The Effect of Shear Rate on Dynamic Gelation of Phenol Formaldehyde Resin Gel in Porous Media

Abstract

Polymer gel is the most widely used plugging agent in profile control, whose formula and injected speed are very important process parameters. It is very significant to study the effect of shear rates on the dynamic gelation of polymer gel in porous media for selecting suitable formula and injection speed. Taking the phenol formaldehyde resin gel with static gelation time of 21 h in ampoule bottle as research objective, it was studied the dynamic gelation process and subsequent water flooding in porous media under different injected speeds by a circulated equipment. The results shown that final dynamic gelation time is 2.4 times longer than the static gelation time in porous media. The gel particles are formed and mainly accumulated in the near wellbore zone after dynamic gelation. Injection speed has little effect on the dynamic gelation time in porous media, but has a great effect on the gel strength. The effect of injection speed on dynamic gel strength is evaluated by established the quantitative relationship between shear rate and dynamic gel strength. According to subsequent water flooding results, gel particles have certain plugging capacity in the near wellbore zone. The plugging ability declines obviously with an increasing injection speed. The experimental results provide theoretical support for the successful application of polymer gel used in profile control.

Keywords

• shear rate
• dynamic gelation
• phenol formaldehyde resin gel
• gelation time
• gel strength
• porous media