Development, formation mechanism and performance evaluation of a reusable viscoelastic surfactant fracturing fluid

Through extensive experiments, a reusable viscoelastic surfactant (rVES) fracturing fluid using a self-designed and synthesized surfactant was developed. Laboratory performance evaluation results showed that various performances of rVES fracturing fluid are excellent. The most attractive aspect is the gelling and gel breaking of rVES fracturing fluid was achieved by altering the pH value. The recycled fracturing fluid still maintains good performances through three times cycles, which represents that it has good prospects for re-use of flowback waters. In addition, large-scale coarse-grained molecular dynamics (CGMD) simulations results clearly revealed the formation mechanism of rVES fracturing fluid at the molecular level.

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