A study of dilational rheological properties of polymers at interfaces

Viscoelastic properties of two polymers, partially hydrolyzed polyacrylamide and partially hydrolyzed modified polyacrylamide, widely used in chemical flooding in the petroleum industry, were investigated at three interfaces, water–air, water–dodecane, and water–crude oil, by means of a dilational method provided by I.T. Concept, France, at 85 °C. Polymer solutions were prepared in brine with 10,000 mg/l sodium chloride and 2000 mg/l calcium chloride. It has been shown that the viscoelastic modulus increases with the increment of polymer concentration in the range of 0–1500 mg/l at the water–air interface. Each polymer shows different viscoelatic behavior at different interfaces. Generally speaking, values of the viscoelastic modulus ( E), the real part ( E′), and the imaginary part ( E″) at the crude oil–water interface for each polymer are lower than at the air–water or water–dodecane interface. The two polymers display different interfacial properties at the same interface. Polymer No. 2 gives more viscous interfaces than polymer No. 1. All the information obtained from this paper will be helpful in understanding the interfacial rheology of ultra-high-molecular-weight polymer solutions.