Analysis of cross-linked polyacrylamide gel flow in microfluid model of hydraulic fracture

The relevance of the research arises from the need to enhance hydraulic fracturing efficiency in low-permeable reservoirs. Emphasis is laid on development of alternative less toxic crosslinking agents and on application of microfluid technologies in the analysis of the behavior of gels in the structure of rock, which can improve accuracy of laboratory tests and enhance hydraulic fracturing efficiency. The synthesis of gels used 0.25% of partially hydrolyzed polyacrylamide. Polymerization of polyacrylamide involved hexamine and sylon. Concentration of the cross-linkers was the same and equaled 0.6%. The influence of high-temperature curing on rheology of a gel with and without cross-linkers is described, the efficient viscosity of the cross-linked gel with the cross-linkers grows by an order of magnitude after high-temperature curing, while the viscosity of the polyacrylamide solution decreases because of its thermal decomposition. The experimental analysis of gel flow in a micromodel fracture is carried out. The influence of the cross-linkers and temperature curing on the loss of pressure during gel injection is studied. The experimentation for the first time ever tested the behavior of the thermal crosslinking of gel in the microfluid model of a fracture under heating to 80 °C. It is found that the gel with the cross-linkers demonstrates an exponential growth of the differential pressure after heating, which implies the efficient crosslinking and the increase in the pressure loss by 10 times as compared with the non-cross-linked polyacrylamide.

Pryazhnikov A. I., Pryazhnikov M. I., Ben Ahmed H., Volchenko E. N., Minakov A. V. Analysis of cross-linked polyacrylamide gel flow in microfluid model of hydraulic fracture. MIAB. Mining Inf. Anal. Bull. 2025;(8):17-28. [In Russ]. DOI: 10.25018/0236_ 1493_2025_8_0_17.

The study was supported by the Russian Science Foundation, Grant No. 23-79-30022, https://rscf.ru/project/23–79-30022/.

A.I. Pryazhnikov¹, Junior Researcher, e-mail: andron2793@yandex.ru, ORCID ID: 0000-0002-6124-037X,
M.I. Pryazhnikov¹, Researcher, e-mail: arrivent@yandex.ru, ORCID ID: 0000-0001-9143-7950,
H. Ben Ahmed¹, Junior Researcher, e-mail: benahmedhedi93@gmail.com,
E.N. Volchenko¹, Junior Researcher, e-mail: evolchenko@sfu-kras.ru,
A.V. Minakov¹, Dr. Sci. (Phys. Mathem.), Assistant Professor, e-mail: tov-andrey@yandex.ru, ORCID ID: 0000-0003-1956-5506,
¹ Siberian Federal University, 660041, Krasnoyarsk, Russia.

A.I. Pryazhnikov, e-mail: andron2793@yandex.ru.

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