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Full-Text Articles in Geological Engineering

Mantle Dynamics Of The North China Craton: New Insights From Mantle Transition Zone Imaging Constrained By P-To-S Receiver Functions, Lin Liu, Stephen S. Gao, Kelly H. Liu, William L. Griffin, Sanzhong Li, Siyou Tong, Jieyuan Ning Oct 2022

Mantle Dynamics Of The North China Craton: New Insights From Mantle Transition Zone Imaging Constrained By P-To-S Receiver Functions, Lin Liu, Stephen S. Gao, Kelly H. Liu, William L. Griffin, Sanzhong Li, Siyou Tong, Jieyuan Ning

Geosciences and Geological and Petroleum Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Cratons are generally defined as stable continental blocks with a strong cratonic root that typically is at least ∼200 km thick. Many cratons have undergone little internal tectonism and destruction since their formation, but some of them, such as the eastern part of the North China Craton (NCC), the Dharwar Craton and the Wyoming Craton, have lost their thick cratonic root and become reactivated in recent geological history, leading to widespread Meso-Cenozoic volcanisms. The mechanisms responsible for such decratonization remain debated. To provide new constraints on models leading to decratonization, in this study we stack 612 854 source-normalized P-to-S conversions …


A Comprehensive Review Of Experimental Evaluation Methods And Results Of Polymer Micro/Nanogels For Enhanced Oil Recovery And Reduced Water Production, Junchen Liu, Abdulaziz Almakimi, Mingzhen Wei, Baojun Bai, Ibnelwaleed Ali Hussein Sep 2022

A Comprehensive Review Of Experimental Evaluation Methods And Results Of Polymer Micro/Nanogels For Enhanced Oil Recovery And Reduced Water Production, Junchen Liu, Abdulaziz Almakimi, Mingzhen Wei, Baojun Bai, Ibnelwaleed Ali Hussein

Geosciences and Geological and Petroleum Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

In recent years, polymer micro/nanogels which are re-crosslinked polymers with 3D networks, have attracted a lot of interest in Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) field. In size of micro/nanometers, these gel particles are designed to be conformance control agents for in-depth fluid diversion, and various experimental research have been undertaken to investigate the possibilities of applying micro/nanogels in oilfield. However, it is still unclear that how to utilize micro/nanogels to their full potential in oilfield because the transport mechanisms and EOR mechanisms of micro/nanogels are not well studied currently. By reviewing experimental evaluations and corresponding results of micro/nanogels, including evaluation of …


Long-Time Kinetic Impact On Key Factors Affecting Asphaltene Precipitation, Ato Kwamena Quainoo, Abdulmohsin Imqam Sep 2022

Long-Time Kinetic Impact On Key Factors Affecting Asphaltene Precipitation, Ato Kwamena Quainoo, Abdulmohsin Imqam

Geosciences and Geological and Petroleum Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

The employment of predictive techniques combining kinetic and thermodynamic analyses is the succinct solution to effectively control asphaltene precipitation during crude oil production. Although thermodynamic processes and conditions have been well studied in the literature, the effect of long-time kinetics on the key factors affecting the precipitation of asphaltenes was not critically studied. This work employed a model oil for asphaltene precipitation long-time kinetic observations. Filtration and confocal microscopy experimentations for time periods of 0-7200 min were utilized to study asphaltene yields and sizes at room and high temperatures (25, 50, and 70 °C), rotation speeds (60 and 150 rpm), …


A Database Of Teleseismic Shear-Wave Splitting Measurements For The Ordos Block And Adjacent Areas, Lin Liu, Stephen S. Gao, Kelly H. Liu, Tu Xue, Yan Jia, Sanzhong Li Sep 2022

A Database Of Teleseismic Shear-Wave Splitting Measurements For The Ordos Block And Adjacent Areas, Lin Liu, Stephen S. Gao, Kelly H. Liu, Tu Xue, Yan Jia, Sanzhong Li

Geosciences and Geological and Petroleum Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

The Ordos block of the north China craton and its surrounding regions are affected by the India-Eurasia collision to the southwest and the subduction of the Pacific beneath the Eurasian plates to the east. To provide the foundation for delineating lithospheric deformation and asthenospheric flow beneath this tectonically diverse region, we have created a database of individual shear-wave splitting (SWS) parameters by applying a uniform set of data processing procedures. After automatic data processing and manual checking, a total of 16,228 pairs of well-defined PKS, SKKS, and SKS splitting parameters (fast orientations and splitting times) are obtained from 1023 broadband …


Fabrications And Applications Of Micro/Nanofluidics In Oil And Gas Recovery: A Comprehensive Review, Junchen Liu, Yandong Zhang, Mingzhen Wei, Xiaoming He, Baojun Bai Sep 2022

Fabrications And Applications Of Micro/Nanofluidics In Oil And Gas Recovery: A Comprehensive Review, Junchen Liu, Yandong Zhang, Mingzhen Wei, Xiaoming He, Baojun Bai

Geosciences and Geological and Petroleum Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Understanding fluid flow characteristics in porous medium, which determines the development of oil and gas oilfields, has been a significant research subject for decades. Although using core samples is still essential, micro/nanofluidics have been attracting increasing attention in oil recovery fields since it offers direct visualization and quantification of fluid flow at the pore level. This work provides the latest techniques and development history of micro/nanofluidics in oil and gas recovery by summarizing and discussing the fabrication methods, materials and corresponding applications. Compared with other reviews of micro/nanofluidics, this comprehensive review is in the perspective of solving specific issues in …


Crustal Structure And Subsidence Mechanisms Of The Williston Basin: New Constraints From Receiver Function Imaging, Jianguo Song, Stephen S. Gao, Kelly H. Liu, Muchen Sun, Youqiang Yu, Fansheng Kong, Kevin Mickus Sep 2022

Crustal Structure And Subsidence Mechanisms Of The Williston Basin: New Constraints From Receiver Function Imaging, Jianguo Song, Stephen S. Gao, Kelly H. Liu, Muchen Sun, Youqiang Yu, Fansheng Kong, Kevin Mickus

Geosciences and Geological and Petroleum Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Mechanisms responsible for the long-term subsidence of intracontinental basins such as the Williston Basin in North America remain enigmatic, partly due to the thick sedimentary layer commonly found in the basins that prevents reliably imaging the deep crustal and upper mantle structures using some of the most-commonly employed seismic methods such as receiver function analysis. In this study, we used receiver functions recorded by 274 USArray and other stations in the Williston Basin and adjacent areas to investigate the layered structure of the crust in the hydrocarbon-rich intracontinental basin. After the removal of strong reverberations on the receiver functions associated …


Study On Apparent Permeability Model For Gas Transport In Shale Inorganic Nanopores, Shuda Zhao, Hongji Liu, Enyuan Jiang, Nan Zhao, Chaohua Guo, Baojun Bai Sep 2022

Study On Apparent Permeability Model For Gas Transport In Shale Inorganic Nanopores, Shuda Zhao, Hongji Liu, Enyuan Jiang, Nan Zhao, Chaohua Guo, Baojun Bai

Geosciences and Geological and Petroleum Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Inorganic nanopores occurring in the shale matrix have strong hydrophilicity and irreducible water (IW) film can be formed on the inner surface of the pores making gas flow mechanisms in the pores more complex. In this paper, the existence of irreducible water (IW) in inorganic pores is considered, and, based on the Knudsen number (K (Formula presented.)) correction in shale pores, a shale gas apparent permeability model of inorganic nano-pores is established. The effect of the K (Formula presented.) correction on the apparent permeability, the ratio of flow with pore radius and the effect of IW on the apparent permeability …


Advancing Water Resource Assessment With Insar Data And Subsidence Models, Ryan G. Smith Aug 2022

Advancing Water Resource Assessment With Insar Data And Subsidence Models, Ryan G. Smith

Geosciences and Geological and Petroleum Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Over the past three decades, Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR) has grown from a tool for monitoring earthquakes and other massive signature deformation events to tracking the subtle, slow deformation processes associated with changes in groundwater storage. Improvements in time-series processing and noise reduction, as well as improved models of deformation, have enabled this advancement. InSAR has proven to be a valuable tool for characterizing elastic deformation in regions experiencing little long-term storage loss, as well as inelastic deformation in over-stressed aquifers.


A Novel Approach To Estimate Rock Strength Parameters From Multistage Triaxial Tests (The A-Has Method), Abo Taleb T. Al-Hameedi, Husam H. Alkinani, Shari Dunn-Norman, Munir Aldin, Sudarshan Govindarajan Aug 2022

A Novel Approach To Estimate Rock Strength Parameters From Multistage Triaxial Tests (The A-Has Method), Abo Taleb T. Al-Hameedi, Husam H. Alkinani, Shari Dunn-Norman, Munir Aldin, Sudarshan Govindarajan

Geosciences and Geological and Petroleum Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Rock strength parameters are vital to creating robust geomechanical models for wellbore stability, sand production, and hydraulic fracturing. Static rock strength parameters can be estimated from single stage triaxial tests (SST) or multistage triaxial tests (MST). Although SST tests are the most accurate way to estimate rock strength parameters, SST tests require at least four to five core plugs to estimate rock strength parameters. Thus, MST tests are used as an alternative method to estimate rock strength parameters from only one core plug to overcome the limitation of materials and save time and money. However, the currently used method to …


Temporal Lidar Scanning In Quantifying Cumulative Rockfall Volume And Hazard Assessment: A Case Study At Southwestern Saudi Arabia, Abdullah A. Alotaibi, Norbert H. Maerz, Kenneth J. Boyko, Ahmed M. Youssef, Biswajeet Pradhan Aug 2022

Temporal Lidar Scanning In Quantifying Cumulative Rockfall Volume And Hazard Assessment: A Case Study At Southwestern Saudi Arabia, Abdullah A. Alotaibi, Norbert H. Maerz, Kenneth J. Boyko, Ahmed M. Youssef, Biswajeet Pradhan

Geosciences and Geological and Petroleum Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Rockfalls and unstable slopes pose a serious threat to people and property along roads/highways in the southwestern mountainous regions of Saudi Arabia. In this study, the application of terrestrial light detection and ranging (LiDAR) technology was applied aiming to propose a strategy to analyze and accurately depict the detection of rockfall changes, calculation of rockfall volume, and evaluate rockfall hazards along the Habs Road, Jazan Region, Saudi Arabia. A series of temporal LiDAR scans were acquired at three selected sites. Our results show that these three sites have different degrees of hazard due to their geological differences. The mean volume …


Metastable Olivine Within Oceanic Lithosphere In The Uppermost Lower Mantle Beneath The Eastern United States, Fansheng Kong, Stephen S. Gao, Kelly H. Liu, Yinxia Fang, Hejun Zhu, Robert J. Stern, Jiabiao Li Jul 2022

Metastable Olivine Within Oceanic Lithosphere In The Uppermost Lower Mantle Beneath The Eastern United States, Fansheng Kong, Stephen S. Gao, Kelly H. Liu, Yinxia Fang, Hejun Zhu, Robert J. Stern, Jiabiao Li

Geosciences and Geological and Petroleum Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Approximately two-thirds of Earth's outermost shell is composed of oceanic plates that form at spreading ridges and recycle back to Earth's interior in subduction zones. A series of physical and chemical changes occur in the subducting lithospheric slab as the temperature and pressure increase with depth. In particular, olivine, the most abundant mineral in the upper mantle, progressively transforms to its high-pressure polymorphs near the mantle transition zone, which is bounded by the 410 km and 660 km discontinuities. However, whether olivine still exists in the core of slabs once they penetrate the 660 km discontinuity remains debated. Based on …


Classification Of Teleseismic Shear Wave Splitting Measurements: A Convolutional Neural Network Approach, Yanwei Zhang, Stephen S. Gao Jun 2022

Classification Of Teleseismic Shear Wave Splitting Measurements: A Convolutional Neural Network Approach, Yanwei Zhang, Stephen S. Gao

Geosciences and Geological and Petroleum Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Shear wave splitting (SWS) analysis is widely used to provide critical constraints on crustal and mantle structure and dynamic models. In order to obtain reliable splitting measurements, an essential step is to visually verify all the measurements to reject problematic measurements, a task that is increasingly time consuming due to the exponential increase in the amount of data. In this study, we utilized a convolutional neural network (CNN) based method to automatically select reliable SWS measurements. The CNN was trained by human-verified teleseismic SWS measurements and tested using synthetic SWS measurements. Application of the trained CNN to broadband seismic data …


Complex Rupture And Triggered Aseismic Creep During The 14 August 2021 Haiti Earthquake From Satellite Geodesy, Jeremy Maurer, R. Dutta, A. Vernon, S. Vajedian Jun 2022

Complex Rupture And Triggered Aseismic Creep During The 14 August 2021 Haiti Earthquake From Satellite Geodesy, Jeremy Maurer, R. Dutta, A. Vernon, S. Vajedian

Geosciences and Geological and Petroleum Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

The 2021 August 14 MW 7.2 Nippes, Haiti earthquake occurred 75 km west of the epicenter of the 2010 Leogane earthquake (Haiti) on the transpressive Caribbean - North America plate boundary. We present an updated fault map for Hispaniola and model coseismic and early postseismic fault slip using Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar and pixel offsets. We find the earthquake ruptured multiple segments of the Enriquillo-Plantain Garden Fault Zone. Slip occurred in two main sub-events on either side of a restraining bend at Pic Macaya, with ∼2.7 m of peak reverse-slip east of the bend. To the west, slip jumps the …


Pattern Recognition For Steam Flooding Field Applications Based On Hierarchical Clustering And Principal Component Analysis, Na Zhang, Mingzhen Wei, Baojun Bai, Xiaopeng Wang, Jian Hao, Shun Jia Jun 2022

Pattern Recognition For Steam Flooding Field Applications Based On Hierarchical Clustering And Principal Component Analysis, Na Zhang, Mingzhen Wei, Baojun Bai, Xiaopeng Wang, Jian Hao, Shun Jia

Geosciences and Geological and Petroleum Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Steam flooding is a complex process that has been considered as an effective enhanced oil recovery technique in both heavy oil and light oil reservoirs. Many studies have been conducted on different sets of steam flooding projects using the conventional data analysis methods, while the implementation of machine learning algorithms to find the hidden patterns is rarely found. In this study, a hierarchical clustering algorithm (HCA) coupled with principal component analysis is used to analyze the steam flooding projects worldwide. The goal of this research is to group similar steam flooding projects into the same cluster so that valuable operational …


A Novel Numerical Model Of Gelant Inaccessible Pore Volume For In Situ Gel Treatment, Jianqiao Leng, Xindi Sun, Mingzhen Wei, Baojun Bai Jun 2022

A Novel Numerical Model Of Gelant Inaccessible Pore Volume For In Situ Gel Treatment, Jianqiao Leng, Xindi Sun, Mingzhen Wei, Baojun Bai

Geosciences and Geological and Petroleum Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Inaccessible pore volume (IAPV) can have an important impact on the placement of gelant during in situ gel treatment for conformance control. Previously, IAPV was considered to be a constant factor in simulators, yet it lacked dynamic characterization. This paper proposes a numerical simulation model of IAPV. The model was derived based on the theoretical hydrodynamic model of gelant molecules. The model considers both static features, such as gelant and formation properties, and dynamic features, such as gelant rheology and retention. To validate our model, we collected IAPV from 64 experiments and the results showed that our model fit moderately …


Comprehensive Review Of Polymer And Polymer Gel Treatments For Natural Gas-Related Conformance Control, Ali Al Brahim, Baojun Bai, Thomas P. Schuman Jun 2022

Comprehensive Review Of Polymer And Polymer Gel Treatments For Natural Gas-Related Conformance Control, Ali Al Brahim, Baojun Bai, Thomas P. Schuman

Geosciences and Geological and Petroleum Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Conformance problems often exist in natural gas-related activities, resulting in excessive water production from natural gas production wells and/or excessive natural gas production from oil production wells. Several mechanical and chemical solutions were reported in the literature to mitigate the conformance problems. Among the chemical solutions, two classes of materials, namely polymer gels and water-soluble polymers, have been mostly reported. These systems have been mainly reviewed in several studies for their applications as water shutoff treatments for oil production wells. Natural gas production wells exhibit different characteristics and have different properties which could impact the performance of the chemical solutions. …


Development And Application Of A 1d Compaction Model To Understand 65 Years Of Subsidence In The San Joaquin Valley, Matthew Lees, Rosemary Knight, Ryan G. Smith Jun 2022

Development And Application Of A 1d Compaction Model To Understand 65 Years Of Subsidence In The San Joaquin Valley, Matthew Lees, Rosemary Knight, Ryan G. Smith

Geosciences and Geological and Petroleum Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

High rates of land subsidence, caused by groundwater overdraft, are resulting in millions of dollars of infrastructure damage in California's San Joaquin Valley (SJV). In recent years, the use of interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR) has enabled us to substantially improve our understanding of this subsidence. However, only very occasionally have the InSAR data been integrated with a physical model of subsurface compaction. Here, we have used InSAR and other data to parameterize and calibrate a 1D compaction model. We applied our model to a study area in the SJV where we had access to the necessary information on hydraulic …


Stagnation And Tearing Of The Subducting Northwest Pacific Slab, Muchen Sun, Youqiang Yu, Stephen S. Gao, Kelly H. Liu Jun 2022

Stagnation And Tearing Of The Subducting Northwest Pacific Slab, Muchen Sun, Youqiang Yu, Stephen S. Gao, Kelly H. Liu

Geosciences and Geological and Petroleum Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Despite numerous observational and geodynamic modeling studies, the presence of the northwest Pacific slab tear and its influence on mantle dynamics remain controversial. By imaging the mantle transition zone (MTZ) discontinuities beneath the Japan Sea and adjacent areas, we demonstrate an ESE-WNW elongated zone with significant MTZ thinning extending from central Honshu, Japan, to the Korean Peninsula, which provides additional supporting evidence for the existence and distribution of a large-scale slab tear. Our results, when combined with other geophysical and geochemical evidence, indicate that the hot mantle material oceanward of the slab may flow through the slab tear and contribute …


Regularized Ridge Regression Models To Estimate Static Elastic Moduli From Wireline Measurements: Case Study From Southern Iraq, Husam H. Alkinani, Abo Taleb T. Al-Hameedi, Shari Dunn-Norman, Munir Aldin, Deepak Gokaraju, Andreina Guedez, Atheer M. Alattar Jun 2022

Regularized Ridge Regression Models To Estimate Static Elastic Moduli From Wireline Measurements: Case Study From Southern Iraq, Husam H. Alkinani, Abo Taleb T. Al-Hameedi, Shari Dunn-Norman, Munir Aldin, Deepak Gokaraju, Andreina Guedez, Atheer M. Alattar

Geosciences and Geological and Petroleum Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Elastic moduli such as Young's modulus (E), Poisson's ratio (v), and bulk modulus (K) are vital to creating geomechanical models for wellbore stability, hydraulic fracturing, sand production, etc. Due to the difficulty of obtaining core samples and performing rock testing, alternatively, wireline measurements can be used to estimate dynamic moduli. However, dynamic moduli are significantly different from elastic moduli due to many factors. In this paper, correlations for three zones (Nahr Umr shale, Zubair shale, and Zubair sandstone) located in southern Iraq were created to estimate static E, K, and ν from dynamic data. Core plugs from the aforementioned three …


Comprehensive Evaluation Of Self-Healing Polyampholyte Gel Particles For The Severe Leakoff Control Of Drilling Fluids, Lili Yang, Chunlin Xie, Tian Ao, Kaixiao Cui, Guancheng Jiang, Baojun Bai, Yongwei Zhang, Jun Yang, Xingxing Wang, Weiguo Tian May 2022

Comprehensive Evaluation Of Self-Healing Polyampholyte Gel Particles For The Severe Leakoff Control Of Drilling Fluids, Lili Yang, Chunlin Xie, Tian Ao, Kaixiao Cui, Guancheng Jiang, Baojun Bai, Yongwei Zhang, Jun Yang, Xingxing Wang, Weiguo Tian

Geosciences and Geological and Petroleum Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Lost circulation has been a serious problem to be solved in many drilling practices during oil, gas and geothermal well drillings. Many materials have been developed and evaluated for the purpose. However, their performance to plug severe leakoff is very limited. Herein, an injectable self-healing hydrogel based on polyampholyte with sulfonated and quaternary ammonium functionalities (P(MPTC-co-NaSS)) was developed and comprehensively evaluated to prevent the severe loss of fluids to formation. By incorporating cation-π (π is for aromatic residues) interaction, the hydrogel shown self-healing property and robustness in severe environment (temperature, salt) by comparison with other hydrogels merely consisting of cation-anion …


A New Look At Landslides Of The Vermilion And Echo Cliffs, Northern Arizona, Conor M. Watkins, J. David Rogers May 2022

A New Look At Landslides Of The Vermilion And Echo Cliffs, Northern Arizona, Conor M. Watkins, J. David Rogers

Geosciences and Geological and Petroleum Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

The Vermilion and Echo Cliffs form a nearly continuous escarpment more than 160 km long within the Colorado Plateau physiographic province of North America. The cliffs overlie the Marble Platform in northern Arizona and are located along the Colorado River, just upstream of the Grand Canyon. Large rotational block landslides mantle the erosional escarpment along most of its extent. Although these landslides have been noted for over 100 years, their likely origin has never been explained. Landslide failure surfaces appear to be influenced by the Petrified Forest Member of the Triassic Chinle Formation, a shale layer containing smectite clay weathered …


Lithospheric Structure Underneath The Archean Tanzania Craton And Adjacent Regions From A Joint Inversion Of Receiver Functions And Rayleigh-Wave Phase Velocity Dispersion, Tuo Wang, Stephen S. Gao, Qiuyue Yang, Ling Chen, Kelly H. Liu May 2022

Lithospheric Structure Underneath The Archean Tanzania Craton And Adjacent Regions From A Joint Inversion Of Receiver Functions And Rayleigh-Wave Phase Velocity Dispersion, Tuo Wang, Stephen S. Gao, Qiuyue Yang, Ling Chen, Kelly H. Liu

Geosciences and Geological and Petroleum Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Lithospheric structure beneath the Archean Tanzania craton and adjacent regions, including segments of the East African rift system (EARS) and the Proterozoic-early Paleozoic orogenic belts between the EARS and the craton, is imaged by a joint inversion of receiver functions and Rayleigh wave dispersion measurements derived from ambient seismic noise for shorter periods and teleseismic data for longer periods. Our resulting crustal thickness, crustal VP= VS measurements and 3D shear-wave velocity model for the upper 120 km show a clear spatial correspondence with major surficial geological features. The new results suggest the presence of a mafic layer in the bottom …


Chitosan/Polyacrylamide Green Gels For Water Control In High-Temperature Reservoirs, Mohamed Shamlooh, Reem Elaf, Ibnelwaleed A. Hussein, Mohammed Saad, Baojun Bai Apr 2022

Chitosan/Polyacrylamide Green Gels For Water Control In High-Temperature Reservoirs, Mohamed Shamlooh, Reem Elaf, Ibnelwaleed A. Hussein, Mohammed Saad, Baojun Bai

Geosciences and Geological and Petroleum Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

The rheology of a gel system composed of polyacrylamide (PAM) and chitosan is studied under typical reservoir conditions. The impacts of the degree of chitosan deacetylation, temperature, and salinity on the gelation behavior are assessed. The said system was prepared under ambient conditions and matured for 24 h at altered temperatures ranging from 50 up to 125 °C. An optimum formulation has been identified considering the rheological response and the initial viscosity constraints. The increase in the degree of syneresis with the degree of deacetylation indicates the long-Term thermal stability of the gels. Ammonium chloride was an effective retarder for …


Impact Of Polymer Rheology On Gel Treatment Performance Of Horizontal Wells With Severe Channeling, Jianqiao Leng, Mingzhen Wei, Baojun Bai Apr 2022

Impact Of Polymer Rheology On Gel Treatment Performance Of Horizontal Wells With Severe Channeling, Jianqiao Leng, Mingzhen Wei, Baojun Bai

Geosciences and Geological and Petroleum Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Gel treatment has been a cost-effective method to control the conformance of a reservoir with severe heterogeneity problems. The water channels in such reservoirs can be classified as open fractures or high permeability porous media with pore-throat network. Many simulation studies have been conducted to discuss gel treatment performance for conformance control. However, nobody considered the polymer rheology difference in open fractures and porous media in simulation. Previous simulation studies also ignored the residual resistance factor as a function of rock permeability rather than a constant parameter. In this study, a conceptual simulation model was established to simulate the linear …


Continental Break-Up Under A Convergent Setting: Insights From P Wave Radial Anisotropy Tomography Of The Woodlark Rift In Papua New Guinea, Youqiang Yu, Frederik Tilmann, Dapeng Zhao, Stephen S. Gao, Kelly H. Liu Mar 2022

Continental Break-Up Under A Convergent Setting: Insights From P Wave Radial Anisotropy Tomography Of The Woodlark Rift In Papua New Guinea, Youqiang Yu, Frederik Tilmann, Dapeng Zhao, Stephen S. Gao, Kelly H. Liu

Geosciences and Geological and Petroleum Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

To explore the dynamic mechanism of continental rifting within a convergent setting, we determine the first P wave radial anisotropic tomography beneath the Woodlark rift in southeastern Papua New Guinea, which develops within the obliquely colliding zone between the Australian and southwest Pacific plates. The rift zone is depicted as localized low-velocity anomalies with positive radial anisotropy, which rules out a dominant role of active mantle upwelling in promoting the rift development and favors passive rifting with decompression melting as main processes. Downwelling slab relics in the upper mantle bounding the rift zone are revealed based on observed high-velocity anomalies …


Potassic Volcanism Induced By Mantle Upwelling Through A Slab Window: Evidence From Shear Wave Splitting Analyses In Central Java, Fansheng Kong, Stephen S. Gao, Kelly H. Liu, Jiabiao Li Mar 2022

Potassic Volcanism Induced By Mantle Upwelling Through A Slab Window: Evidence From Shear Wave Splitting Analyses In Central Java, Fansheng Kong, Stephen S. Gao, Kelly H. Liu, Jiabiao Li

Geosciences and Geological and Petroleum Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

To delineate the mantle flow fields in the vicinity of a previously proposed slab window and the possible roles that they may play in the formation of potassic volcanism in Central Java, we conduct shear wave splitting analyses using both local S and teleseismic XKS waves (including SKS, SKKS, and PKS) recorded by 121 onshore stations and two ocean bottom seismometers (OBSs). The XKS fast orientations from the OBSs are trench normal and in accord with previous subslab anisotropy measurements. In the eastern part of Central Java, the XKS and local S fast orientations from the onshore stations are mostly …


Selective Penetration Behavior Of Microgels In Superpermeable Channels And Reservoir Matrices, Yang Zhao, Baojun Bai Mar 2022

Selective Penetration Behavior Of Microgels In Superpermeable Channels And Reservoir Matrices, Yang Zhao, Baojun Bai

Geosciences and Geological and Petroleum Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Gel treatment is an effective way to attack excessive water production in many mature oilfields around the world. Selective penetration is desired for successful gel treatments. That is, gel materials should easily penetrate the target zones (i.e., channeling features such as superpermeable channels) without entering/damaging the nontarget zones (i.e., reservoir matrices or oil zones). This study revealed that presence of threshold penetration pressure (ΔPth) was responsible for selective penetration behavior of tested microgels. The concept of ΔPth was utilized to figure out favorable working conditions for effective gel treatments. Microgel dispersions were injected into superpermeable (super-k) sandpacks (mimicking super-k channels …


Early Global Mantle Chemical And Isotope Heterogeneity Revealed By The Komatiite-Basalt Record: The Western Australia Connection, I. S. Puchtel, R. W. Nicklas, J. Slagle, M. Horan, R. J. Walker, E. G. Nisbet, Marek Locmelis Mar 2022

Early Global Mantle Chemical And Isotope Heterogeneity Revealed By The Komatiite-Basalt Record: The Western Australia Connection, I. S. Puchtel, R. W. Nicklas, J. Slagle, M. Horan, R. J. Walker, E. G. Nisbet, Marek Locmelis

Geosciences and Geological and Petroleum Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Although the heterogeneous nature of the chemical composition of Earth's mantle is now well established, the origin and longevity of the heterogeneities continue to be debated. In order to further study early-Earth heterogeneities, we present a set of Sm-Nd, Lu-Hf, Re-Os, and Hf-W isotope and lithophile and siderophile element abundance data for komatiites and basalts from the ∼3.53 Ga Coonterunah, ∼3.34 Ga Kelly, and ∼3.18 Ga Ruth Well and Regal systems of the Pilbara Craton in Western Australia. The Sm-Nd, Lu-Hf, and Re-Os isotope data yield isochrons consistent with the accepted emplacement ages of the respective komatiite-basalt lavas. The mantle …


Descriptive Statistical Analysis Of Experimental Data For Wettability Alteration With Surfactants In Carbonate Reservoirs, Ya Yao, Mingzhen Wei, Baojun Bai Feb 2022

Descriptive Statistical Analysis Of Experimental Data For Wettability Alteration With Surfactants In Carbonate Reservoirs, Ya Yao, Mingzhen Wei, Baojun Bai

Geosciences and Geological and Petroleum Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Surfactants have been the widely used agents to alter the wettability of carbonate rocks to more water-wet and enhanced oil recovery (EOR). As one of major EOR methods, an effective surfactant huff-puff application design requires comprehensive guidelines about where, how, and when this method could be applied. In order to construct such guidelines, a dataset including 338 effective surfactant imbibition tests is established by collecting information from nearly 50 publications. Based on this dataset, descriptive statistical analysis methods are used to conduct data analysis, including three main parts. The first part establishes the application guidelines for surfactant huff-puff treatments which …


Laboratory Evaluation Of Placement Behavior Of Microgels For Conformance Control In Reservoirs Containing Superpermeable Channels, Yang Zhao, Baojun Bai Feb 2022

Laboratory Evaluation Of Placement Behavior Of Microgels For Conformance Control In Reservoirs Containing Superpermeable Channels, Yang Zhao, Baojun Bai

Geosciences and Geological and Petroleum Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Gel treatment has been proven an effective method to attack excessive water production in many mature oilfields. However, not all of the application projects have successful stories. The effectiveness of a gel treatment largely depends on the transport and placement behavior of gel materials in reservoirs to be treated. In this work, we carried out systematic studies to investigate the transport, placement, water-blocking ability, fluid diversion and sweep improvement, and matrix damage effect of micrometer-sized preformed particle gels (microgels) in reservoirs containing superpermeable (super-K) channels. The impact of the channel/matrix permeability contrast and the particle/pore size ratio in the channels …