Spe 212824 Pa

Characterization of Nonlinear Viscoelastic
Properties of Enhanced Oil Recovery

Polymer Systems Using Steady-
Shear Rheometry
Madhar Sahib Azad1*
1
Petroleum Engineering Department, CPG, KFUPM
Downloaded from http://onepetro.org/SJ/article-pdf/28/02/664/3099797/spe-212824-pa.pdf/1 by King Fahd University of Petroleum & Minerals user on 26 January 2024
Summary
Enhanced oil recovery (EOR) polymer systems such as hydrolyzed polyacrylamide (HPAM) solutions flowing in porous media at high
fluxes were reported to cause shear-thickening, a nonlinear viscoelastic (NLVE) phenomenon. Bulk rheological studies are usually per-
formed to characterize the viscous and viscoelastic behaviors of polymer solutions in porous media. To characterize the viscoelastic prop-
erties, oscillatory shear rheology based on linear viscoelastic (LVE) data and extensional rheology based on NLVE data have been used.
Although both extensional flow and high-speed shear flow can stretch and thicken polymer solutions in a nonlinear fashion, steady-shear
rheometry has been used to measure only the viscous and thinning behavior of HPAM systems. In this paper, (a) the thickening ability
of HPAM polymer systems formulated with contrasting salinity and molecular weight (MW) concentration is characterized in bulk shear
rheometry to analyze if the thickening in the pure shear field correlates with the thickening behavior reported in porous media and other
rheometry and (b) the thickening intensity of the polymer solutions of varying salinity concentration in the bulk shear field is compared
with the reported mechanical degradation effects in the literature.
The shear-thickening index obtained by fitting a power-law model to thickening data in steady-shear rheograms is higher for the high-
saline, high-MW low-concentration HPAM systems that have inherently higher nonlinear viscoelasticity. Furthermore, the thickening
behavior observed due to salinity variation in bulk steady shear contrasts with linear oscillatory shear behavior but conforms to the
thickening behavior observed in porous media and in the extensional field. This signifies that polymer-EOR researchers performing com-
parative studies on low-salinity and high-salinity polymer floods, and having a shear rheometer at their disposal, must look beyond linear
oscillatory rheology and make use of nonlinear steady-shear rheology. There is a direct relation between the shear-thickening index of
saline HPAM solutions and their mechanical degradation intensity. This paper shows that the high-speed data in steady-shear rheometry
that are usually ignored in EOR literature have useful information and the notion that HPAM solutions are purely thinning in the bulk
shear field needs to be reconsidered.
Introduction
Polymer flooding is a commonly used EOR method (Wassmuth et al. 2009; Clemens et al. 2013; Manichand and Seright 2014; Zechner
et al. 2015; Delamaide et al. 2016; Seright 2017; Zhao et al. 2021; Sagyndikov et al. 2022). During polymer flooding, polymer powders
are added to injection water to produce a viscous solution. The viscous water flows with the reduced mobility and therefore improves the
vertical sweep, an accelerated oil recovery with the reduced water cut. The injected polymer solutions exhibit a non-Newtonian behavior
in porous media. Xanthan gum and HPAM are the two commonly used polymers for EOR applications. While xanthan gum has more rigid
chains and therefore does not stretch significantly, HPAM is a synthetic viscoelastic polymer with flexible chains. Viscoelasticity is a
scientific phenomenon that has a time dependency. Viscoelastic polymer solutions exhibit either viscous or elastic characteristics depend-
ing on their inherent relaxation abilities and the observation time given for the polymer solutions to relax back. If the relaxation time of
the solutions is higher than the time of observation, then the unrelaxed polymer chains with the accumulated stresses exhibit a potent
elastic behavior that would result in higher viscosity. Shear thickening is one aspect of viscoelasticity, and it occurs when the observation
time is too low for the disturbed flexible polymer chains to relax fully. Shear rate is inversely proportional to observation time. The high
shear rates often experienced around a wellbore cause low observation time that leads to shear-thickening effects in porous media. If the
disturbed polymer chain is very rigid, as observed with most of the xanthan gum solutions, shear thickening will not occur in porous
media as the chains relax easily for the shorter observation time (Cannella et al. 1988; Seright et al. 2011; Clarke et al. 2015). The main
practical implication of the HPAM polymer chain’s flexibility and viscoelasticity is that it causes the shear-thickening effect that generates
high pressures at higher fluxes, which eventually reduces the injectivity in an unfractured condition. Polymer systems characterized by
lesser rigidity or higher nonlinear viscoelasticity led to shear thickening, which eventually could cause mechanical degradation (Zaitoun
et al. 2012), and a longer fracture extension in fractured conditions (Zechner et al. 2015). Investigations related to shear-thickening behav-
iors in EOR applications have been carried out since the 1970s (Hirasaki and Pope 1974; Masuda et al. 1992; Delshad et al. 2008; Azad
and Trivedi 2019a). While injectivity loss due to polymer viscoelasticity is detrimental in unfractured reservoirs, the viscoelastic behav-
iors of polymers can positively influence residual oil recovery under favorable conditions. Such conditions include relatively high-
pressure gradients (Azad and Trivedi 2020a), applications in light oil reservoirs (Vermolen et al. 2014), secondary injections in the
presence of mobile oil (Huh and Pope 2008), etc. Since the reporting of additional oil recovery at the Daqing oil field, caused by high-
concentrated viscoelastic polymer flooding (Wang et al. 2000, 2001, 2007, 2010, 2011), several research works have been undertaken
globally at different institutes such as the University of Alberta (Urbissinova et al. 2010; Azad et al. 2018; Azad 2019; Azad and Trivedi
2019a, 2020a, 2020b, 2021), University of Texas–Austin (Huh and Pope 2008; Ehrenfred 2013; Qi et al. 2017; Erincik et al. 2018; Jin
et al. 2020), Clausthal University (Elhajjaji et al. 2016; Hincapie et al. 2017; Tahir 2020; Tahir et al. 2020), New Mexico Tech (Seright
*Corresponding author; email: madhar.azad@kfupm.edu.sa

Copyright © 2023 Society of Petroleum Engineers
Original SPE manuscript received for review 8 June 2022. Revised manuscript received for review 6 September 2022. Paper (SPE 212824) peer approved 27 September 2022.
664 April 2023 SPE Journal

2011; Seright et al. 2018), Shell Research Center (Vermolen et al. 2014), and Schlumberger Gould Research Center (Clarke et al. 2015)
to further investigate the viscoelastic effects of polymers on oil recovery. The results have thus far been contrasting due to the complex
nature of porous media, insufficient understanding of polymer rheology in porous media, and the inability to properly relate results
obtained from core experiments to those observed at the actual field scale. The key conclusion in this regard has been that the viscoelas-
ticity effects of polymers on the reduction of residual oil saturation (Sor) require a case-by-case investigation (Seright 2017). Further, the
mechanism by which polymer viscoelasticity contributes to microscopic oil recovery appears to be not thoroughly understood with wet-
tability alteration appearing to play a positive role (Morejon et al. 2018; Li et al. 2020). While there is no universal consensus on the
viscoelastic effects of polymers on the reduction of Sor, the viscoelastic effects on shear-thickening behavior are clear and bulk shear
rheology has been used to characterize the in-situ rheological behavior of EOR polymer systems.
Steady-shear rheology has been performed extensively for decades to characterize the viscous behavior of EOR polymer systems for
quantifying its mobility control potential (Cannella et al. 1988; Masuda et al. 1992; Delshad et al. 2008; Azad et al. 2018; Azad and
Trivedi 2021). To account for the polymer’s shear-thickening behavior, an NLVE phenomenon, researchers so far have been using oscil-
latory shear rheology in the LVE regime (Heemskerk et al. 1984; Delshad et al. 2008; Stavland et al. 2010). The limitations of LVE for
polymer EOR applications are highlighted in the critical review compiled by Azad and Trivedi (2019a). Although linear viscoelasticity
has been commonly known among EOR researchers, nonlinear viscoelasticity is more prevalent in porous media. The difference between
linear and nonlinear viscoelasticity is very well documented in the rheological text (Macoska 1994). The distinction between these two is
so important that the rheological text devotes separate chapters to discussing linear and nonlinear viscoelasticity (Chapters 3 and 4 in
Macoska 1994; Barnes et al. 2010). The key difference between these is that in the LVE regimes measured in the oscillatory shear flow,
viscoelastic properties are measured at low strain (or deformation). Despite the fact that polymer solution flowing in porous media is
subjected to high nonlinear strain, most of the previous researchers used oscillatory relaxation time obtained from the LVE for quantifying
the viscoelastic effects (Delshad et al. 2008; Erincik et al. 2018; Qi et al. 2017; Ehrenfred 2013). In stronger flows such as Couette, porous
media, and extensional, the polymer solutions get disentangled, which could be characterized by Rouse relaxation time. Rouse time can
characterize the nonlinear stretch of a straightened polymer chain (Howe et al. 2015) and so does the strain-hardening index obtained in
the extensional rheometer (Azad and Trivedi 2020a, 2020b). While the single Rouse relaxation time along with the residential time can
give a measure of Deborah number that can be used to quantify the onset of viscoelastic effect (Heemskerk et al. 1984), strain hardening
or shear thickening gives a measure of how much increase in viscosity, the polymer solutions can generate during the course of the stretch.
Extensional rheology that can probe the “strain hardening” behavior of EOR polymer systems (Azad and Trivedi 2019a, 2019b, 2020a,
2020b) is an NLVE phenomenon because of the higher molecular stretch the polymer chains will experience due to their spatial nature.
In rheological literature, shear rheology has been reported to give a measure of a polymer’s NLVE behavior and has been considered
an NLVE phenomenon along with extensional rheology (Macoska 1994). However as mentioned in the preceding paragraph, steady-shear
rheometry is used extensively by EOR researchers to characterize the viscous behavior of polymer solutions (Cannella et al. 1988; Clarke
et al. 2015; Doda et al. 2021). Another important rheological implication is that the polymer solutions that can be stretched to exhibit
thickening behavior with a minimum speed in the extensional field can be stretched in the shear field but at high speeds (Doshi and Dealy
1987; Venerus 2000; Neergaard et al. 2000; Wagner et al. 2005). A higher speed of rotation leads to lower observation time, and the times-
cale plays a major role in stretching the polymer solutions in the shear field without any contribution from the size scale. This has been
very well recognized among rheologists as high-speed shear flow or exponential shear flow (Doshi and Dealy 1987; Wagner et al. 2005).
The famous rod-climbing effect in the nonextensional field is due to high-speed shear flow (Weissenberg 1947). Fig. 1 shows the sche-
matic of the rod-climbing effect in the pure shear field that is associated with the viscoelastic solutions but not with the Newtonian solu-
tions. The video of the rod climbing effect can be seen by clicking the link provided in the caption of Fig. 1. The inability of the Newtonian
viscous solutions to exhibit rod climbing at high rotational speed implies that the nature of the polymer systems also plays a role in
attenuating the viscoelastic effects at a high rotational speed.
Fig. 1—Schematic showing the high-speed shearing on the rod-climbing effect in the nonextensional flow field (Source: https://
www.youtube.com/watch?v=2WCRtRw9AmU).
Should these rheological facts (“shear rheology is an NLVE phenomenon and high-speed shear flow can stretch the viscoelastic poly-
mer solutions just like extensional flow can stretch it”) seek the attention of polymer EOR researchers? Although some literature has
reported the thickening effects in the bulk shear field (Howe et al. 2015; Han et al. 2012; Doda et al. 2021), they are not subjected to
rheological analysis, and HPAM polymer that has shown thickening in porous media was considered by EOR researchers to show a pure
thinning in the shear field (Masuda et al. 1992; Delshad et al. 2008; Seright et al. 2011; Azad et al. 2018; Azad and Trivedi 2019a). The
main scope of the work is to analyze if the thickening observed due to salinity variation in porous media and that was correlated with the
strain-hardening index (Azad and Trivedi 2020a) could be correlated with the thickening generated during high-speed shear flow in the
shear rheometer. Thickening in porous media is not only influenced by polymer solutions properties but also by the petrophysical proper-
ties such as pore-throat diameter, pore-size distribution, permeability, and aspect ratio (Heemskerk et al. 1984; Zamani et al. 2015).
Therefore, a set of available single-phase coreflood experiments conducted in the same porous medium with the polymer systems of
contrasting salinity and MW/concentration was used, and therefore, only two points would be used for cross-comparison between
April 2023 SPE Journal 665

shear-thickening index, porous-media-thickening index, and strain-hardening index. Zaitoun et al. (2012) reported mechanical degrada-
tion of five different polymer systems with varying salinity in the same capillary. Mechanical degradation is also associated with NLVE
effects, and the objective of the work is also to compare if the shear thickening of the polymer systems can correlate with the reported
mechanical degradation.
The shear-thickening index starts after the viscoelastic onset rate and ends before the onset of mechanical degradation and the flow data
in between them are fitted by the power law to quantify the porous-media-thickening index (Fig. 2). Porous-media-thickening index for
each of the systems extracted from the literature is reported in Table 1. Mechanical degradation of polymer systems is also reported in
Table 1. Then, shear rheology is performed on those systems, and a power-law model is used to fit shear rheological data in the shear-
thickening regime to quantify the shear-thickening index. Cases involving extensional rheology are also extracted from the literature to
compare the strain-hardening index obtained in the extensional field (Table 1) with the shear-thickening index for the polymer systems.
Cases are also included to compare the relevance of LVE and NLVE properties obtained from the shear field with the NLVE properties
obtained in porous media and extensional field.
Fig. 2—Schematic describing the power-law fitting to shear-thickening regime exhibited by polymer systems in the porous media
to quantify the porous-media-thickening index.
Porous- Mechanical Degradation

Media- in Capillary at the Extensional
Thickening Shear Rate of 870,000, Relaxation Time in Strain-Hardening
Index 580,000, 290,000, and Seconds Extracted Index Reported by Shear-
Extracted 140,000 seconds−1 from Azad and Azad and Trivedi Thickening
Authors (Year), from the Extracted from the Trivedi (2019b, (2019b, 2020a, Index Reported
S. No. Polymer Systems Center Literature Literature 2020a, 2020b) 2020b) in This Work
1a 8 MDa, 1,000 ppm Yuan (1982), UT- 1.296 NA 0.062 3.029 1.3431
Pusher-700 in 1,000 ppm Austin.
NaCl
1b 8 MDa, 1,000 ppm Yuan (1982), UT- 1.603 NA 0.032 3.372 1.6935
Pusher-700 in 10,000 ppm Austin.
NaCl
2a 18–20 MDa, 1,000 ppm Seright et al. 1.106 NA NA NA 1.08
HPAM 3830 in deionized (2011), New
water Mexico Tech
2b 18–20 MDa, 900 ppm HPAM Seright et al. 2.25 NA NA NA 1.31
3830 in 2.52 ppm NaCl (2011), New
Mexico Tech
3a 18 MDa, 2,000 ppm HPAM Erincik et al. NA NA 0.25 2.66 1.19
3630 in 1,400 ppm brine (2018), UT-Austin
3b 18 MDa, 3,548 ppm HPAM Erincik et al. NA NA 0.44 4.05 1.37
3630 in 24,300 ppm brine (2018), UT-Austin
4a 30–36 MDa, 640 HPAM Clarke et al. 1.55 NA 0.19 3.6 1.348
6035 in 4,907 ppm Brine (2015),
Schlumberger
4b 3.6 MDa, 6,000 ppm HPAM Clarke et al. 1.13 NA 0.026 3.21 0
3130 in 4,907 ppm Brine (2015),
Schlumberger
5a 3.6 MDa, 14,600 ppm HPAM Azad and Trivedi 0 NA 0.055 2.94 0
3130 in 4,907 ppm brine (2019a, 2019b),
University of
Alberta
Table 1—Porous-media-thickening index, strain-hardening index, and shear-thickening index for various polymer systems.

Porous- Mechanical Degradation
Media- in Capillary at the Extensional
Thickening Shear Rate of 870,000, Relaxation Time in Strain-Hardening
Index 580,000, 290,000, and Seconds Extracted Index Reported by Shear-
Extracted 140,000 seconds−1 from Azad and Azad and Trivedi Thickening
Authors (Year), from the Extracted from the Trivedi (2019b, (2019b, 2020a, Index Reported
S. No. Polymer Systems Center Literature Literature 2020a, 2020b) 2020b) in This Work
5b 18 MDa, 2,250 ppm HPAM Azad and Trivedi 1.51 NA 0.345 3.81 1.255
3630 in 4,907 ppm brine (2019a, 2019b),
University of
Alberta
6a 11 MDa, 2,100 ppm HPAM Zaitoun NA 87, 82.18, 76.2, 57.34 NA NA 1.6573
3430 in 200,000 ppm KCl et al. (2012),
brine Poweltec, Sultan
QaboosQaboos
University, and
PDO
6b 11 MDa, 1,980 ppm HPAM Zaitoun NA 83, 79.93, 63.84, 47.79 NA NA 1.637
3430 in 100,000 ppm KCl et al. (2012),
brine Poweltec, Sultan
QaboosQaboos
University, and
PDO
6c 11 MDa, 1,540 ppm HPAM Zaitoun et al. NA 76, 65.89, 48.39, 31.22 NA NA 1.544
3430 in 20,000 ppm KCl (2012), Poweltec,
brine Sultan Quboos
University, and
PDO
6d 11 MDa, 1,100 ppm HPAM Zaitoun et al. NA 64, 56.06, 35.75, 22.79 NA NA 1.474
3430 in 5,000 ppm KCl brine (2012), Poweltec,
Sultan Qaboos
University, and
PDO
6e 11 MDa, 950 ppm HPAM Zaitoun et al. NA 64, 52.4, 32.38, 180.86 NA NA 1.382
3430 in 2,000 ppm KCl brine (2012), Poweltec,
Sultan Qaboos
University, and
PDO
Note: FP 2430s, the commercial equivalent of Pusher-700 is used. FP 6035s, the commercial equivalent of HPAM 6040 is used. FP 3630s are used in the place of HPAM 3830.
Table 1 (continued)—Porous-media-thickening index, strain-hardening index, and shear-thickening index for various polymer systems.
It is to be noted that there is a difference between shear thickening and strain hardening. An increase in viscosity with respect to an increase
in the shear rate in a bulk shear field is called shear thickening. This is because the increase in viscosity is not aided by any stretching field. In
strain hardening, an increase in viscosity with respect to the increase in strain or strain rate in the shear-free field is called extensional thickening
or strain hardening. However, in porous media, both shear and elongation fields coexist, and therefore, it is called porous media thickening.
Although it is common to denote the thickening phenomenon in porous media by shear thickening (Delshad et al. 2008; Seright et al. 2011;
Azad and Trivedi 2019a, 2019b), in this paper, the term “porous media thickening” is used from now on to distinguish it from the term “shear
thickening”. The details about the different systems with different variables such as salinity and MW concentration to be evaluated for their
behaviors in a shear field and the rationale for their evaluation are provided in the following paragraphs.
Porous-Media-Thickening Effect due to Salinity Difference. Salinity is an important variable in chemical EOR because of the inherent
presence of ions in the formation and in injection waters. Low-salinity polymer flood has gained increased attention in recent times (Al-
Sofi et al. 2019; Zhao et al. 2021; Ayirala et al. 2022). At lower salinity conditions, the polymer solutions exhibit mild shear thickening
when compared to higher salinity conditions (Yuan 1982; Magbagbeola 2008; Seright et al. 2011; Vermolen et al. 2014). Seright et al.
(2011) interpreted that HPAM polymer molecules in distilled conditions are in a highly extended state because of the active electrostatic
repulsion between anionic groups, and therefore, higher energy is not needed to stretch those polymer molecules so that it flows through
the pore throat. On the other hand, high salinity coils the polymer chains, and therefore, higher energy is needed to uncoil them so that
they can flow through the pore throat. Zaitoun et al. (2012) observed lesser mechanical degradation with low-salinity polymer systems
when compared to high-salinity polymer systems. The authors interpreted that at low salinity, polymer chains repel each other, thereby
inducing a rigidity that makes it difficult for them to stretch under the extensional dominated field.
The in-situ rheological behavior of low- and high-salinity polymer systems used by Yuan (1982) and the power law fit to them are
shown in Figs. 3a and 3b. The in-situ rheological behavior reported by Seright et al. (2011) for polymer systems prepared with distilled
and high-salinity water and the power law fit to them are shown in Figs. 4a and 4b. Porous-media-thickening indices for these systems
determined by power-law fitting are reported in Table 1. As expected, the high-salinity polymer solutions used by Yuan (1982) resulted
in a high thickening index of 1.6, whereas the low-salinity polymer systems resulted in a thickening index of 1.29. For distilled water, the
thickening is very mild as indicated by the thickening index of just 1.1, when compared to 2.25 shown by the high-salinity solutions even
though the latter has a lesser concentration (Seright et al. 2011). In this work, high-speed shear flow experiments were conducted on the
polymer systems used by Seright et al. (2011) at different salinities. These experiments were performed to examine whether the shear
thickening seen in the high-shear region would comply with their porous media behavior, as shown by high-concentration, high-salinity
polymer systems over low-concentration, deionized polymer systems. Similarly, high-speed shear flow experiments were conducted on
the polymer systems used by Yuan (1982) at different salinities to answer whether the shear thickening in the high-shear region would

comply with their porous media behavior as observed in the polymers characterized by similar concentrations but different salinities.
Strain Hardening due to Salinity Difference. Extensional rheology has been used to characterize the porous-media-thickening behavior
of EOR polymer systems (Azad and Trivedi 2019a, 2019b, 2020a). Extensional rheology can be used to quantify the strain-hardening
behavior of synthetic polymer systems. A power-law fit to the strain-hardening behavior of the low- and high-salinity polymer systems
used by Yuan (1982), reproduced from Azad and Trivedi (2019b), is shown in Fig. 3c. Erincik et al. (2018) reported a higher Sor reduction
for the high-salinity, high-concentrated viscoelastic polymer solutions over the low-salinity, low-concentrated polymer solutions in the
core treated with EDTA and other agents. Although a wettability alteration was sought to be one of the microscopic recovery mechanisms
during polymer flood (Li et al. 2020), which may have caused a higher Sor reduction in Erincik’s experiment, a higher strain-hardening
index has been quantified by Azad and Trivedi (2020a) for the high-salinity systems over the low-salinity systems. The strain-hardening
behavior of both the high-salinity, highly-concentrated, and low-salinity, low-concentrated systems in the extensional field is shown in
Fig. 5. The strain-hardening indices of these systems are provided in Table 1. The shear rheological experiments and the power-law fittings
on the systems used for oil recovery and extensional rheological experiments by Erincik et al. (2018) and Azad and Trivedi (2020a),
respectively, will answer if the strain-hardening behavior seen in the extensional field due to variation in salinity be discerned during
high-speed shear flow. Comparing the strain-hardening index and shear-thickening index on the low- and high-salinity polymer systems
used by Yuan (1982) will also further reveal whether the high-speed shear flow and extensional flow can reveal similar phenomena. This
Fig. 3—(a) In-situ rheological behavior of 1,000 ppm Pusher-700 in 10,000 ppm NaCl and 1,000 ppm Pusher-700 in 1,000 ppm
NaCl [reproduced from Yuan (1982)]. (b) Power-law fit to their porous-media-thickening regime. (c) Power-law fit to their strain-
hardening regime obtained in the extensional field [reproduced from Azad and Trivedi (2019a)].
Fig. 4—(a) Resistance factor as a function of flux rate for 1,000 ppm HPAM in deionized water and 900 ppm HPAM in 2.52% total
dissolved solids brine [reproduced from Seright et al. (2011)]. (b) Power-law fit to their porous-media-thickening regime.

Fig. 5—Strain-hardening behavior of high- and low-salinity polymer systems used by Erincik et al. (2018) [reproduced from Azad
and Trivedi (2020a)].
may give an idea of whether high-speed shear data obtained from steady-shear rheology can be used in the place of extensional rheology
to predict the different thickening behaviors of the systems having variations in salinities.
LVE and NLVE due to Salinity Variation in Shear Field. To characterize the polymer’s viscoelastic behavior, linear relaxation time
determined from oscillatory shear has been used in most of the previous studies (Heemskerk et al. 1984; Delshad et al. 2008; Stavland
et al. 2010; Seright et al. 2009; Vermolen et al. 2014). Initially, the LVE is detected using the amplitude ramp test, and then the frequency
sweep is done at the LVE to monitor the intersection of storage and loss modulus. The inverse of the point at which the storage and
loss moduli intersects is called the oscillatory linear relaxation time. Linear oscillatory relaxation time is used along with porous media
shear rate to predict Sor (Qi et al. 2017), apparent viscosity (Delshad et al. 2008). Erincik et al. (2018) reported that the low-salinty and
high-salinity polymer solutions tested exhibited relaxation times of 10 and 0.24 seconds, respectively (Fig. 6), suggesting that low-
salinity solutions are highly elastic. Yuan (1982) also reported that the linear oscillatory relaxation time of the low- and high-salinity
polymer systems tested is 0.066 and 0.035 seconds, respectively. This implies that low-salinity polymer systems have higher linear
viscoelasticity than high-salinity polymer systems. A careful look into Figs. 3b and 4b reveal that high-salinity polymer systems exhibit
higher thickening indices in porous media than low-salinity polymer systems. This indicates that high-salinity polymer systems exhibit
higher nonlinear viscoelasticity. Any small strain deformation experienced in the linear regime of the oscillatory field will not be large
enough to adequately characterize the NLVE properties. High-speed shear flow experiments will be conducted on the low- and high-
salinity systems used by Erincik et al. (2018) to check if NLVE and LVE can be distinguished in the same shear field.
Fig. 6—LVE behavior of low-salinity and high-salinity polymer systems used by Erincik et al. (2018).
Porous-Media-Thickening and Strain-Hardening Effects due to Variation in MW and Concentration. Concentration and MW are
two properties through which a polymer flooder can design the viscosity of the polymer solutions. In general, increasing the concentration
and MW of a polymer leads to an increase in its shear viscosity. However, 640 ppm of low-concentration, high-MW HPAM 6035 tends to
show a higher degree of porous media thickening in consolidated porous media than 6,000 ppm of high-concentration, low-MW HPAM
3130 due to the in-situ elastic turbulence effect associated with the NLVE properties (Fig. 7a) (Clarke et al. 2015; Kawale et al. 2017).
Similarly, 2,250 ppm of HPAM 3630 tends to show a high degree of porous media thickening in unconsolidated porous media, whereas,
in the same media, 14,600 ppm of HPAM 3130 does not show any thickening (Fig. 8a) (Azad and Trivedi 2020b). Porous-media-
thickening indices of 6,000 ppm HPAM 3130, 640 ppm HPAM 6040 solution, and 2,250 ppm HPAM 3630 solution estimated by power-
law fitting (Figs. 7b and 8b) are reported in Table 1. Strain-hardening behavior and its indices of these systems are provided in Figs. 7c
and 8c and Table 1. It is clear from these data that owing to its low MW of 3.6 MDa, HPAM 3130 exhibited a very low thickening index
in consolidated sand and zero thickening in an unconsolidated porous media, respectively. The strain-hardening index of 2.14 shown by

Fig. 7—(a) In-situ rheological behavior of 640 ppm HPAM 6035 and 6,000 ppm HPAM 3130 solutions prepared with 6,400 ppm
salinity [reproduced from Clarke et al. (2015)]. (b) Power-law fittings to the shear-thickening regime. (c) Power-law fittings to the
strain-hardening regime [reproduced from Azad and Trivedi (2020a)].
Fig. 8—(a) Porous-media-thickening behavior of 2,250 ppm HPAM 3630 and porous-media-thinning behavior of 14,600 ppm HPAM
3130 solutions prepared with 6,400 ppm salinity [reproduced from Azad and Trivedi (2020b))]along with power-law fitting to the
shear-thickening regime. (b) Strain-hardening behavior of 2,250 ppm HPAM 3630 and 14,600 ppm HPAM 3130 [reproduced from
Azad and Trivedi 2020b].
HPAM 3130 in the extensional field, in comparison to the porous-media-thickening index of 1.12, indicates that the extensional field is so
strong that it can lead to stronger thickening even when the polymer has lesser nonlinear elastic characters. Power-law fitting to the high
shear regime on the HPAM 3130, HPAM 3630, and HPAM 6040 systems used by Clarke et al. (2015) and Azad and Trivedi (2020b)
is needed to verify if the NLVE behavior observed in consolidated and unconsolidated porous media and in the extensional field due to
variation in concentration and MW can be reflected during a high-speed shear flow.
Mechanical Degradation due to Polymer Solutions of Varying Salinity and Concentration. Mechanical degradation is an important
aspect of polymer flood. It is the process in which the injection polymer solutions lose their viscosity and viscoelasticity because of
the breakage of their chain. Several studies have reported that mechanical degradation is dominant in flexible HPAM solutions when
compared to rigid xanthan gum solutions (Hill et al. 1974; Seright et al. 2009; Zaitoun et al. 2012; Ferreira et al. 2022). Zaitoun et al.
(2012) investigated the degradation of five different HPAM 3430 systems prepared at varying concentrations and salinities (Table 1). It
was reported by Zaitoun et al. (2012) that the higher the salinity of the polymer systems, the higher the degradation of polymer systems
in the capillary (Fig. 9). The higher degradation occurring at very high-shear rates is typically a nonlinear phenomenon. Power-law fitting
to the high shear regime on the HPAM 3430 systems used by Zaitoun et al. (2012) is required to verify if there is a relation between the
shear-thickening index of various saline polymer systems and their mechanical degradation extent.
Methodology
To answer the question of whether a high-speed shear flow can discern the NLVE characteristics exhibited by EOR polymer systems in porous
media, extensional fields, as well as capillaries, the HPAM polymer systems used by various researchers were obtained from SNF. The details

Fig. 9—Effect of KCl salinity on mechanical degradation of HPAM 3430 in capillaries at various shear rates [reproduced from
Zaitoun et al. (2012)].
regarding the polymer type, concentration, and salinity used by various researchers are provided in Table 1. HPAM 2420, an equivalent of
Pusher-700 was obtained. HPAM 6035 was used instead of HPAM 6040. HPAM 3630 was used instead of HPAM 3830. Xanthan gum polymer
obtained from Sigma Aldrich was used. The polymer solutions were prepared by dissolving the polymer powder in brine at a low rotational
speed of 200 rev/min for ~24 hours. A shear rheometer was used to characterize the high-speed shear rheological behaviors of these polymer
systems. The equipment was purchased from Anton Paar. We used a container made up of concentric cylinders with annular geometry and a
perfect cylindrical shape with no obstruction that may cause variation, thereby inducing size-scale extensional effect. The schematic of this
equipment with a perfectly cylindrical shape, uniaxial extensional geometry, and porous-media geometry is shown in Fig. 10. It is understood
that size scale dominates the uniaxial extensional field and, to some extent, influences porous media. However, the pure bulk shear rheology
does not have any size-scale effect, and therefore this work attempts to answer if a purely high-speed (time-scale) attenuated viscoelastic effect
can discern the NLVE effect caused by variation in salinity and MW concentration.
The prepared polymer solutions were subjected to a shear rheological test with rates varying from 0.1 to 1,000 seconds−1. A power-law
model was fitted to the data that fall in the shear-thickening regimes. These regimes occur after a certain shear rate called onset rate. Some
polymer systems tend to degrade considerably at a high rate and the data falling after the onset of the degradation regime are not included in
calculating the shear-thickening index because shear thickening occurs as long as the polymer chain is not stretched enough to reach its elastic
limit.
Results and Discussion
Initially, the shear rheological experiments performed on the xanthan gum and HPAM solutions are presented and discussed Then, the
shear rheological experiments performed on the set of polymer systems used by Yuan (1982), Seright et al. (2011), and Erincik et al.
(2018) are presented and discussed. Then, an analysis of the results is done to see if the shear-thickening index calculated using the high-
speed shear data for low- and high-salinity polymer systems correlates with the porous-media-thickening index, strain-hardening index,
and LVE parameter. The effect of varying the salinity from 1,000 to 30,000 ppm for a single HPAM polymer is presented and discussed.
Then the experiments conducted using the xanthan gum and HPAM solutions to elucidate the role of viscoelasticity on shear thickening
are discussed. Then, the shear rheological experiments performed on the set of polymer systems used by Clarke et al. (2015) and Azad
and Trivedi (2020b) are presented to answer whether the shear-thickening indices of high-MW low-concentrated and low-MW high-
concentrated systems correlate with the porous-media-thickening index and strain-hardening index. Finally, the shear rheological exper-
iments performed on the polymer systems used by Zaitoun et al. (2012) will answer if the degradation occurring at varying salinity levels
would be reflected in their respective shear-thickening index.
Shear Thickening due to the Salinity Effect. The shear rheological behavior of 1,000 ppm Pusher-700 at salinities of 1,000 ppm
and 10,000 ppm is shown in Fig. 11a. The shear viscosity of low-salinity HPAM is higher than the high-salinity HPAM at the same
Fig. 10—Schematic of rheometric geometries in concentric cylinder, extensional rheometer, and porous media.

concentration. At a low-shear rate, the polymer chains at low-salinity conditions are already in the stretched state and they generate
higher shear viscosity than the high-salinity polymer solutions. Shear thickening is observed with both systems, indicating that HPAM
polymer solutions can be stretched nonlinearly even in a shear field if the shear rate is high enough to ensure that the observation time is
shorter. A power-law fit to the shear-thickening regime for low- and high-salinity systems is shown in Fig. 11b. Despite the lower shear
viscosity at low shear, high-salinity HPAM corresponds to a higher thickening index of 1.693 when compared to 1.343 shown by the
low-salinity HPAM system (Table 1). Comparing the shear-thickening index with the porous-media-thickening index (Fig. 11c) and the
strain-hardening index (Fig. 11d), it is clear all three indices increase with respect to an increase in salinity, indicating that the high-speed
shear flow can discern the thickening behavior of polymer systems in porous media and extensional field. A careful look into Figs. 11c
and 11d suggests that while the porous media and shear-thickening index of both low- and high-salinity systems is similar and smaller
in the range of 1.3 and 1.6, respectively, the strain-hardening index of them is much larger at values above 3. This is due to the fact that
the pure extensional field is a stronger field where polymer chains are forced to stretch due to spatial effect even without having a need to
have a much higher rate. However, for the shear field in particular, the stretching occurs by virtue of high-speed rotation, which is why
thickening occurs at a higher rate in the shear field. One may wonder why, in porous media with the extensional flow component, the
thickening index should be not higher when compared to the one in the shear field. It is important to highlight that porous media used
by Yuan (1982) is a highly consolidated sand with a high permeability of 4 darcies where the amount of deformation that the flowing
solutions experience due to the extensional effect will be lower (Heemskerk et al. 1984; Azad and Trivedi 2019a). Another interesting
observation of practical interest can be made by looking into Fig. 11e, where the LVE relaxation time of low- and high-salinity polymer
systems obtained in the oscillatory shear field shows a negative trend with the porous-media-thickening index. A decrease in oscillatory
relaxation time with respect to the increase in the salinity contradicts the NLVE behavior observed in bulk steady-shear, bulk extensional,
and porous media. In other words, while the linear oscillatory relaxation time decreases with respect to the increase in salinity, the shear-
Fig. 11—(a) Steady-shear rheology of 1,000 ppm Pusher-700 at 1,000 ppm NaCl and 10,000 ppm NaCl. (b) Power-law fit to their
shear-thickening regime. (c) Comparison of porous-media-thickening index and shear-thickening index. (d) Comparison of porous-
media-thickening index and strain-hardening index. (e) Comparison of porous-media-thickening index and linear relaxation time.
(f) NLVE and LVE parameters as a function of salinity in the shear field.

thickening index increases with respect to salinity (Fig. 11f) and complies with porous media behavior. This is an important observation
for those contemplating doing comparative work on low- and high-salinity polymer flooding.
The shear rheological behavior of 1,000 ppm and 900 ppm HPAM 3630 systems prepared using deionized water and 25,200 ppm brine
and the power-law fitting to them are shown in Figs. 12a and 12b. Comparing the shear-thickening index with the porous-media-
thickening index at zero and high salinity (Fig. 12c and Table 1), it is again clear that an increase in salinity leads to an increase in indices
both in the bulk shear field and in the porous media. An increase in the indices with respect to the increase in salinity again reinforces our
earlier observation and interpretation made with regard to Yuan’s data that high-speed shear flow can discern the NLVE characteristics in
porous media caused by salinity variation. An important point to highlight here is that the shear- and porous-media-thickening indices for
the polymer system prepared with distilled water are very low and similar (~1.12 and 1.11). This is despite the fact that the polymer’s MW
is 18 MDa, signifying that the salinity is a very crucial parameter that governs the NLVE behavior. However, polymer solutions prepared
with 25,200 ppm salinity correspond to the shear- and porous-media-thickening indices of 1.32 and 2.25, respectively, signifying that the
presence of an extensional component in porous media can attenuate NLVE behavior of the highly-saline high-MW systems.
The shear rheological behavior of 2,000- and 3,548 ppm HPAM 3630 systems prepared using 1,400 and 24,300 ppm brines are shown
in Fig. 13a. Power-law fit to the shear-thickening regime of these systems is shown in Fig. 13b. As observed before, the high salinity
results in the higher thickening index. However, the shear-thickening index cannot be compared with the porous-media-thickening index
as Erincik’s experiments were done with the objective to investigate the effect of low- and high-salinity polymer flooding on Sor reduction
and not on the prediction of shear thickening or injectivity. Lower Sor observed during high-salinity polymer flood over low-salinity poly-
mer flood is directly correlated with its higher shear-thickening index and strain-hardening index, respectively (Fig. 13c). Linear oscilla-
tory relaxation time that decreases with respect to increasing salinity (Fig. 13d) again fails to correlate with Sor reduction observed during
high-salinity polymer flood. Although Sor reduction during high-salinity viscoelastic polymer flood correlates with the strain-hardening
index and shear-thickening index but not with the linear relaxation time (Fig. 13c), it is important to highlight that Erincik et al. (2018)
observed the higher Sor reduction with high-salinity polymer solutions only if the high-salinity polymer injection is preceded by the low-
salinity polymer injection. Generally, low-salinity polymer solutions were reported to be more elastic than high-salinity polymer solutions
(Vermolen et al. 2014; Erincik et al. 2018). However, as mentioned before, those reports were based on linear oscillatory shear experi-
ments. High-salinity polymer solutions tend to exhibit higher NLVE effects in fields dominated by higher deformation such as in exten-
sional rheometry (Azad and Trivedi 2020a, 2021) as well as in porous media characterized by extensional-flow components (Seright et al.
2011; Vermolen et al. 2014). Despite the higher nonlinear viscoelasticity associated with high-salinity polymer solutions, at this point, we
cannot attribute the Sor reduction observed in Erincik et al. (2018) solely to nonlinear viscoelasticity associated with the high-salinity
polymer systems because of at least two reasons. The first reason is the possibility of other microscopic oil recovery mechanisms such as
wettability alteration involved in cores treated with chemicals (Li et al. 2020). The second one is the inability of the high-salinity polymer
flood to reduce Sor when injected first or injected without a preceding low-salinity polymer flood. What preceding low-salinity polymer
flood does so that it favors the ensuing high-salinity polymer flood to reduce Sor is certainly an area of future investigation. Nevertheless,
Fig. 12—(a) Steady-shear rheology of 1,000 ppm HPAM 3630 with deionized water and 900 ppm HPAM 3630 with 2.52% total
dissolved solids. (b) Power-law fit to their shear-thickening regime. (c) Comparison of their porous-media-thickening index and
shear-thickening index.

Fig. 13—(a) Steady-shear rheology of 1,000 ppm Pusher-700 at 1,000 ppm NaCl and 10,000 ppm NaCl. (b) Power-law fit to their
shear-thickening regime. (c) Comparison of porous-media-thickening index and shear-thickening index. (d) Comparison of porous-
media-thickening index and strain-hardening index. (e) Comparison of porous-media-thickening index and linear relaxation time.
(f) NLVE and LVE parameters as a function of salinity in shear field.
a positive and negative relation between strain-hardening index and shear-thickening index (Fig. 13e) and strain-hardening index and
linear oscillatory relaxation time (Fig. 13f) for low- and high-salinity polymer systems corroborates that high-speed flow, when compared
to linear oscillatory flow, can effectively probe the polymer’s stretching NLVE behavior caused by salinity variation in the rotational
rheometer.
Effect of Salinity on Shear Thickening. In the previous paragraph based on two distinct salinity systems, it was found that higher
salinity polymer systems lead to relatively higher values of shear-thickening index, porous-media-thickening index, and strain-hardening
index. In this section, the effect of salinity on shear thickening of 1,000 ppm HPAM 3630 solutions is investigated for the broader range
of NaCl salinity from 0 to 30,000 ppm. The shear rheogram for 10 systems shows that the shear viscosity in the Newtonian and shear-
thinning regime is higher for the systems with lower salinity (Fig. 14). All the solutions show shear thickening, and the magnitude of the
shear thickening is quantified by fitting the power law to the shear-thickening regime (Fig. 15). The calculated shear-thickening index
is provided in Table 1 and Fig. 16. The shear-thickening index increases steadily with increasing salinity for the range between 0 and
20,000 ppm (Fig. 16), signifying that an increased salinity leads to an increase in NLVE effects. For 20,000, 25,000, and 30,000 ppm,
the shear-thickening index remains in the same range of 1.33. It appears that there is a threshold salinity, after which thickening intensity
becomes constant for this system. On the other hand, the onset rate at which shear-thickening occurs is 41.8 seconds−1 for both 25,000 and
30,000 ppm salinity systems, whereas for a 20,000 ppm salinity system, it is relatively higher at ~62.4 seconds−1. The lower the onset rate,
the higher the viscoelastic effects (Azad and Trivedi 2019a, 2020a). Therefore, it can be said an increase in salinity leads to an increase
in viscoelastic effects. Another interesting feature is that for salinity of 15,000 ppm and above, the shear viscosity at 1,000 seconds−1 is
lower than the shear viscosity at 672 seconds−1. This could be due to the possible degradation that occurs at a higher shear rate. Polymer
systems prepared at higher salinity tend to have higher degradation at relatively lower shear rates than the low-salinity polymer systems
(Zaitoun et al. 2012).
Viscoelastic Onset Rate due to Salinity Variation in Shear Field. The onset rate is the rate at which the polymer solutions tend to
exhibit shear-thickening effects. If the system is highly elastic, then a relatively smaller shear rate can attenuate shear-thickening effects.
Shear-thickening onset rate for 1,000 ppm HPAM 3630 at the NaCl salinities of 0, 2,500, 5,000, 7,500, 10,000, 15,000, 20,000, 25,000,
and 30,000 ppm are 672, 92.4, 62.1, 62.1, 62.1, 62.1, 62.1, 41.8, and 41.8 seconds−1, respectively (Fig. 17). A decrease is evident with
increasing salinity. However, for salinity ranges between 5,000 and 20,000 ppm, no decrease in onset rate is seen. Onset rate might be

Fig. 14—Effect of NaCl on the shear rheological behavior of 1,000 ppm HPAM 3630 solutions.
Fig. 15—Power-law fit to the shear-thickening regimes of 1,000 ppm HPAM 3630 solutions at salinity ranging from 0 to 30,000 ppm
NaCl.
somewhere between 62.1 and 41.8 seconds−1, and those rates were not imposed during the shear run. Nevertheless, a decreasing onset
rate with increasing salinity clearly indicates that the NLVE effects are higher with high-salinity solutions. We can also compare the onset
rate of 1,000 ppm HPAM 3630 in deionized water and that of 900 ppm HPAM 3630 in 2.52% total dissolved solids. The onset shear
rates for HPAM solutions in brine and deionized water are 92.4 and 672 seconds−1, respectively (Fig. 12a). A careful look into Fig. 9 of
Clarke et al. (2015) shows that the onset rate for shear thickening occurs at the same shear rate of 1 second−1 for HPAM 6035 polymer
of three different concentrations (0.24, 0.12, and 0.064%). It is important to point out that all three concentrations shown in Fig. 9a of
Clarke et al.’s paper are above overlap concentration. Above C*, an increase in concentration could increase the linear relaxation time
arising from the entangled solutions. However, it will not increase the Rouse relaxation time (Howe et al. 2015). This is basically because
above C*, the polymer does not stretch significantly. Therefore, above C*, the onset rate for all three concentrations for the same HPAM
6035 was similar in Clarke et al.’s work. In Fig. 12c of this paper, the difference is the salinity that leads to an early onset in the case of

Fig. 16—Shear-thickening index as a function of NaCl salinity for 1,000 ppm HPAM 3630 solutions.
Fig. 17—Viscoelastic onset rate as a function of NaCl salinity for 1,000 ppm HPAM 3630 solutions.
highly saline viscoelastic polymer solutions over low-salinity viscoelastic polymer solutions. If the MW is varied, the onset rate differs
with a higher-MW polymer system exhibiting an early onset when compared to a low-MW polymer system (Fig. 4b in Howe et al. 2015).
Is Shear Thickening Shown by HPAM due to the Viscoelastic Effect? Shear rheometers are generally prone to give unstable data at
low and high shear rates. To verify if the shear thickening shown by HPAM solutions at a high shear rate can be attributed to the visco-
elastic effects, the experiments are conducted with rigid xanthan gum solutions. Xanthan gum prepared at the concentration of 2,000 and
3,000 ppm in deionized water and 4,907 brine are provided in Fig. 18a. With distilled water, xanthan gum does not show any thickening
at both concentrations. On the other hand, with 4,907 ppm brine, only 3,000 ppm xanthan gum shows pure shear thinning and 2,000
ppm xanthan gum shows a thickening at the very high shear rate of 672 seconds−1. This could be due to the salinity effect that induces
flexibility and thickening, and saline xanthan gum solutions were reported to exhibit a thickening at a high shear rate (Fig. 5 in Howe
et al. 2015). Please note, that for all the high-salinity, high-MW HPAM solutions investigated in this work, the thickening is occurring at
the shear rate of 137 seconds−1 or less. Nevertheless, the inability of xanthan gum prepared at high concentration and/or deionized condi-
tions to exhibit thickening, and the relatively very high onset rate associated with the 2,000 ppm saline xanthan gum solutions to exhibit
thickening clearly indicates that in shear rheometry, less elastic xanthan gum systems will not show any considerable elastic effects. One
may wonder whether a high concentration of 3,000 ppm xanthan gum solutions in brine is preventing shear thickening and whether that
high concentration prevents thickening even if the polymer is having inherently higher nonlinear viscoelasticity. Also, one may wonder
if the inertial flow instability is leading to the shear-thickening of HPAM solutions. To answer these, the author has compared the shear
rheological results of 3,000 ppm viscoelastic HPAM 3630 and 3,000 ppm viscous xanthan gum solutions at the same salinity of 4,907
ppm (Fig. 18b). Although the xanthan gum and HPAM 3630 solutions exhibit similar behavior in low shear rates, a shear thickening is
evident only with HPAM 3630 solutions reinforcing our interpretation that the viscoelastic nature of HPAM solutions is indeed leading to
the thickening in shear rheometer and not the inertial instability.
Shear Thickening due to Variation in Concentration and MW. Polymer’s MW and concentration are two more variables that
could lead to different stretching behavior. While a polymer’s high MW could lead to more elastic behavior, a relatively very high

Fig. 18—(a) Steady-shear rheological behavior of 2,000 and 3,000 ppm xanthan gum solutions in deionized water and brine.
(b) Steady-shear rheological behavior of 3,000 ppm HPAM and xanthan gum solutions in 4,907 ppm brine.
concentration would prevent the polymer’s chains from stretching, thereby resulting in more viscous thinning behavior. In the following
two subsections, the ability of bulk shear rheology to discern the thickening behavior reported in consolidated and unconsolidated porous
media is discussed. The ability of extensional and shear rheology to discern porous media behavior is also compared.
Bulk Rheology and Consolidated Porous Media Rheology. It has been reported by Clarke et al. (2015) that the 640 ppm, 35–40 MDa
HPAM 6035 polymer system led to stronger thickening in consolidated porous media (0.23 and 435–465 md) when compared to 6,000
ppm, 3.6 MDa HPAM 3130 polymer system. The steady shear rheological behavior of 6,000 ppm, 3.6 MDa HPAM 3130 and 640 ppm,
30–35 MDa HPAM 6040 is shown in Fig. 19a. The high-MW, low-concentration systems that provide the low viscosity in the low shear
exhibited a sharp thinning and then an eventual stronger shear thickening. The power-law fit to the shear-thickening regimes for high-MW
low-concentration systems is provided in Fig. 19b, and the shear-thickening index is reported in Table 1. Noting the existence of the
direct relationship between the shear-thickening index with porous-media-thickening index for the high-MW system (Fig. 19c), high-
speed shear flow can discern the NLVE behavior for highly elastic polymer systems. On the other hand, a high-concentration low-MW
polymer system fails to show thickening in the pure-shear field (Figs. 19a and 19c). However, a mild porous-media thickening with a
thickening index of 1.12 is observed. This signifies that high-speed shear flow cannot predict the mild thickening shown by the lesser elas-
tic system in the consolidated porous media. However, the comparison between the strain-hardening index and porous-media-thickening
index for this high-concentration viscous system indicates a direct relation (Fig. 19d). The questions arise why high-concentration,
low-MW systems thicken strongly in the extensional field, whereas they show a mild to zero thickening in consolidated porous media and
shear field. Why do high-MW, low-concentration systems thicken in all three fields?
Bulk Rheology and Unconsolidated Porous Media Rheology. Azad and Trivedi (2020b) reported that the 2,250 ppm HPAM 18–20
MDa HPAM 3630 system led to thickening behavior in unconsolidated sandpack, whereas the 14,600 ppm, 3.6 MDa HPAM 3130 poly-
mer system led to a complete thinning behavior. The porosity and permeability of the sandpack are in the range of 0.42 and 3,400 md.
The steady shear rheological behavior of the 14,600 ppm, 3.6 MDa HPAM 3130 and 2,250 ppm, 18–20 MDa HPAM 3630 is shown in
Fig. 20a. High-MW 3630 shows shear thickening, whereas the HPAM 3130 fails to show thickening (Figs. 20a and 20b). Fig. 20c clearly
indicates that there is a direct relation between the shear-thickening index and porous-media thickening for not only the elastic polymer
system but also the viscous polymer system. This is because no thickening was reported for the less-elastic system in both unconsolidated
porous media and shear fields. In the unconsolidated media, the amount of deformation that the polymer solutions experience is lesser,
and those systems with limited stretchability do not thicken. On the other hand, Fig. 20d shows the positive value of strain-hardening
index for this less-elastic system, which gives us cautioning regarding the usage of extensional rheometry alone for predicting the in-situ
behavior of the less-elastic system in high-permeability, unconsolidated porous media. Here again, the question arises why low-MW,
high-concentration systems thicken in an extensional field, whereas they does not show any thickening in the shear and unconsolidated
porous media.
Influence of Size Scale, Timescale, and Nature of Polymer Systems in Attenuating the Viscoelastic Effects. In the previous two para-
graphs, the questions arose about why low-MW, high-concentration polymer systems thicken strongly in the extensional field and mildly
in consolidated porous media, whereas they do not show any thickening in the shear and unconsolidated porous media. The question
was also raised why high-MW, low-concentration polymer systems thicken in all the fields. For a polymer system to show a thickening
behavior, timescale, size scale, and nature of the systems should favor. Time effect is related to the observation time that is given for the
deformed polymer solutions to relax, and generally, high rate results in providing a shorter observation time and therefore an unrelaxed
elastic polymer chain stretches and thickens at higher rates as long as they do not stretch beyond its elastic limit. Size effect is related to
the additional stretching force given to the polymer systems by the virtue of flow geometry that has a strong extensional contribution.
If the nature of the polymer system is such that it does not stretch because of lower nonlinear viscoelasticity, which is the case with
high-concentration, low-MW HPAM 3130 (Figs. 19a and 20a), attenuating the thickening effects via time effects are not a possibility in
a pure shear field and in unconsolidated porous media. Flow geometry in the extensional flow provides a size effect that would strongly
stretch even those sticky systems. It is also important to highlight that, compared to unconsolidated porous media, consolidated porous
media are more converging diverging, which leads to size-induced elastic effects and the early onset of shear thickening (Zamani et al.
2015). Therefore, HPAM 3130 that failed to thicken in the bulk shear field and unconsolidated porous media (Fig. 8) showed thickening
in the extensional field and in consolidated porous media (Fig. 7a). On the other hand, if the nature of the polymer system is such that it
has higher nonlinear viscoelasticity, then it can stretch and thicken even without the support from the size effect, which is why high-MW
systems such as HPAM 3630 and HPAM 6035 thicken not only in the extensional field and consolidated porous media but also in uncon-
solidated porous media and in the bulk shear field (Figs. 7a and 8a).
Role of Polymer’s MW and Salinity in Attenuating the Viscoelastic Effects. In the case of 6,000 ppm HPAM 3130, 640 ppm HPAM
6035, 14,000 ppm HPAM 3130, and 2,250 ppm HPAM 3630, all the concentrations are above the overlap concentration. However, MW is
important and the higher the MW, the higher the nonlinear viscoelasticity, and therefore, the higher the shear-thickening index (Table 1).
In the case of 900 ppm HPAM 3630 in deionized water and 1,000 ppm HPAM 3630 in 2.52% brine, both concentrations are above the

Fig. 19—(a) Steady-shear rheology of 6,000 ppm HPAM 3130 and 640 ppm of HPAM 6035 in 4,907 ppm brine. (b) Power-law fit
to their shear-thickening regime of HPAM 6035. (c) Comparison of porous-media-thickening index and shear-thickening index.
(d) Comparison of porous-media-thickening index and strain-hardening index.
Fig. 20—(a) Steady-shear rheology of 6,000 ppm HPAM 3130 and 640 ppm of HPAM 6035 in 4,907 ppm brine. (b) Power-law fit
to their shear-thickening regime of HPAM 6035. (c) Comparison of porous-media-thickening index and shear-thickening index.
(d) Comparison of porous-media-thickening index and strain-hardening index.
overlap concentration. Here, the salinity plays a crucial role and the higher the salinity, the higher the NLVE effects, and the higher the
shear-thickening index (Table 1). Similarly, for Yuan’s data, at the same concentration of 1,000, higher salinity leads to higher shear-
thickening index (Table 1). Overall, it is higher MW and salinity that leads to higher NLVE effects.

Shear Thickening and Mechanical Degradation. The shear rheological experiments performed on the set of HPAM 3430 systems are
provided in Fig. 21a. A careful look into Fig. 21a reveals that in the shear-thinning regime, viscosity is higher for the low-salinity, low-
concentration system, and in the shear-thickening regime, viscosity is higher for the high-salinity, high-concentration system. All the systems
exhibit shear thickening. The shear-thickening index determined using power-law fit to the shear-thickening regime of these systems is
provided in Fig. 21b and Table 1. Again, the higher salinity results in higher shear-thickening index. Fig. 21c plots degradation as a function
of shear-thickening index for different shear rates. Note that each shear-thickening index corresponds to each salinity (Table 1 and Fig. 21b).
An increase in shear-thickening index clearly results in the increased degradation for all five imposed shear rates. A power law is best suited
to establish the relationship between degradation and shear-thickening indices. The power-law exponent that quantifies the increase in
degradation with respect to the increase in thickening index decreases with respect to the increase in shearing forces. When the shearing rate
is 870,000 seconds−1, the polymer system with the lowest salinity of 0.2% KCl and the corresponding shear-thickening index of 1.38 received
good support from the time effect to thicken and, therefore, can lead to the high degradation of ~64%. Although the polymer system with the
highest salinity of 20% KCl aggravates the degradation further to above 87% at the same shear rate, the difference between the degradation
caused by them is just 23%. On the other hand, if the shear rate is relatively lower on the order of 140,000 seconds−1, low-salinity polymer
system led to the degradation of just ~18.86% because here the time effect is not strong enough to stretch the low-salinity polymer chain
enormously to cause severe degradation. However, at the same shear rate, high-salinity polymer with its inherent high thickening capability
results in the degradation of 57.34%, which is more than thrice the value obtained with a low-salinity polymer system. Cao et al. (2022)
reported that the degradation is higher in porous media when compared to the capillary tube. With porous media characterized by strong
converging–diverging flow, the size effect will play an additional role in stretching the polymer solutions to degrade.
Fig. 21—(a) Steady shear rheological behavior of HPAM 3430 prepared at various concentrations and salinity. (b) Power-law fit to
the shear-thickening regime. (c) Percent of degradation as a function of the shear-thickening index for various shear rates.
Conclusions
This paper examines whether high-speed shear flow can thicken EOR-polymer systems via a timescale rheological effect, and it also
examines whether thickening obtained during shear flow can discern the thickening exhibited by the EOR-polymer systems of varying
salinity, MW concentration in porous media, and extensional field. The following conclusions could be drawn.
1. High-MW HPAM solutions exhibit thickening not only in porous media and extensional rheometry but also in bulk shear rheometry.
2. Shear-thickening index, porous-media-thickening index, and strain-hardening index of high-saline polymer systems are higher when
compared to the low-saline polymer systems. This clearly indicates that nonlinear viscoelasticity caused by salinity variation in poly-
mer systems can be discerned using high-speed shear flow.
3. While the shear-thickening index of low- and high-salinity polymer systems correlates with porous media and extensional thickening
behavior, the LVE properties of those systems obtained from the oscillatory-shear field failed to correlate with porous media and
extensional thickening. The researchers undertaking a comparative work on low- and high-salinity polymer flood and having a shear
rheometer at their disposal are suggested to look beyond LVE and use high-speed shear data from steady shear rheology to quantify
the shear-thickening index for viscoelastic characterization in porous media.
4. Shear-thickening index, porous-media-thickening index, and strain-hardening index of polymer systems characterized by high MW
and low concentrations are higher when compared to the systems characterized by low MW and high concentrations.
5. Low-MW, high-concentration polymer systems failed to show thickening in the bulk shear field. However, a very mild porous-media
thickening and a relatively stronger strain-hardening index shown by them in porous media indicate size effect caused by extensional
rheology can stretch the polymer solutions even with limited nonlinear viscoelasticity and relying on the extensional rheology for low-
viscoelastic polymer system is important when characterizing them for low-permeability reservoir applications.

6. The magnitude of the thickening index is higher in the extensional field when compared to the thickening in the bulk shear field.
7. In general, either viscoelastic onset rate is lower and/or shear-thickening index is higher with high-salinity, high-MW, and viscoelastic
polymer systems when compared to low-salinity, low-MW, and lesser viscoelastic polymer systems. This also indicates that nonlinear
viscoelasticity can be discerned during high-speed shear flow.
8. The magnitude of the shear-thickening index directly correlates with the degree of mechanical degradation for the polymer systems of
varying salinity and concentration. The high-salinity solutions lead to higher degradation and higher thickening index.
Acknowledgment
The author would like to acknowledge the startup funding (project number, SF21007) received from the petroleum engineering department
at CPG, KFUPM. Mr. Jafar, the petroleum engineering research assistant, is thanked sincerely for performing most of the shear rheological
experiments in a dedicated manner. Mr. Ala Al-Dogail is also thanked for assisting in some of the conducted experiments. SNF is
acknowledged for providing all the HPAM polymers.
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Characterization of Nonlinear Viscoelastic

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