Masters Theses

Xinrui Zhao

Keywords and Phrases

Conformance control; Gel dehydration; Hydrogel

Abstract

"Gel treatment is a process that injects the gel into a reservoir to control the conformance and improve the sweep efficiency of injection fluids. At a certain pressure gradient, the gel dehydrates in a reservoir due to mechanical forces. This work evaluates the effects of the gel composition and brine concentration on gel dehydration under uniaxial compression. A sodium acrylate-co-acrylamide based gel cross-linked with N, N'-Methylenebisacrylamide (MBAA) was used for the study. The compression test is performed with a rheometer with a plate-plate geometry. The gel dehydration under pressure was measured to see how gel dehydration would be impacted by the brine concentration or the change in gel compositions including monomer and crosslinker concentration. Then, the elastic modulus (G') and the loss modulus (G'') of the gels before and after the compression were measured. This process aimed to assess the variations of the gel mechanical properties caused by compression-induced dehydration. The result shows the gel composition has a great impact on the gel dehydration under uni-axial compression. The amount of gel dehydration increases when gel swelling degree increases for all experimental factors. The gel after compression has a lower G' and a higher G''compared with the gel before compression, indicating damage on gel networks. This work is of significance on optimizing gel treatments for conformance control. It may also provide a reference for hydrogel applications in other fields"--Abstract, page iii.

Advisor(s)

Bai, Baojun

Committee Member(s)

Dunn-Norman, Shari
Wei, Mingzhen

Department(s)

Geosciences and Geological and Petroleum Engineering

Degree Name

M.S. in Petroleum Engineering

Sponsor(s)

United States. Department of Energy

Comments

The work is partially supported by the grant from the US Department of Energy under contract of DE-FE0024558.

Publisher

Missouri University of Science and Technology

Publication Date

Spring 2019

Pagination

ix, 53 pages

Note about bibliography

Includes bibliographical references (pages 50-52).

Rights

© 2019 Xinrui Zhao, All rights reserved.

Document Type

Thesis - Open Access

File Type

text

Language

English

Thesis Number

T 11567

Electronic OCLC #

1105154929

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