Jingyu Zhang, Binfei Li, Yan Xin, Boliang Li, Mengyuan Zhang, Hao Wang, Shuhao Zhang, Hang Zhang, Xinliang Gu
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引用次数: 0
Abstract
A high-stability gel foam is successfully prepared by forming a gel structure in the liquid film using polymer and crosslinker. The foaming properties, gel characteristics, foam stability, and microstructure of the high-stability gel foam are systematically studied. Although increasing the viscosity of the liquid film reduces the foam volume, it significantly enhances the foam stability. Considering the foaming properties, gel characteristics, and economic benefits, the optimal formulation of the gel foam system is determined to be 0.8% surfactant, 0.3% hydroxypropyl guar gum (HPG), and 0.2% organic titanium crosslinker (ATC). Microstructural analysis revealed that, compared to water-based and polymer foams, gel foam has smaller bubble sizes, lower drainage rates, and slower coarsening rates. This improvement is mainly attributed to the increased viscosity and thickness of the liquid film after gel and the formation of a three-dimensional network structure. Water loss rate experiment shows that the foam stability is stronger when the liquid film has certain viscosity and elasticity to resist external disturbances. However, higher viscosity and film strength do not necessarily result in better foam stability. The final water loss rate of the gel foam after being placed at 100 °C for 10 h is 74.45%, much lower than that of other higher-strength gel foams (greater than 99%). Fracture plugging experiments demonstrated that the plugging rate of gel foam is high (80%), whereas water-based foam achieved only 37.5%. The gel foam can effectively plug fractures and expand the swept volume, showing great potential for improving oil reservoir recovery.
期刊介绍:
Physics of Fluids (PoF) is a preeminent journal devoted to publishing original theoretical, computational, and experimental contributions to the understanding of the dynamics of gases, liquids, and complex or multiphase fluids. Topics published in PoF are diverse and reflect the most important subjects in fluid dynamics, including, but not limited to:
-Acoustics
-Aerospace and aeronautical flow
-Astrophysical flow
-Biofluid mechanics
-Cavitation and cavitating flows
-Combustion flows
-Complex fluids
-Compressible flow
-Computational fluid dynamics
-Contact lines
-Continuum mechanics
-Convection
-Cryogenic flow
-Droplets
-Electrical and magnetic effects in fluid flow
-Foam, bubble, and film mechanics
-Flow control
-Flow instability and transition
-Flow orientation and anisotropy
-Flows with other transport phenomena
-Flows with complex boundary conditions
-Flow visualization
-Fluid mechanics
-Fluid physical properties
-Fluid–structure interactions
-Free surface flows
-Geophysical flow
-Interfacial flow
-Knudsen flow
-Laminar flow
-Liquid crystals
-Mathematics of fluids
-Micro- and nanofluid mechanics
-Mixing
-Molecular theory
-Nanofluidics
-Particulate, multiphase, and granular flow
-Processing flows
-Relativistic fluid mechanics
-Rotating flows
-Shock wave phenomena
-Soft matter
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-Thermodynamics of flow systems
-Transonic flow
-Turbulent flow
-Viscous and non-Newtonian flow
-Viscoelasticity
-Vortex dynamics
-Waves