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Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons™

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2011

Geosciences and Geological and Petroleum Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Articles 1 - 6 of 6

Full-Text Articles in Physical Sciences and Mathematics

Assessment Of Corrosion Potential Of Coarse Backfill Aggregates For Mechanically Stabilized Earth Walls, Anita Thapalia, David M. Borrok, Soheil Nazarian, Jose Garibay Dec 2011

Assessment Of Corrosion Potential Of Coarse Backfill Aggregates For Mechanically Stabilized Earth Walls, Anita Thapalia, David M. Borrok, Soheil Nazarian, Jose Garibay

Geosciences and Geological and Petroleum Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

The service life of mechanically stabilized earth walls depends on the rate of corrosion of the metallic reinforcements used in their construction. The assessment of corrosion potential requires an accurate evaluation of pH, resistivity, and sulfate and chloride concentrations of aqueous solutions in contact with the surrounding aggregate. Highway agencies tend to use larger aggregates that contain only a small amount of fine material (passing the Number 40 sieve) in the backfill. Evaluation of the electrochemical parameters of coarse aggregates is challenging because traditional evaluation methods call for the use of fine material. In this study, the suitability of traditional …

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Surfactant Induced Reservoir Wettability Alteration: Recent Theoretical And Experimental Advances In Enhanced Oil Recovery, Yefei Wang, Huaimin Xu, Weizhao Yu, Baojun Bai, Xinwang Song, Jichao Zhang Dec 2011

Surfactant Induced Reservoir Wettability Alteration: Recent Theoretical And Experimental Advances In Enhanced Oil Recovery, Yefei Wang, Huaimin Xu, Weizhao Yu, Baojun Bai, Xinwang Song, Jichao Zhang

Geosciences and Geological and Petroleum Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Reservoir wettability plays an important role in various oil recovery processes. The origin and evolution of reservoir wettability were critically reviewed to better understand the complexity of wettability due to interactions in crude oil-brine-rock system, with introduction of different wetting states and their influence on fluid distribution in pore spaces. The effect of wettability on oil recovery of waterflooding was then summarized from past and recent research to emphasize the importance of wettability in oil displacement by brine. The mechanism of wettability alteration by different surfactants in both carbonate and sandstone reservoirs was analyzed, concerning their distinct surface chemistry, and …

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Magnetic Susceptibility As A Proxy For Investigating Microbially Mediated Iron Reduction, Farag M. Mewafy, Estella A. Atekwana, D. Dale Werkema, Lee D. Slater, Dimitrios Ntarlagiannis, Andre Revil, Magnus E. Skold, Geoffrey N. Delin Nov 2011

Magnetic Susceptibility As A Proxy For Investigating Microbially Mediated Iron Reduction, Farag M. Mewafy, Estella A. Atekwana, D. Dale Werkema, Lee D. Slater, Dimitrios Ntarlagiannis, Andre Revil, Magnus E. Skold, Geoffrey N. Delin

Geosciences and Geological and Petroleum Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

We investigated magnetic susceptibility (MS) variations in hydrocarbon contaminated sediments. Our objective was to determine if MS can be used as an intrinsic bioremediation indicator due to the activity of iron-reducing bacteria. A contaminated and an uncontaminated core were retrieved from a site contaminated with crude oil near Bemidji, Minnesota and subsampled for MS measurements. The contaminated core revealed enriched MS zones within the hydrocarbon smear zone, which is related to iron-reduction coupled to oxidation of hydrocarbon compounds and the vadose zone, which is coincident with a zone of methane depletion suggesting aerobic or anaerobic oxidation of methane is coupled …

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Estimation Of The Depth Of Anisotropy Using Spatial Coherency Of Shear-Wave Splitting Parameters, Kelly H. Liu, Stephen S. Gao Oct 2011

Estimation Of The Depth Of Anisotropy Using Spatial Coherency Of Shear-Wave Splitting Parameters, Kelly H. Liu, Stephen S. Gao

Geosciences and Geological and Petroleum Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Shear-wave splitting (SWS) analyses are essential in understanding the structure and dynamics of the Earth's deep interior. While splitting measurements have excellent horizontal resolution relative to other anisotropy-measuring techniques, their vertical resolution is low due to the steep incidence angle of the seismic phases used by the analyses. Here, using synthetic and real data, we present and test a simple approach to estimate the optimal depth of anisotropy by measuring the spatial coherency of the splitting parameters. The approach searches for the optimal depth by computing a spatial variation factor. Tests using synthetic SWS data produced with varying number of …

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Crustal Structure And Evolution Beneath The Colorado Plateau And The Southern Basin And Range Province: Results From Receiver Function And Gravity Studies, Lamuail Bashir, Stephen S. Gao, Kelly H. Liu, Kevin Lee Mickus Jun 2011

Crustal Structure And Evolution Beneath The Colorado Plateau And The Southern Basin And Range Province: Results From Receiver Function And Gravity Studies, Lamuail Bashir, Stephen S. Gao, Kelly H. Liu, Kevin Lee Mickus

Geosciences and Geological and Petroleum Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Over the past several decades, contrasting models have been proposed for the physical and chemical processes responsible for the uplift and long-term stability of the Colorado Plateau (CP) and crustal thinning beneath the Basin and Range Province (BRP) in the southwestern United States. Here we provide new constraints on the models by modeling gravity anomalies and by systematically analyzing over 15,500 P-to-S receiver functions recorded at 72 USArray and other broadband seismic stations on the southwestern CP and the southern BRP. Our results reveal that the BRP is characterized by a thin crust (28.2 ± 0.5 km), a mean V …

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Petrographic Comparison And Contrast Of Fluvial And Deltaic Sandstones, Upper Pennsylvanian Oread Cyclothem, Ne Oklahoma, Jonathan Obrist-Farner, Wan Yang Feb 2011

Petrographic Comparison And Contrast Of Fluvial And Deltaic Sandstones, Upper Pennsylvanian Oread Cyclothem, Ne Oklahoma, Jonathan Obrist-Farner, Wan Yang

Geosciences and Geological and Petroleum Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Upper Pennsylvanian sandstones have been the target in petroleum exploration and production in Kansas and Oklahoma. However, the petrographic characteristics of these sandstones have been rarely reported. A good understanding of the characteristics and depositional environments of those sandstones will help explore the correlative subsurface petroleum reservoirs efficiently.

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