About the Project
Background:
Three-phase flow in porous media is relevant in several Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) strategies in petroleum reservoirs, such as gas drainage, depressurization below bubble point pressure resulting in the flow of liberated gas phase, Water-Alternate-Gas (WAG) injection and CO2 injection, as well as for environmentally focused processes, such as groundwater contamination and CO 2 sequestration. Wettability, namely contact angle, is essential for these processes, as it controls the microscale displacement scenarios and fluid distributions (Zhou, et al, 2013, 2015).
In petroleum industry, wettability plays key role for many Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) processes, such as low salinity water flooding and surfactant flooding. Recently, the advanced imaging techniques make it possible to determine the in-situ fluid distributions for multiphase flow in porous media (Iglauer, et al, 2016). Using the determined fluid configurations, the in-situ contact angle for two phase flow was estimated at the triple contact line (Singh, et al., 2016).
Objectives:
The main objective of this work is direct estimation three phase (oil, water and gas) contact angles (namely contact angle between gas-water, gas-oil and oil-water) using micro-CT.
The successful candidate should have, or expect to have, an Honours Degree at 2.1 or above (or equivalent) in Petroleum Engineering, Fluid Mechanics, applied mathematics or General Engineering.
Knowledge of: Fluid dynamics, petroleum engineering and Programming in Matlab and C++
Funding Notes
This project is for self-funded students only. There is no funding attached to this project. The successful applicant will be expected to pay Tuition Fees and living expenses, from their own resources, for the duration of study.
References
1. Zhou, Y., Helland, J. O., & Hatzignatiou, D. G. (2015, June 1). Computation of Three-Phase Capillary Pressure Curves and Fluid Configurations at Mixed-Wet Conditions in 2D Rock Images. SPE Journal. doi:10.2118/170883-PA.
2. Zhou Y, Helland J, & Hatzignatiou DG, 2013, A Dimensionless Capillary Pressure Function for Imbibition Derived From Pore-Scale Modeling in Mixed-Wet-Rock Images, SPE Journal, Vol: 18, Pages: 296-308, ISSN: 1086-055X.
3. Iglauer, S., Rahman, T., Sarmadivaleh, M., Al-Hinai, A., Fernø, M. A., & Lebedev, M. (2016, December 1). Influence of Wettability on Residual Gas Trapping and Enhanced Oil Recovery in Three-Phase Flow: A Pore-Scale Analysis by Use of Microcomputed Tomography. Society of Petroleum Engineers. doi:10.2118/179727-PA.
4. Singh, K., B. Bijeljic, and M. J. Blunt, 2016. Imaging of oil layers, curvature and contact angle in a mixed-wet and a water-wet carbonate rock, Water Resour. Res., 52, 1716–1728, doi:10.1002/2015WR018072
APPLICATION PROCEDURE:
This project is advertised in relation to the research areas of the discipline of Petroleum Engineering. Formal applications can be completed online: http://www.abdn.ac.uk/postgraduate/apply. You should apply for Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Engineering, to ensure that your application is passed to the correct College for processing.
NOTE CLEARLY THE NAME OF THE SUPERVISOR AND EXACT PROJECT TITLE YOU WISH TO BE CONSIDERED FOR ON THE APPLICATION FORM. Applicants are limited to applying for a maximum of 2 projects. Any further applications received will be automatically withdrawn.
Informal inquiries can be made to Dr Y Zhou (Yingfang.zhou@abdn.ac.uk) with a copy of your curriculum vitae and cover letter. All general enquiries should be directed to the Graduate School Admissions Unit (cpsgrad@abdn.ac.uk).
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