Mechanical Properties, Sealability, and Recyclability of Elastomeric Materials in Petroleum Industry

Elastomers are an important element among the wide variety of newly emerging materials, which have found interesting applications across all sectors of industry due to their unique properties, cost-effectiveness, recyclability, and renewability. The elastomers are used in very simple form as inert material to task-specific complex forms such as swelling, damping, energy absorbing, intelligent, etc. materials, to name a few. This work focuses on the swelling behavior of elastomeric material with specific application to the oil and gas industry, which uses it to isolate zones from one another or as packers. Elastomers are used either as standalone material or in combination with metallic materials. We designed and conducted various experiments for material and mechanical characterization of swellable elastomers. The experimental output data include amount of swelling, swelling behavior over a period of few days to four weeks, tensile set, compression set, and strength related properties as a function of time. Experiments were done for different percentages of salinity and temperatures over a varying period. A cascade of swellable elastomer vulcanized over metallic pipe is simulated using the finite element method based on the material properties obtained from experimental work. Because of swelling of elastomer in a constrained space in oil/gas wells, the contact pressure develops at the interface, which prevents the unwanted fluid from seeping into the well. Finally, one cannot ignore the recyclability and renewability issues of swellable elastomers. Various companies have adopted different approaches to recycle or incinerate the used elastomers, which primarily depends upon the type of elastomer. However, the elastomers used in oil/gas wells are not recovered to the surface mainly due to their full deterioration in a corrosive environment, hence reducing the effect on the environment.