Rheological Modeling and Numerical Simulation of HPAM Polymer Viscosity in Porous Media

Polymer flooding is a commercially proven approach for enhanced oil recovery from mature oil fields. The fundamental mechanism of polymer flooding for improving oil recovery is to increase the viscosity of displacing fluid, thereby creating a favorable mobility ratio for improved volumetric sweep efficiency. Therefore, development of an adequate model for prediction of polymer viscosity is the successful key of this process. This article presents a comprehensive investigation of hydrolyzed polyacrylamide viscosity for a wider and better understanding of the polymer flooding process. A fundamental mathematic model of polymer viscosity in porous media is described and a series of numerical simulations have been done to determine the dependence of polymer viscosity on polymer solution properties and reservoir conditions. The simulation results indicate that pH, salinity, polymer concentration, molecular weight, and alkaline are the main parameters that strongly influence the viscosity of hydrolyzed polyacrylamide. With an appropriate control of these factors, the efficiency of chemical flooding will be significantly improved in both economic and technical aspects.