Modified polyacrylamide by incorporating silica for drilling fluid technology / Koh Jin Kwei

Koh , Jin Kwei (2022) Modified polyacrylamide by incorporating silica for drilling fluid technology / Koh Jin Kwei. Masters thesis, Universiti Malaya.

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Abstract

Drilling is a process to remove the cutting in the excavations and offshore industry. Polyacrylamide (PAM) is a commercial additive in the drilling industry nowadays, but PAM has poor thermal, chemical, and pile stability in the geotechnical industry. Therefore, the functionalised material is required to be involved in the PAM-based drilling fluid. This study focuses on the modification of PAM incorporated with silica (SiO2). The rheological investigation was optimised using various PAM concentrations (500-2000 ppm) for the subsequent testing with the effect of SiO2, sodium dodecyl sulphate (SDS), temperature, and pH. Meanwhile, the promising formulation of modified PAM was identified via the rheological study with the effect of SiO2 and SDS. This formulation further studied the effect of temperature and pH. The drilling fluids were characterised by Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR), tensiometer, and contact angle. The results showed that 1000 ppm PAM was the critical association concentration as the rheological properties were better below 1000 ppm PAM. Further, 0.5 wt% SiO2 and 0.2 wt% SDS are promising formulations because both demonstrated better rheological performance than others. All modified PAM had better rheological performance than bare PAM. The rheological performance of PAM and modified PAM were significantly affected by temperature, which showed a better performance after heating to 60 °C and 40 °C, respectively. PAM and modified PAM had a better rheological performance at pH 10. Future studies can demonstrate the modified PAM in the bored pile construction to investigate the frictional resistance.

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