Lattice star and acyclic branched polymer vertex exponents in 3d

Numerical values of lattice star entropic exponents $\gamma_f$, and star vertex exponents $\sigma_f$, are estimated using parallel implementations of the PERM and Wang-Landau algorithms. Our results show that the numerical estimates of the vertex exponents deviate from predictions of the $\eps$-expansion and confirms and improves on estimates in the literature. We also estimate the entropic exponents $\gamma_\mathcal{G}$ of a few acyclic branched lattice networks with comb and brush connectivities. In particular, we confirm within numerical accuracy the scaling relation $$ \gamma_{\mathcal{G}}-1 = \sum_{f\geq 1} m_f \, \sigma_f $$ for a comb and two brushes (where $m_f$ is the number of nodes of degree $f$ in the network) using our independent estimates of $\sigma_f$.

A Novel Branched Polymer Gel System with Delayed Gelation Property for Conformance Control

Summary Excessive water production from oil reservoirs not only affects the economical production of oil, but it also results in serious environmental concerns. Polymer gels have been widely applied to decrease water production and thus improve oil production. However, traditional polymer gels such as partially hydrolyzed polyacrylamide (HPAM)/chromium (III) gel systems usually have a short gelation time and cannot meet the requirement of some conformance control projects. This paper introduces a novel polymer gel system of which crosslinking time can be significantly delayed. A branched polymer grafted from arginine by the surface initiation method is synthesized as the backbone, chromium acetate is used as the crosslinker, and no additional additives are used for the gel system. The results show that the gelation time of this system can be delayed to 61 days at 45°C and 20 days at 65°C because of the rigid structure of the branched polymer and the excellent chromium (III) chelating ability of arginine. The polymer gels have been stable for more than 150 days at 45 and 65°C. Coreflooding and rheology tests have demonstrated that this branched polymer has good injectivity and shear resistance in high-permeabilityrocks.