Effects of Nanoparticles on Rheological Behavior of Polyacrylamide Related to Enhance Oil Recovery

Abstract

The effect of nanoparticles SiO2, TiO2 and Fe2O3 on the rheological behavior of anionic polyacrylamide and a mixed assembly of polymer and cationic surfactants were measured systematically by shear viscosity and oscillatory testing at different concentration of Nano-materials. The results of shear viscosity measurement indicate that for all of the systems, the shear viscosity increases with the addition of nanoparticles and show shear thinning behavior at low shear rate. In the oscillatory test, all of the systems show elastic behavior, which depend on the concentration of nanoparticles. The storage modulus (G’) and loss modulus (G’’) increased as nanoparticles concentration increase. The core flooding experiment were also done with polymer-surfactant solution in presence and absence of nanoparticles and the obtained result indicates the higher oil recovery in presence of nanomaterials. In enhance oil recovery process; the viscosity and viscoelasticity are key parameters for the success of the recovery process.