Geological Engineering Commons^™

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 …

Prediction Of Soil Water Content And Electrical Conductivity Using Random Forest Methods With Uav Multispectral And Ground-Coupled Geophysical Data, Yunyi Guan, Katherine R. Grote, Joel Schott, Kelsi Leverett

Geosciences and Geological and Petroleum Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

The volumetric water content (VWC) of soil is a critical parameter in agriculture, as VWC strongly influences crop yield, provides nutrients to plants, and maintains the microbes that are needed for the biological health of the soil. Measuring VWC is difficult, as it is spatially and tempo-rally heterogeneous, and most agricultural producers use point measurements that cannot fully capture this parameter. Electrical conductivity (EC) is another soil parameter that is useful in agricul-ture, since it can be used to indicate soil salinity, soil texture, and plant nutrient availability. Soil EC is also very heterogeneous; measuring EC using conventional soil sampling …

Proppant Transport Using High-Viscosity Friction Reducer Fracture Fluids At High-Temperature Environment, Ghith Biheri, Abdulmohsin Imqam

Geosciences and Geological and Petroleum Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

The stimulation of unconventional reservoirs to improve oil productivity in tight formations of shale basins is a key objective in hydraulic fracturing treatments. Such stimulation can be made by reliable fracture fluids that have a high viscosity and elasticity to suspend the proppant in the fracture networks. Recently, due to several operational and economic reasons, the oil industry began using highviscosity friction reducers (HVFRs) as direct replacements for linear and crosslinked gels. However, some issues can limit the capability of HVFRs to provide effective sand transport, including the high fluid temperature during fracture treatment inside the formations. This may lead …

Asphaltene Thermodynamic Precipitation During Miscible Nitrogen Gas Injection, Mukhtar Elturki, Abdulmohsin Imqam

Geosciences and Geological and Petroleum Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

For many years, miscible gas injection has been the most beneficial enhanced oil recovery method in the oil and gas industry. However, injecting a miscible gas to displace oil often causes the flocculation and deposition of asphaltenes, which subsequently leads to a number of production problems. Nitrogen gas (N2) injection has been used to enhance oil recovery in some oil fields, seeking to improve oil recovery. However, few works have implemented N2 injection and investigated its effect on asphaltene precipitation and deposition. This research investigated the N2 miscible flow mechanism in nanopores and its impact on asphaltene precipitations, which can …

Comprehensive Evaluation Of A High-Temperature Resistant Re-Crosslinkable Preformed Particle Gel For Water Management, Bowen Yu, Shuda Zhao, Yifu Long, Baojun Bai, Thomas P. Schuman

Geosciences and Geological and Petroleum Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Gel treatment has been widely applied to control conformance for improving oil recovery and control water production in mature oil fields. However, most of the hydrogel systems are limited when being applied in the harsh environments of high temperatures. A systematic evaluation was conducted in this study to evaluate a modified PPG product, the high temperature resistant re-crosslinkable preformed particle gel (HT-RPPG) which can re-crosslink to form a bulky material and keep thermostable in the large-opening features after placement. This material was developed to overcome the limitations of conventional PPGs in the reservoirs with large- opening features such as open …

Wellbore Integrity: An Integrated Experimental And Numerical Study To Investigate Pore Pressure Variation During Cement Hardening Under Downhole Conditions, Weicheng Zhang, Andreas Eckert, Steven Austin Hilgedick, Harvey Goodman, Meng Meng

Geosciences and Geological and Petroleum Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Understanding the cement hardening process and determining the development of the state of stress in the cement under specific downhole conditions are challenging but fundamental requirements to perform an accurate prediction of wellbore integrity. As an essential component of the state of stress, the temporal variation of cement pore pressure is a critical factor that affects the occurrence of cement failure. In this study, we present a novel laboratory setup to measure the cement pore pressure variation during hardening under representative downhole conditions, including the pressure, temperature, and water exchange between the cement and formation. The pore pressure measurements are …

Experimental Study Of Transport Behavior Of Swellable Microgel Particles In Superpermeable Channels For Conformance Control, 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 during oil development. The transport behavior of gel materials in reservoirs is of crucial importance to the effectiveness of gel treatments. The aim of this paper is investigating the transport behavior of swellable micrometer-sized preformed particle gels (PPGs, or microgels) through superpermeable (super-K) channels. Sandpacks with permeabilities ranging from 27 to 221 darcies were used to mimic the super-K channels. Multiple pressure sensors were applied along the sandpack models to monitor the propagation behavior of the microgels. The tested microgel particles could transport through the super-K channels, and a …

A Comprehensive Review Of In-Situ Polymer Gel Simulation For Conformance Control, Baojun Bai, Jianqiao Leng, Mingzhen Wei

Geosciences and Geological and Petroleum Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Gel treatment has been widely applied in mature oilfields to improve sweep efficiency and control water production. Correct numerical simulation is of major importance to the optimization design and prediction of a successful gel treatment. However, there exist many problems in current simulation studies in published literature. This paper first presents a comprehensive review on the major factors that have been considered at different gelation stages during gel treatment, the models used in the commercial/in-house simulators, and current numerical simulation studies on both laboratory and field scales. Then we classify the current in-situ gel numerical simulation problems as 1, deficient …

The Shepherd Mountain Iron Ore Deposit In Southeast Missouri, Usa – An Extension Of The Pilot Knob Magmatic-Hydrothermal Ore System: Evidence From Iron Oxide Chemistry, Bolorchimeg N. Tunnell, Marek Locmelis, Cheryl Seeger, Marilena Moroni, Sarah Dare, Ryan Mathur, Brandon Sullivan

Geosciences and Geological and Petroleum Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

The Southeast Missouri Iron Metallogenic Province in the Midcontinent USA contains seven major and several minor IOA/IOCG-type deposits and a series of shallow vein-type deposits/prospects, all of which are spatially and temporally associated with early Mesoproterozoic (1500–1440 Ma) magmatism in the St. Francois Mountains terrane. One of the vein-type deposits is the Shepherd Mountain deposit, which consists of two northeast-trending ore veins dominated by magnetite and lesser amounts of hematite. Here we report the findings of a study that investigates the origin of the Shepherd Mountain deposit and a possible genetic link to the nearby (i.e., away) magmatic to magmatic-hydrothermal …

Impact Of Clay Stabilizer On The Methane Desorption Kinetics And Isotherms Of Longmaxi Shale, China, Zhong Hua Liu, Jia Chun Wang, Baojun Bai, Yan Ling Wang

Geosciences and Geological and Petroleum Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Knowing methane desorption characteristics is essential to define the contribution of adsorbed gas to gas well production. To evaluate the synthetic effect of a clay stabilizer solution on methane desorption kinetics and isotherms pertaining to Longmaxi shale, an experimental setup was designed based on the volumetric method. The objective was to conduct experiments on methane adsorption and desorption kinetics and isotherms before and after clay stabilizer treatments. The experimental data were a good fit for both the intraparticle diffusion model and the Freundlich isotherm model. We analyzed the effect of the clay stabilizer on desorption kinetics and isotherms. Results show …

Design Methods For Pressure Relief Well Systems At Dams And Levees, Andrew Keffer

Doctoral Dissertations

"Flood risk reduction structures such as dams and levees are important systems that provide significant benefits to the nation. Relief wells reduce the substratum water pressures that can compromise them via internal erosion. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) analytical method to design relief well systems by calculating discharge and excess head along an infinite line of wells was developed from the 1930s – 1950s. The research presented here increases our understanding of the method’s history and uses analytical and numerical models to improve current infinite and finite well system design practices. The historical development of this method was …

Groundwater Withdrawal Estimation Using Integrated Remote Sensing Products And Machine Learning, Sayantan Majumdar

Doctoral Dissertations

"The rising demands for water, food, and energy primarily driven by the increasing global population constitute a pressing issue worldwide. Therefore, the water-food-energy nexus plays a substantial role in developing globally applicable sustainable solutions. Recent technological advancements, including the earth observation programs using spaceborne remote sensing platforms, have enabled us to monitor various critical components affecting the globe. Groundwater, which comprises the world's 30% freshwater, is one such key component of the global water resources and supplies nearly half of the global drinking water.

Despite groundwater overdraft in many parts of the world, including the United States (US), there are …

Resistivity Imaging Of Prominent Seepage Pathways In Karst Terrain, Abdullah Hadi Zaid Alhaj

Doctoral Dissertations

"An integrated research approach was conducted to evaluate subsurface karstic conditions in Greene County, southwestern Missouri. Electrical resistivity tomography (ERT) was employed to image anomalously low resistivity zones associated with the presence of seepage pathways that were anthropogenic and/or natural in origin. Techniques including visual inspection (VI), multichannel analysis of surface waves (MASW), borehole control (BC), and aerial imagery (AI) were supplementally used to constrain the ERT data interpretations.

This research addressed six objectives. First, the ERT data interpretations were verified in terms of depth to the top of bedrock, fractures/voids, and moisture changes using the MASW, borehole control, and …

Pressure Relief Wells: Analysis Of Subsurface Heterogeneity To Evaluate Relief Well Locations For Mississippi River Levees, Emma Marie Young

Masters Theses

“When designing pressure relief well systems, it is imperative to understand what major geomorphology and heterogenies features are present, such as buried oxbow lakes, especially when the feature is parallel to the source, such as the Mississippi River. When present, there is a notable greater increase in head pressures, especially on the landward tow of the levee. This can cause erosional features that originally thought of to have been protected from by installing pressure relief wells. When comparing the effective hydraulic conductivities of horizontal clay layers and vertical clay layers spanning the length of the model, little to no noticeable …

Integrating Remote Sensing And Model-Based Datasets In A Machine Learning Model To Map Global Subsidence Associated With Groundwater Withdrawal, Md Fahim Hasan

Masters Theses

"Quantifying groundwater storage loss is becoming increasingly essential globally due limited availability of this major hydrologic component and its long recharge time. Groundwater overdraft gives rises to multiple adverse impacts including land subsidence and permanent groundwater storage loss. In absence of spatially dense monitoring network, publicly available in-situ data, and uniform monitoring strategies, it is challenging to assess the sustained losses from overexploitation of this resource. Remote sensing based techniques have the capacity to fill this gap to increase our groundwater monitoring capacities. Exploring the interrelation between groundwater pumping and land subsidence using remote sensing datasets can be a very …

Experimental Investigation Of Asphaltene Deposition And Its Impact On Oil Recovery In Eagle Ford Shale During Miscible And Immiscible Co2huff-N-Puff Gas Injection, Mukhtar Elturki, Abdulmohsin Imqam

Geosciences and Geological and Petroleum Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

One of the challenges in extracting oil from unconventional resources using hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling techniques is the low primary recovery rate, which is caused by the ultra-small permeability of these resources. Consequently, it is essential to investigate gas injection methods to produce the trapped oil in shale formations. However, the injection process can cause asphaltene depositions inside the reservoir, leading to plugging of pores and oil recovery (OR) reduction. There has been limited research on using gas injection techniques to improve oil production in tight/unconventional resources, although carbon dioxide (CO2) and gas-enhanced oil recovery methods have been used …

Study Of Contamination Resulting From Historical Mining Within The Old Lead Belt: Mineral Fork Watershed, 2021-2022, Tessa Nicole Mortensen

Masters Theses

“The Old Lead Belt in Missouri has been mined extensively over the past two hundred years, and with historical mining practices often not meeting modern environmental protection standards many areas have significant soil and water contamination as a result. This study focuses on the Mineral Fork River’s watershed in Washington County, Missouri, which includes portions of four separate Superfund sites. In this study, we exam the impact of historical mining on the health of alluvial systems, as evaluated by lead, zinc, and barium (barite) concentrations in the suspended and sediments within tributaries of the Mineral Fork River system. To relate …

Newmark-Type Pseudo-Three-Dimensional Back-Analysis Of Co-Seismic Landslides In Egkremnoi, Lefkada, Greece, Weibing Gong, Dimitrios Zekkos, Marin Clark, Dalia Kirschbaum

Geosciences and Geological and Petroleum Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

A pseudo-three-dimensional (pseudo-3D) methodology to back-analyze coseismic landslides was developed and applied to 68 mapped landslides, which occurred over approximately 1 km2area in Egkremnoi, Greece, during the 2015 Mw6.5 Lefkada earthquake. The methodology is based on a one-dimensional (1D) Newmark-type sliding block model to assess instability and a spatial projection in 3D topography to derive landslide geometry. The strength parameters for modeled landslides that best match the landslide location, area, and volume were derived through an iterative scheme that optimizes the match using predefined matching criteria. The range of different-sized landslides produced shear strength estimates from ~10 to 300 kPa …

Prediction Of Deflection Of Helical Anchors Under Load, Andre Stephen Hawks

Doctoral Dissertations

”As the sophistication of modern structural design methods has improved over time, the ability to accurately predict and model foundation stiffness has become increasingly more important. In complicated structural systems with deep foundations, correct calculation of the distribution of load and serviceability requires proper modeling of axial load-deflection characteristics. To keep pace with advances in structural analysis, there is much need for more practical and scientific work on the load-deflection prediction of deep foundations including Helical Anchors.

The load-settlement mechanism of an axially loaded helical pile is a complex soil-structure interaction problem influenced by helical pile dimensions, installation method, and …

Investigating The Impact Of Rock Bridges On The Mechanical Behavior Of Jointed Rock Mass Using Lattice Spring-Based Synthetic Rock Mass (Ls-Srm) Approach, Mariam Salem Alebayat

Doctoral Dissertations

"Rock bridges were defined as a segment of intact rock that separates from discontinuities. Numerous studies are focused on developing methods to quantify their significance in rock mass strength and deformability behavior. This thesis aimed to enhance understanding of the effect of rock bridges on jointed rock masses in both laboratory and slope scales. For this purpose, the lattice spring base Synthetic Rock Mass (LS-SRM) method was adopted to conduct the numerical models, distinguished in computational efficiency, and simulates the brittle failure and roughness of discontinuities.

A robust approach was developed to optimize the calibration procedure to avoid the complex …

Evaluation Of Excavated Surface Irregularities And Hardness Of Mechanical Excavations And Their Relationship With Excavator Performance, Prosper Evaristus Akansah Ayawah

Doctoral Dissertations

"This research involved lab and numerical excavation of a clastic sedimentary rock (Roubidoux Sandstone) using a long-bladed disc cutter in a Linear Rock Cutting Machine (LCM) with the aim of establishing relationships between the cutting parameters, excavated surface parameters (underbreaks, overbreaks and hardness), and performance parameters (specific energy and cutting rate). Three-dimensional cutting forces were recorded during the linear cutting. A structured laser imaging system was used to image the excavated surfaces for the estimation of the irregularities (ridge volumes (RV) and overbreak volumes (OV)). The excavated surface hardness was measured using the N-type Schmidt hammer. The numerical simulation was …

Regional 3d Stability Analyses Of The Egkremnoi Coastline And Comparison With Landslides Caused By The 2015 Lefkada Earthquake, Weibing Gong, Dimitrios Zekkos, Marin Clark, John Manousakis, Dalia Kirshbaum

Geosciences and Geological and Petroleum Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Regional three-dimensional (3D) forward modeling stability analyses are presented for the Egkremnoi coastline of Lefkada Island in Greece. The pre-earthquake 5-m resolution DEM of the region was used as input for the regional 3D model and the modeling results were evaluated for five large landslides that occurred in the area during a Mw 6.5 earthquake that occurred in 2015. The area ratio and the overlap area ratio were defined to quantitatively assess the geospatial "match" between predicted and mapped landslides. Parametric analyses using variable material strength and DEM resolution were subsequently conducted to assess the influence of the input on …

Gis And Remote Sensing Groundwater Potentiality Investigation Of Gulu District, Uganda Using Synthetic Aperture Radar And Magnetic Geophysics, Rachel Ann Jones

Doctoral Dissertations

“Developing countries have few resources for ground-based hydrological investigations to determine optimal placement of boreholes for community water access. Remote sensing data are available at a variety of resolutions and sense different parameters, and are useful inputs for hydrologic models, but these data are rarely obtainable in developing countries with the parameters or resolutions necessary for hydrologic applications. This research seeks to use and improve existing remote sensing and GIS techniques to identify areas of optimal water supply in locations with limited geologic or hydrologic information, such as Gulu District, Uganda. Fusing different remotely sensed data sets can produce higher …

Use Of Portable Seismic Property Analyzer And Ground Penetrating Radar To Assess Bridge Decks, Samie Ramadan A Hamad

Doctoral Dissertations

The Montauk Bridge deck was assessed based on the portable seismic property analyzer and ground penetrating radar data. Based on the analysis of the portable seismic property analyzer data, it was determined that over 65% of bridge conditions were rated serious to poor condition with an average compressive strength of less than 2500 psi; less than 35% of bridge deck conditions were rated fair to good with an average compressive strength over 2500 psi. Based on ground penetrating radar data, it was determined that 72% of the bridge deck was in serious to poor condition, and only 28% of the …

Practical Measurement Of Size Distribution Of Blasted Rocks Using Lidar Scan Data, Irfan C. Engin, Norbert H. Maerz, Kenneth J. Boyko, Robert Reals

Geosciences and Geological and Petroleum Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Majority of the world's mine production is made by surface mining facilities for various reasons. Use of explosives is the most economical way in loosening of the main rock where hard rock formations exist. The degree of fragmentation affects the subsequent excavation and loading operations as well as indicates the success of the blasting process. Although the most preferred method for the measurement of fragment size of blasted rock is digital image analysis, the method also includes some limitations and errors. In this study, size distribution of the blasted rock was measured directly using laser scanning-LiDAR technology and a new …

Service Life Of Prestressed High-Strength Concrete Pile In Marine Environment Considering Effects Of Concrete Stratification And Temperature, Lin Li, Weibing Gong, Jingpei Li

Geosciences and Geological and Petroleum Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Prestressed high-strength concrete (PHC) piles have advantages of light weight and high load carrying capacity, which have been widely applied in coastal and offshore engineering. However, PHC piles serving in the coastal or offshore regions have already undergone severe durability problem. This paper presents a comprehensive method for predicting the service life of PHC piles in the marine environment, which reasonably takes the temperature effects and the concrete stratification caused by centrifugation of PHC piles into account. The pile service life is divided into the diffusion and corrosion periods. The service life of the diffusion period is predicted by solving …

A Comparison Study Using Particle Swarm Optimization Inversion Algorithm For Gravity Anomaly Interpretation Due To A 2d Vertical Fault Structure, Neil Lennart Anderson, Khalid S. Essa, Mahmoud Elhussein

Geosciences and Geological and Petroleum Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

A new approach to the inversion of gravity data utilizing the Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) algorithm is used to model 2D vertical faults. The PSO algorithm is stochastic in nature; its development was motivated by the communal in-flight performance of birds looking for food. The birds are represented by particles (or models). Individual particles have a location and a velocity vector. The location vectors represent the parameter value. PSO is adjusted with random particles (models) and searches for targets by updating generations. Herein, the PSO algorithm is applied to three synthetic data sets (residual only with and without noise, residual …

Effects Of Clay Creep On Long-Term Load-Carrying Behaviors Of Bored Piles: Aiming At Reusing Existing Bored Piles, Lin Li, Weibing Gong, Jingpei Li, Jingpei Li

Geosciences and Geological and Petroleum Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

An analytical procedure is presented for assessing the long-term load-carrying behavior of bored piles in clay, where the plastic volumetric strain of surrounding clay caused by creep is estimated by an advanced elasto-viscoplastic constitutive model. Two key soil parameters, the undrained shear strength and the shear modulus, which govern the load-carrying behavior of bored piles in clay, are determined from the definition of the quasi-over consolidation ratio and the concept of the critical state theory-based Cam-clay model. The long-term load-carrying capacity of bored piles is evaluated based on the total stress method. Hyperbolic load-transfer models are developed with proper incorporation …

A Feasible Approach To Predicting Time-Dependent Bearing Performance Of Jacked Piles From Cptu Measurements, Lin Li, Jingpei Li, De'an Sun, Weibing Gong

Geosciences and Geological and Petroleum Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

In this paper, a simple but feasible approach is proposed to predict the time-dependent load carrying behaviors of jacked piles from CPTu measurements. The corrected cone resistance, which considers the unequal area of the cone rod and the cone, is used to determine the soil parameters used in the proposed approach. The pile installation effects on the changes in the stress state of the surrounding soil are assessed by an analytical solution to undrained expansion of a cylindrical cavity in K0-consolidated anisotropic clayey soil. Considering the similarity and scale effects between the piezocone and the pile, the CPTu measurements are …

Soil Fatigue Hazard Screening Analyses Framework For Spacio-Temporally Clustered Induced Seismicity With Examples Of Damage Potential Due To Liquefaction, Merissa L. Zuzulock, Oliver Denzil S. Taylor, Norbert H. Maerz

Geosciences and Geological and Petroleum Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Current studies that focus solely on the cause of the increase in seismicity neglect to include considerations for effects of small magnitude cluster events on federal infrastructure. These effects can be almost undetectable at first, but if left unchecked can evolve into a larger issue. The need to reassess and potentially modify the established risk assessment practices for evaluations of federal infrastructure needs to be reviewed to ensure the continued ability of the structure to function as intended. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) is responsible for hydroelectric power, flood protection, recreational areas, navigational channels and water supply along …