Flow-induced degradation of hydrolyzed polyacrylamide in porous media

Summary

In this work we present an experimental study of flow-induced degradation of hydrolyzed polyacrylamide in aqueous solutions flowing through porous media. The degradation is analyzed by passing the solution repeatedly through the medium at a constant flow velocity and the degraded solution is then characterized by porous media and opposed jets flows. When the polyacrylamide is dissolved in deionized water, it exhibits a gradual extension thickening in the flow through porous media and opposed jets. In this case, the polymer degrades as it passes through the porous medium even at relatively low flow rates. When the polyacrylamide is dissolved in an NaCl solution, it exhibits critical extension thickening in porous media flows, and it only degrades at Reynolds numbers that are higher than the onset of the extension thickening behavior. Chain degradation is therefore only encountered when extension thickening is produced. The results also show that the extent of degradation decreases as the pore size decreases.