Millimeter-sized preformed particle gels (PPGs) have been successfully used to tackle the high-permeable zones, fractures and channels in mature oilfields for conformance control improvement. PPGs can significantly reduce the permeability of abnormal fractures and divert injected water to the low permeable zones where hydrocarbon was not swept by previous water flooding. Due to the irregularity of PPGs in shapes after swollen, their strength cannot be easily measured using the conventional methods. Therefore, the open hole screen plate models with various hole diameters and density were designed to establish a simple technique that can be used to measure the strength of PPGs quantitatively in laboratory as well as on site during gel treatments. The open fracture plates with various fractures widths were also designed to understand the PPGs propagation and extrusion behavior through fracture and fracture-like channels. The results show that the PPGs threshold pressure is correlated linearly with the elastic modulus (G\u27). The results from the fracture model indicate that the fracture width has the prominent effect on PPGs extrusion pressure and injectivity. Also, the experimental results show that the resistance factor increases as the fracture size increase which is consistent with the previous findings in PPGs transportation through the porous media. Furthermore, the use of the screening model enables a direct observation of the extruded gel particles from the models, and based on the initial and the extruded PPGs particle size distribution, extrusion patterns of PPGs were determined.--Abstract, page iii
