Rheological behavior of hydrolyzed polyacrylamide solution flowing through a molecular weight adjusting device with porous medium

The separate-layer injection in different interlayers and the injection of the same-molecular-weight polymer solution in a layer are necessary in the polymer flooding process because of heterogeneous multilayer sandstone reservoirs in EOR projects. To alleviate the matching problems between the layer permeability and the injected polymer molecular weight, a molecular weight adjusting device with porous medium was designed on the basis of mechanical degradation principle. In terms of four variables (polymer concentration, pore diameter, length of shear component and flow rate), the rheological behavior of hydrolyzed polyacrylamide (HPAM) solution flowing through the device was investigated in detail. The change of these variables is able to control the shear rate of HPAM solutions through ceramic foam, and achieve the desired degree of shear degradation and the final rheological parameters—viscosity loss, viscoelasticity and pressure drop. Therefore, a linear relationship between viscosity loss and shearing rate was established so as to obtain the targeted viscosity easily. Field tests in the Daqing Oil Field showed that the polymer molecular weight could drop 20% to 50%. In a word, the results could guide the industrial application of the novel device and the further study of polymer degradation flowing through the porous medium.