Study on Synthesis of Polyacrylamide Microspheres and its Sealing Characteristics of Drilling Fluid

Mingming Cheng,Jianbo Gao,Jianwu Zhen,Guanglun Lei

doi:10.19026/rjaset.7.383

Abstract

For the purpose of reducing the invasion depth of solid phase and liquid phase of drilling fluid and improving the quality of drilling mud cake, polyacrylamide microspheres were successfully composed via reversed phrase emulsion method. The physical and chemical structures of the samples as well as the grain-size variation were investigated by Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) and Laser Particle Size Analysis method (LPSA).The plugging performance of the samples were investigated by core plugging experiment and sand bed filtration experiment. TEM images show that acrylamide has been polymerized, the products consist of a lot of monodisperse microspheres with a size of about 1-6 μm. LPSA images indicate that the particle size of polyacrylamide microspheres vary with time and temperature regularly. The experiment that simulates rock strata with different permeability shows those polyacrylamide microspheres can produce effectively blocked to the core and sand bed and then it establishes the foundation for the next field test.

Highlights

Due to its special spherical morphology and nontoxic environmental compatibility characteristics, PAM microspheres are widely used in profile control and water shutoff, temporary plugging in well drilling and water treatment (Feng et al, 2008; Jia et al, 2011; Jie et al, 2011; Huang et al, 2011).PAM microspheres have excellent performance of water shutoff thanks to the expansion deformation of its special 3d mesh structure (Jiang et al, 2011; Qian et al, 2008)
Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) of polyacrylamide microspheres: From the Fig. 1, it can be seen that the microspheres have uniform particle size distribution and regular spherical structure
The expanding properties of microspheres changing with time: The particle size variation of microspheres was measured at the initial time, 0.5, 1, 5, 18 h, respectively later; the expanding discipline of microspheres changing with time can be established

Summary

Introduction

Due to its special spherical morphology and nontoxic environmental compatibility characteristics, PAM microspheres are widely used in profile control and water shutoff, temporary plugging in well drilling and water treatment (Feng et al, 2008; Jia et al, 2011; Jie et al, 2011; Huang et al, 2011).PAM microspheres have excellent performance of water shutoff thanks to the expansion deformation of its special 3d mesh structure (Jiang et al, 2011; Qian et al, 2008). PAM microspheres will inflate to several or dozens of times when sucking water, which is adequate to plug core in complex formation conditions of high temperature and salinity, attain the goal of improving cake quality as well as reducing the invasion depth of drilling fluid solid and liquid, conduce to borehole stabilizing and reservoir protection.

Results

Conclusion