ABSTRACT
ABSTRACT: For polymer (PAM) flooding, the viscosity of the PAM solution injected into the bottom is a key factor for affecting production costs and oil recovery. In this paper, a three dimensional model is developed to study the mixing process of Polyacrylamide (PAM) and water through a helical static mixer. The viscosity of the PAM solution at the outlet was calculated using the Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) method. The effect of helical pitch and helical unit on viscosity of PAM solution are investigated and discussed. As the helical pitch increases, the PAM solution viscosity at the outlet of the static mixer also increased, the helical units spacing has the same influences on the outlet PAM solution viscosity with the helical pitch, but the impact is not so obvious. It means that we can reduce the polymer solution viscosity loss by increasing these two parameters appropriately.
