that with the electrolyte concentration increasing, there exists a variation trend of "decreasing, increasing and decreasing again" to the molecular clew dimension of the polymer. The compression action of Ca2+ or Mg2+ to the double electrode layer of polymer molecules is more powerful by comparison against Na+, which results in that Ca2+ and Mg2+ have a more extensive effect on the viscosity of polymer solution, and clew dimensions and their distribution. With the electrolyte concentration increasing, the polymer molecular configuration of multi‐layer stereoscopic random reticulation transformed into a dendritic one. During the succeeding water flooding, the variation degree of injection pressure of core was mainly determined by the swelling extent of molecular clew of retained polymer and the produced amount of polymer. And the bigger the molecular weight of polymer is, the stronger the compression or swelling action of electrolyte to the molecule clews is, and the greater the increasing degree of injection pressure during succeeding water flooding is. The greater difference of electrolyte concentrations in used water between polymer flooding and succeeding water flooding can result in greater increasing degree of injection pressure during the succeeding water flooding. So, an advisable increasing in difference of electrolyte concentrations in used water between the polymer flooding and succeeding water flooding was proposed when designing the polymer flooding performance in oilfields, which has promising result for improving effect of polymer flooding.