Drag reduction performance and mechanism of hydrophobic polymers in fresh water and brine

Abstract

Three kinds of drag reducer were synthesized by inverse emulsion polymerization and named PHWAM-1, PHWAM-2, and PHWAM-3. Drag reduction (DR) tests showed that the three drag reducers have different DR characteristics in fresh water and various saline waters because of their different types of hydrophobic monomers. PHWAM-1, without hydrophobic monomers, performs better in fresh water, while PHWAM-2 and PHWAM-3, with hydrophobic monomers, perform better in brine. In addition, PHWAM-3, which has twin-tailed hydrophobic monomers, performs best in high-concentration brine. Measurements of micro-particle size and observations of spatial structure suggest that although the stronger hydrophobic polymer has no DR advantage over a linear polymer in fresh water, the molecular chains form a mutually associative supporting structure that improves the DR performance over that of a linear polymer in high-concentration brine.