Abstract
Sand production is one of the major problems in sandstone reservoirs. Different mechanical and chemical methods have been proposed to control sand production. In this paper, we propose a chemical method based on using polyacrylamide/chromium triacetate hydrogel to investigate sand production in a synthetic sandpack system. To this end, a series of bulk experiments including the bottle test and rheological analysis along with compression tests were conducted. Experimental results indicated that the compressive strength of the sandpack was increased as much as 30 times by injecting 0.5 pore volume of hydrogel. Also, it was found that the increases in cross-linker and polymer concentrations exhibited a positive impact on the compressive strength of the sandpack, mostly by cross-linker concentration (48 psi). Hydrogel with a higher value of cross-linker could retain its viscoelastic properties against the strain which was a maximum of 122% for 0.5 weight ratio of cross-linker/polymer. The presence of salts, in particular divalent cations, has a detrimental effect on the hydrogel stability. The maximum strain value applied on hydrogel in the presence of CaCl2 was only about 201% as compared to 1010% in the presence of distilled water. Finally, thermogravimetric analysis and its derivative showed that the hydrogel could retain its structure up to 300 °C. The results of this study revealed the potential application of the hydrogel to control sand production.
Highlights
Sand production is one of the common problems in oil and gas production wells drilled in unconsolidated formations (Fattahpour et al 2012)
We propose a chemical method based on using polyacrylamide/ chromium triacetate hydrogel to investigate sand production in a synthetic sandpack system
Experimental results indicated that the compressive strength of the sandpack was increased as much as 30 times by injecting 0.5 pore volume of hydrogel
Summary
Sand production is one of the common problems in oil and gas production wells drilled in unconsolidated formations (Fattahpour et al 2012). Petroleum Science (2019) 16:94–104 gravels as a downhole filter (screen-free), and (2) in situ consolidation by injection of compatible fluid and artificial attachment of sand grains near the wellbore For this purpose, the fluid is injected into the formation pores through the perforations which hardens after coating the sand grains and reduces excess sand movement during the production operation. The formation strength is one main factor that must be considered when investigating sand control mechanisms To this end, one could perform a uniaxial compression analysis to obtain the highest stress that the sand formation can tolerate during the compression process (Mishra and Ojha 2016a, b). The effect of mono and divalent cations and temperature on the hydrogel stability was studied
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