Analysis of the factors affecting the gelation time for polyacrylamide-redox system

Abstract

Gelled polymers are being applied increasingly as a reservoir flow control agent to improve the water to oil ratio in water flooding. Having so much data and so many methods available in the literature, it is difficult to explicitly judge the effect of various parameters on the gelation process. Therefore, a mathematical approach for determining the relative importance of each parameter and to derive the empirical relation between process variables is needed. Specifically, the present study examines the effect of four parameters on the gelation process. These are the polymer type, the initial polymer concentration and redox concentration, and the temperature. A factorial analysis was carried out to identify the influence of each factor on gelation time. Power relation was then employed to develop the empirical relation between the gelation time and the affecting parameters. To achieve this goal, the data available in the literature were studied and relevant tables were produced for the factors and their responses. Statistical analysis was carried out to identify the most affecting parameters, multiple regression analysis was employed to relate the gelation time to the affecting parameters, and dimensional analysis method was introduced to develop the power relations, which were then, utilized for the optimization process.