Some rheological aspects of the sulfonated polyacrylamide weak hydrogels for oil recovery applications

Viscosity drop is a main technical problem during the course of polymer flooding in an oil field by the effect of parameters such as oil reservoir salt and temperature. This paper considers the preparation and the rheological properties and thermal stability of novel weak hydrogels based on sulfonated polyacrylamide (SPA) crosslinked in electrolyte solutions. Experimental results showed that by increasing of crosslinker concentration storage modulus dependency on frequency becomes weaker. At lower gelation temperature, gels with higher crosslinker concentrations exhibit lower storage modulus. Results show that these weak gels could greatly preserve polymer properties in a desired level from mechanical and chemical degradations