Control of flow through porous media using polymer gels
Pacelli L. J. Zitha, C. Wouter Botermans, Jeroen E. van der Hoek, Fred J. Vermolen · Journal of Applied Physics · 2002
We examine the effect of a dynamic stress on the reduction of flow in porous media using polymer gels formed in situ. To develop the theory for the response of the gel, we consider three dominant factors: (a) compressive (elastic) deformation of the gel and porous medium, (b) microscopic flow in this system, and (c) gel displacement. The latter occurs when the stress p is larger than a certain critical value pc, satisfying pcR2=constant (R=effective pore radius), where the constant is an increasing function of elastic modulus of the gel and its cross-linking energy. The expulsion of the gel above pc is reminiscent of growing Saffman-Taylor instabilities. To derive analytic expressions for the macroscopic saturation profiles we use the formalism for fully miscible two-phase flow. The equation of evolution of the pressure, established by mass balance arguments, was solved analytically. For p