Theoretical analysis for the mechanical behavior caused by an electromagnetic cycle in ITER Nb_3Sn cable-in-conduit conductors

The central solenoid(CS)is one of the key components of the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor(ITER)tokamak and which is often considered as the heart of this fusion reactor.This solenoid will be built by using Nb3Sn cablein-conduit conductors(CICC),capable of generating a 13 T magnetic field.In order to assess the performance of the Nb3Sn CICC in nearly the ITER condition,many short samples have been evaluated at the SULTAN test facility(the background magnetic field is of 10.85 T with the uniform length of 400 mm at 1%homogeneity)in Centre de Recherches en Physique des Plasma(CRPP).It is found that the samples with pseudo-long twist pitch(including baseline specimens)show a significant degradation in the current-sharing temperature(Tcs),while the qualification tests of all short twist pitch(STP)samples,which show no degradation versus electromagnetic cycling,even exhibits an increase of Tcs.This behavior was perfectly reproduced in the coil experiments at the central solenoid model coil(CSMC)facility last year.In this paper,the complex structure of the Nb3Sn CICC would be simplified into a wire rope consisting of six petals and a cooling spiral.An analytical formula for the Tcs behavior as a function of the axial strain of the cable is presented.Based on this,the effects of twist pitch,axial and transverse stiffness,thermal mismatch,cycling number,magnetic distribution,etc.,on the axial strain are discussed systematically.The calculated Tcs behavior with cycle number show consistency with the previous experimental results qualitatively and quantitatively.Lastly,we focus on the relationship between Tcs and axial strain of the cable,and we conclude that the Tcs behavior caused by electromagnetic cycles is determined by the cable axial strain.Once the cable is in a compression situation,this compression strain and its accumulation would lead to the Tcs degradation.The experimental observation of the Tcs enhancement in the CS STP samples should be considered as a contribution of the shorter length of the high field zone in SULTAN and CSMC devices,as well as the tight cable structure.     

Visual Investigation of Improvement in Extra-Heavy Oil Recovery by Borate-Assisted $$\hbox {CO}_{2}$$-Foam Injection

The significant reduction in heavy oil viscosity when mixed with \(\hbox {CO}_{2}\) is well documented. However, for \(\hbox {CO}_{2}\) injection to be an efficient method for improving heavy oil recovery, other mechanisms are required to improve the mobility ratio between the \(\hbox {CO}_{2}\) front and the resident heavy oil. In situ generation of \(\hbox {CO}_{2}\)-foam can improve \(\hbox {CO}_{2}\) injection performance by (a) increasing the effective viscosity of \(\hbox {CO}_{2}\) in the reservoir and (b) increasing the contact area between the heavy oil and injected \(\hbox {CO}_{2}\) and hence improving \(\hbox {CO}_{2}\) dissolution rate. However, in situ generation of stable \(\hbox {CO}_{2}\)-foam capable of travelling from the injection well to the production well is hard to achieve. We have previously published the results of a series of foam stability experiments using alkali and in the presence of heavy crude oil (Farzaneh and Sohrabi 2015). The results showed that stability of \(\hbox {CO}_{2}\)-foam decreased by addition of NaOH, while it increased by addition of \(\hbox {Na}_{2}\hbox {CO}_{3}\). However, the highest increase in \(\hbox {CO}_{2}\)-foam stability was achieved by adding borate to the surfactant solution. Borate is a mild alkaline with an excellent pH buffering ability. The previous study was performed in a foam column in the absence of a porous medium. In this paper, we present the results of a new series of experiments carried out in a high-pressure glass micromodel to visually investigate the performance of borate–surfactant \(\hbox {CO}_{2}\)-foam injection in an extra-heavy crude oil in a transparent porous medium. In the first part of the paper, the pore-scale interactions of \(\hbox {CO}_{2}\)-foam and extra-heavy oil and the mechanisms of oil displacement and hence oil recovery are presented through image analysis of micromodel images. The results show that very high oil recovery was achieved by co-injection of the borate–surfactant solution with \(\hbox {CO}_{2}\), due to in-situ formation of stable foam. Dissolution of \(\hbox {CO}_{2}\) in heavy oil resulted in significant reduction in its viscosity. \(\hbox {CO}_{2}\)-foam significantly increased the contact area between the oil and \(\hbox {CO}_{2}\) significantly and thus the efficiency of the process. The synergy effect between the borate and surfactant resulted in (1) alteration of the wettability of the porous medium towards water wet and (2) significant reduction of the oil–water IFT. As a result, a bank of oil-in-water (O/W) emulsion was formed in the porous medium and moved ahead of the \(\hbox {CO}_{2}\)-foam front. The in-situ generated O/W emulsion has a much lower viscosity than the original oil and plays a major role in the observed additional oil recovery in the range of performed experiments. Borate also made \(\hbox {CO}_{2}\)-foam more stable by changing the system to non-spreading oil and reducing coalescence of the foam bubbles. The results of these visual experiments suggest that borate can be a useful additive for improving heavy oil recovery in the range of the performed tests, by increasing \(\hbox {CO}_{2}\)-foam stability and producing O/W emulsions.     

A new type of functional chemical sensitizer $$\hbox {MgH}_{2}$$ for improving pressure desensitization resistance of emulsion explosives

In millisecond-delay blasting and deep water blasting projects, traditional emulsion explosives sensitized by the chemical sensitizer \(\hbox {NaNO}_{2}\) often encounter incomplete explosion or misfire problems because of the “pressure desensitization” phenomenon, which seriously affects blasting safety and construction progress. A \(\hbox {MgH}_{2}\)-sensitized emulsion explosive was invented to solve these problems. Experimental results show that \(\hbox {MgH}_{2}\) can effectively reduce the problem of pressure desensitization. In this paper, the factors which influence the pressure desensitization of two types of emulsion explosives are studied, and resistance to this phenomenon of \(\hbox {MgH}_{2}\)-sensitized emulsion explosives is discussed.     

Application of an Inverse Simulator of Single-Phase Flow Analysis for Leakage Pathway Estimation in a Multiphase System for Geologic $$\hbox {CO}_{2}$$ Storage

When \(\hbox {CO}_{2}\) is injected in a brine reservoir, brine or \(\hbox {CO}_{2}\) can be discharged into a permeable formation saturated with brine above the storage reservoir along a leakage pathway, if present. In most situations, the overlying formation can act as a single-phase aquifer with only brine leakage before \(\hbox {CO}_{2}\) leaks. This study examines the applicability of a developed inverse code for single-phase fluids to detect leakage pathway locations in view of the overlying formation using pressure anomalies induced by leaks. Before applying inverse analysis, forward modeling is performed using the TOUGH2 model to determine brine and \(\hbox {CO}_{2}\) leakage in a homogeneous conceptual model, and the simulated pressure profiles at monitoring wells are used as measurements in the inverse model. In the inverse code, an important consideration is that the vertical hydraulic conductivity and cross-sectional area of a leakage pathway that are inherent to a leakage term in the mass balance equation are integrated as a single parameter to estimate the leakage pathway locations. This method eliminates the impact of the uncertainty of the leakage pathway size on the accuracy of leakage pathway estimation. The inverse model examines the effect of the number of monitoring wells, monitoring periods and \(\hbox {CO}_{2}\) leakage into the overlying formation on the accuracy of leakage pathway estimation according to eleven application examples. The comparison between the results of the single-phase inverse code and iTOUGH2 code illustrates that the single-phase inverse model can be applicable to the leakage pathway estimation in a multiphase flow system.     

Displacement and Dissolution Characteristics of CO$$_{}$$/Brine System in Unconsolidated Porous Media

This study investigated the dynamic displacement and dissolution of \(\hbox {CO}_{2}\) in porous media at 313 K and 6/8 MPa. Gaseous (\(\hbox {gCO}_{2}\)) at 6 MPa and supercritical \(\hbox {CO}_{2 }(\hbox {scCO}_{2}) \) at 8 MPa were injected downward into a glass bead pack at different flow rates, following upwards brine injection. The processes occurring during \(\hbox {CO}_{2}\) drainage and brine imbibition were visualized using magnetic resonance imaging. The drainage flow fronts were strongly influenced by the flow rates, resulting in different gas distributions. However, brine imbibition proceeded as a vertical compacted front due to the strong effect of gravity. Additionally, the effects of flow rate on distribution and saturation were analyzed. Then, the front movement of \(\hbox {CO}_{2}\) dissolution was visualized along different paths after imbibition. The determined \(\hbox {CO}_{2}\) concentrations implied that little \(\hbox {scCO}_{2}\) dissolved in brine after imbibition. The dissolution rate was from \(10^{-8}\) to \(10^{-9}\, \hbox {kg}\, \hbox {m}^{-3} \, \hbox {s}^{-1}\) and from \(10^{-6}\) to \(10^{-8}\, \hbox {kg}\, \hbox {m}^{-3} \, \hbox {s}^{-1}\) for \(\hbox {gCO}_{2}\) at 6 MPa and \(\hbox {scCO}_{2 }\) at 8 MPa, respectively. The total time for the \(\hbox {scCO}_{2}\) dissolution was short, indicating fast mass transfer between the \(\hbox {CO}_{2}\) and brine. Injection of \(\hbox {CO}_{2}\) under supercritical conditions resulted in a quick establishment of a steady state with high storage safety.     

Comparative Study of Five Outcrop Chalks Flooded at Reservoir Conditions: Chemo-mechanical Behaviour and Profiles of Compositional Alteration

This study presents experimental results from a flooding test series performed at reservoir conditions for five high-porosity Cretaceous onshore chalks from Denmark, Belgium and the USA, analogous to North Sea reservoir chalk. The chalks are studied in regard to their chemo-mechanical behaviour when performing tri-axial compaction tests while injecting brines (0.219 mol/L \(\hbox {MgCl}_{2}\) or 0.657 mol/L NaCl) at reservoir conditions for 2–3 months (T = 130 \(^\circ \hbox {C}\); 1 PV/d). Each chalk type was examined in terms of its mineralogical and chemical composition before and after the mechanical flooding tests, using an extensive set of analysis methods, to evaluate the chalk- and brine-dependent chemical alterations. All \(\hbox {MgCl}_{2}\)-flooded cores showed precipitation of Mg-bearing minerals (mainly magnesite). The distribution of newly formed Mg-bearing minerals appears to be chalk-dependent with varying peaks of enrichment. The chalk samples from Aalborg originally contained abundant opal-CT, which was dissolved with both NaCl and \(\hbox {MgCl}_{2}\) and partly re-precipitated as Si-Mg-bearing minerals. The Aalborg core injected with \(\hbox {MgCl}_{2}\) indicated strongly increased specific surface area (from 4.9 \(\hbox {m}^{2}\hbox {/g}\) to within 7–9 \(\hbox {m}^{2}\hbox {/g}\)). Mineral precipitation effects were negligible in chalk samples flooded with NaCl compared to \(\hbox {MgCl}_{2}\). Silicates were the main mineralogical impurity in the studied chalk samples (0.3–6 wt%). The cores with higher \(\hbox {SiO}_{2}\) content showed less deformation when injecting NaCl brine, but more compaction when injecting \(\hbox {MgCl}_{2}\)-brine. The observations were successfully interpreted by mathematical geochemical modelling which suggests that the re-precipitation of Si-bearing minerals leads to enhanced calcite dissolution and mass loss (as seen experimentally) explaining the high compaction seen in \(\hbox {MgCl}_{2}\)-flooded Aalborg chalk. Our work demonstrates that the original mineralogy, together with the newly formed minerals, can control the chemo-mechanical interactions during flooding and should be taken into account when predicting reservoir behaviour from laboratory studies. This study improves the understanding of complex flow reaction mechanisms also relevant for field-scale dynamics seen during brine injection.     

The Unstable Set of a Periodic Orbit for Delayed Positive Feedback

In the paper [Large-amplitude periodic solutions for differential equations with delayed monotone positive feedback, JDDE 23 (2011), no. 4, 727–790], we have constructed large-amplitude periodic orbits for an equation with delayed monotone positive feedback. We have shown that the unstable sets of the large-amplitude periodic orbits constitute the global attractor besides spindle-like structures. In this paper we focus on a large-amplitude periodic orbit \({\mathcal {O}}_{p}\) with two Floquet multipliers outside the unit circle, and we intend to characterize the geometric structure of its unstable set \({\mathcal {W}}^{u}\left( {\mathcal {O}}_{p}\right) \). We prove that \({\mathcal {W}}^{u}\left( {\mathcal {O}}_{p}\right) \) is a three-dimensional \(C^{1}\)-submanifold of the phase space and admits a smooth global graph representation. Within \({\mathcal {W}}^{u}\left( {\mathcal {O}}_{p}\right) \), there exist heteroclinic connections from \({\mathcal {O}}_{p}\) to three different periodic orbits. These connecting sets are two-dimensional \(C^{1}\)-submanifolds of \({\mathcal {W}}^{u}\left( {\mathcal {O}}_{p}\right) \) and homeomorphic to the two-dimensional open annulus. They form \(C^{1}\)-smooth separatrices in the sense that they divide the points of \({\mathcal {W}}^{u}\left( {\mathcal {O}}_{p}\right) \) into three subsets according to their \(\omega \)-limit sets.     

Finite plasticity in $$\varvec{P}^\top \! \varvec{P}$$. Part I: constitutive model

We address a finite-plasticity model based on the symmetric tensor \(\varvec{P}^\top \! \varvec{P}\) instead of the classical plastic strain \(\varvec{P}\). Such a structure arises by assuming that the material behavior is invariant with respect to frame transformations of the intermediate configuration. The resulting variational model is lower dimensional, symmetric and based solely on the reference configuration. We discuss the existence of energetic solutions at the material-point level as well as the convergence of time discretizations. The linearization of the model for small deformations is ascertained via a rigorous evolution-\(\Gamma \)-convergence argument. The constitutive model is combined with the equilibrium system in Part II where we prove the existence of quasistatic evolutions and ascertain the linearization limit (Grandi and Stefanelli in 2016).     

Design of a steering control law for an autonomous underwater vehicle using nonlinear $$\mathscr {H}_{\infty }$$ state feedback technique

This paper proposes a new robust nonlinear \(\mathscr {H}_{\infty }\) state feedback (NHSF) controller for an autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) in steering plane. A three-degree-of-freedom nonlinear model of an AUV has considered for developing a steering control law. In this, the energy dissipative theory is used which leads to form a Hamilton–Jacobi–Isaacs (HJI) inequality. The nonlinear \(\mathscr {H}_{\infty }\) control algorithm has been developed by solving HJI equation such that the AUV tracks the desired yaw angle accurately. Furthermore, a path following control has been implemented using the NHSF control algorithm for various paths in steering plane. Simulation studies have been carried out using MATLAB/Simulink environment to verify the efficacies of the proposed control algorithm for AUV. From the results obtained, it is concluded that the proposed robust control algorithm exhibits a good tracking performance ensuring internal stability and significant disturbance attenuation.     

The role of angular momentum in the laminar motion of viscous fluids

In laminar flow, viscous fluids must exert appropriate elastic shear stresses normal to the flow direction. This is a direct consequence of the balance of angular momentum. There is a limit, however, to the maximum elastic shear stress that a fluid can exert. This is the ultimate shear stress, \(\tau _\mathrm{y}\), of the fluid. If this limit is exceeded, laminar flow becomes dynamically incompatible. The ultimate shear stress of a fluid can be determined from experiments on plane Couette flow. For water at \(20\,^{\circ }\hbox {C}\), the data available in the literature indicate a value of \(\tau _\mathrm{y}\) of about \(14.4\times 10^{-3}\, \hbox {Pa}\). This study applies this value to determine the Reynolds numbers at which flowing water reaches its ultimate shear stress in the case of Taylor–Couette flow and circular pipe flow. The Reynolds numbers thus obtained turn out to be reasonably close to those corresponding to the onset of turbulence in the considered flows. This suggests a connection between the limit to laminar flow, on the one hand, and the occurrence of turbulence, on the other.     

Flow Dynamics of \hbox {CO}_{2}/brine at the Interface Between the Storage Formation and Sealing Units in a Multi-layered Model

Pressure distribution and \(\hbox {CO}_{2}\) plume migration are two major interests in \(\hbox {CO}_{2}\) geologic storage as they determine the injectivity and storage capacity. In this study, we adopted a three-layer model comprising a storage formation and the over- and underlying seals and determined three distinct flow regions based on the vertical flux exchange of \(\hbox {CO}_{2}\) and native brine. Regions 1 and 2 showed \(\hbox {CO}_{2}\) flowing from the storage formation to adjacent seals with counter-flowing brine. The characteristics of these fluxes in Region 1 were governed by permeability change due to salt precipitation whereas buoyancy force controlled the flux pattern in Region 2. Region 3 showed brine flowing from storage formation toward the over- and underlying seals, which enabled the displaced brine to escape from the storage formation and make room for \(\hbox {CO}_{2}\) to store as well as reduce the pressure build-up. In the multi-layered model, the counter-flowing brine in flow Region 1 resulted in localized salt precipitation at the upper and lower boundary of storage formation. We assessed the bottom-hole pressure and \(\hbox {CO}_{2}\) mass in caprock with respect to reservoir size. While the formation thickness influenced the bottom-hole pressure in the early stage of injection, the horizontal extension of the reservoir was more influential to pressure build-up during the injection period, and to the stabilized pressure during the post-injection period. The \(\hbox {CO}_{2}\) mass in caprock gently increased during the injection period as well as during the post-injection period and reached about 4–5 % of injected \(\hbox {CO}_{2}\) . The percentage of escaped brine from the storage formation ranged from 80–100 % of the \(\hbox {CO}_{2}\) mass stored in the storage formation depending on the reservoir scale.     

Editorial to the Special Issue on Reconstruction of Porous Media and Materials and Its Applications

The single-well chemical tracer test (SWCTT) has emerged in the past decades as a method for measuring oil saturation prior to and/or after EOR operations, to measure the recovery performance in-situ. To use this technology, the partition coefficients of the selected tracers are essential for estimating the level of residual oil at the targeted single well. Commonly, injection of short chain alcohols and ethyl acetate, a reactive tracer, is carried out for the tracer slug, mainly based on site-specific reservoir conditions, to accurately determine the level of oil saturation in-situ. However, injection of ethyl formate has been less common due to its fast hydrolysis rate under elevated temperature, which increases the challenges in data interpretation. Therefore, a systematic study for using ethyl formate under mid-range temperature \((<60\,^{\circ }\hbox {C})\), as commonly found in mature oil field in the USA, shows the potential to be applied for SWCTT. As part of the design effort for a series of EOR field tests to manage the project risk, we particularly assessed the relationships between the partition coefficients of reactive tracers and subsurface conditions such as salinity, temperatures, type of electrolytes, and the equivalent alkane carbon number (EACN) of the crude oil experiments was performed under various reservoir conditions as a function of actual site characteristics at the targeted high saline formations. In brief, our data clearly show that the (oil/water) partition coefficient of ethyl formate increases steadily with increasing NaCl concentrations, ranging from 10,000 (0.17 M) to 250,000 mg/L (4.28 M). A similar upward trend was observed for increasing temperature between 25 and \(52\,^{\circ }\hbox {C}\); however, the partition coefficient decreases inversely with increasing the crude oil EACN over the range from 8 to 12, which are common for domestic oil samples. It was also showed that brine with high NaCl concentration yielded higher partition coefficients. In contrast, brine with high \(\hbox {CaCl}_{2}\) and \(\hbox {BaCl}_{2}\) concentration yielded lower values. And \(\hbox {MgCl}_{2}\) performed somewhat unusual trend in our tests. These results further indicate that the partition coefficient of the reactive tracer, ethyl formate, is sensitive to change in salinity, temperatures, type of electrolytes and EACN, as observed for other chemical tracers. In addition, based on the hydrolysis rate of ethyl formate under various reservoir conditions, the appropriate window of shut-in time can be pre-determined before initiating the field test. We believe that the ability of better understanding the partition coefficients and predicting the shut-in time beforehand could drastically reduce the risks of SWCTT operations.     

Global Strong Well-Posedness of the Three Dimensional Primitive Equations in {L^p}-Spaces

In this article, an \({L^p}\)-approach to the primitive equations is developed. In particular, it is shown that the three dimensional primitive equations admit a unique, global strong solution for all initial data \({a \in [X_p,D(A_p)]_{1/p}}\) provided \({p \in [6/5,\infty)}\). To this end, the hydrostatic Stokes operator \({A_p}\) defined on \({X_p}\), the subspace of \({L^p}\) associated with the hydrostatic Helmholtz projection, is introduced and investigated. Choosing \({p}\) large, one obtains global well-posedness of the primitive equations for strong solutions for initial data \({a}\) having less differentiability properties than \({H^1}\), hereby generalizing in particular a result by Cao and Titi (Ann Math 166:245–267, 2007) to the case of non-smooth initial data.     

High sensitivity measurements of normal force under large amplitude oscillatory shear

The two aims of this publication are to introduce a new and rheometer-independent rheometric tool for measuring the axial normal force in oscillatory shear rheology and to study the normal forces of polyolefin melts under large amplitude oscillatory shear (LAOS). A new plate geometry with an incorporated highly sensitive piezoelectric normal force sensor was designed for a rotational rheometer. The new geometry was used to investigate normal forces of polyethylene (PE) melts under LAOS. The resulting stress and normal force data was compared with the data from measurements in commercial high performance rotational rheometers. The stress and the normal force response were Fourier-transformed and their resulting spectra were analysed. The non-linear contributions to the FT-magnitude spectra (i.e. the intensities of the higher harmonics) were analysed using the framework of the Q-parameter, \(Q=I_{3/1}/{\gamma ^{2}_{0}}\) for both the stress spectrum and the normal force spectrum, resulting in the strain-dependent \(Q\left (\gamma _{0}\right )\) and \(Q_{NF}\left (\gamma _{0}\right )\), respectively. The newly designed normal force geometry had a sensitivity in the measurement starting from \(5\times 10^{-5}\) N up to 20 N, and respectively a signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of \(1:\) 16.000, which is about a factor of 1.8 times better than the best performing commercial rheometers. The new geometry was used to determine \(Q\left (\gamma _{0}\right )\) and \(Q_{NF}\left (\gamma _{0}\right )\), to characterize the shear rheological behaviour of the PE melts. Even rather simple rheometers, those without normal force detection, can be extended utilizing the here presented tools for high sensitive FT-rheology analysing the normal forces.     

Observer-based quantized sliding mode $${\varvec{\mathcal {H}}}_{\varvec{\infty }}$$ control of Markov jump systems

An adjustable quantized approach is adopted to treat the \(\mathcal {H}_{\infty }\) sliding mode control of Markov jump systems with general transition probabilities. To solve this problem, an integral sliding mode surface is constructed by an observer with the quantized output measurement and a new bound is developed to bridge the relationship between system output and its quantization. Nonlinearities incurred by controller synthesis and general transition probabilities are handled by separation strategies. With the help of these measurements, linear matrix inequalities-based conditions are established to ensure the stochastic stability of the sliding motion and meet the required \(\mathcal {H}_{\infty }\) performance level. An example of single-link robot arm system is simulated at last to demonstrate the validity.     

Existence of $$C^{k}$$-Invariant Foliations for Lorenz-Type Maps

Under conditions similar to those in Shashkov and Shil’nikov (Differ Uravn 30(4):586–595, 732, 1994) we show that a \(C^{k+1}\) Lorenz-type map T has a \(C^{k}\) codimension one foliation which is invariant under the action of T. This allows us to associate T to a \(C^{k}\) one-dimensional transformation.     

In Situ Chemically-Selective Monitoring of Multiphase Displacement Processes in a Carbonate Rock Using 3D Magnetic Resonance Imaging

Accurate monitoring of multiphase displacement processes is essential for the development, validation and benchmarking of numerical models used for reservoir simulation and for asset characterization. Here we demonstrate the first application of a chemically-selective 3D magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) technique which provides high-temporal resolution, quantitative, spatially resolved information of oil and water saturations during a dynamic imbibition core flood experiment in an Estaillades carbonate rock. Firstly, the relative saturations of dodecane (\(S_{\mathrm{o}})\) and water (\(S_{\mathrm{w}})\), as determined from the MRI measurements, have been benchmarked against those obtained from nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy and volumetric analysis of the core flood effluent. Excellent agreement between both the NMR and MRI determinations of \(S_{\mathrm{o}}\) and \(S_{\mathrm{w}}\) was obtained. These values were in agreement to 4 and 9% of the values determined by volumetric analysis, with absolute errors in the measurement of saturation determined by NMR and MRI being 0.04 or less over the range of relative saturations investigated. The chemically-selective 3D MRI method was subsequently applied to monitor the displacement of dodecane in the core plug sample by water under continuous flow conditions at an interstitial velocity of \(1.27\times 10^{-6}\,\hbox {m}\,\hbox {s}^{-1}\) (\(0.4\,\hbox {ft}\,\hbox {day}^{-1})\). During the core flood, independent images of water and oil distributions within the rock core plug at a spatial resolution of \(0.31\,\hbox {mm}\times 0.39\,\hbox {mm} \times 0.39\,\hbox {mm}\) were acquired on a timescale of 16 min per image. Using this technique the spatial and temporal dynamics of the displacement process have been monitored. This MRI technique will provide insights to structure–transport relationships associated with multiphase displacement processes in complex porous materials, such as those encountered in petrophysics research.     

Analytical modeling for nonlinear vibration analysis of partially cracked thin magneto-electro-elastic plate coupled with fluid

A nonlinear analytical model for the transverse vibration of cracked magneto-electro-elastic (MEE) thin plate is presented using the classical plate theory (CPT). The MEE plate material selected is fiber-reinforced \(\hbox {BaTiO}_{3}\)–\(\hbox {CoFe}_{2}\hbox {O}_{4}\) composite, which contains a partial crack at the center. The CPT and the simplified line spring model for crack terms are modified to accommodate the effect of electric and magnetic field rigidities. The analysis considers in-plane forces for the MEE plate, which makes the model nonlinear. The derived governing equation is solved by expressing the transverse displacement in terms of modal coordinates. An approximate solution for forced vibration of cracked MEE plate is also obtained using a perturbation technique. The effect of part-through crack, volume fraction of the composite on the vibration frequencies and structure response is investigated. The frequency response curves presented shows the phenomenon of hard or soft spring. Furthermore, the devised model is extended to the case of cracked MEE plate submerged in fluid. Velocity potential function and Bernoulli’s equation are used to incorporate the inertia effect of surrounding fluid. Both partially and totally submerged plate configurations are considered. The validation of the present results is carried out for intact submerged plate as to the best of the author’s knowledge the literature lacks in results for submerged-cracked plates. New results for cracked MEE plate show that the vibration characteristics are affected by volume fraction, crack length, fluid level and depth of immersion.     

Laboratory Investigation of LNAPL Migration in Double-Porosity Soil Under Fractured Condition Using Digital Image Analysis

Gas production from shale gas reservoirs plays a significant role in satisfying increasing energy demands. Compared with conventional sandstone and carbonate reservoirs, shale gas reservoirs are characterized by extremely low porosity, ultra-low permeability and high clay content. Slip flow, diffusion, adsorption and desorption are the primary gas transport processes in shale matrix, while Darcy flow is restricted to fractures. Understanding methane diffusion and adsorption, and gas flow and equilibrium in the low-permeability matrix of shale is crucial for shale formation evaluation and for predicting gas production. Modeling of diffusion in low-permeability shale rocks requires use of the Dusty gas model (DGM) rather than Fick’s law. The DGM is incorporated in the TOUGH2 module EOS7C-ECBM, a modified version of EOS7C that simulates multicomponent gas mixture transport in porous media. Also included in EOS7C-ECBM is the extended Langmuir model for adsorption and desorption of gases. In this study, a column shale model was constructed to simulate methane diffusion and adsorption through shale rocks. The process of binary \(\hbox {CH}_{4}{-}\hbox {N}_{2}\) diffusion and adsorption was analyzed. A sensitivity study was performed to investigate the effects of pressure, temperature and permeability on diffusion and adsorption in shale rocks. The results show that methane gas diffusion and adsorption in shale is a slow process of dynamic equilibrium, which can be illustrated by the slope of a curve in \(\hbox {CH}_{4}\) mass variation. The amount of adsorption increases with the pressure increase at the low pressure, and the mass change by gas diffusion will decrease due to the decrease in the compressibility factor of the gas. With the elevated temperature, the gas molecules move faster and then the greater gas diffusion rates make the process duration shorter. The gas diffusion rate decreases with the permeability decrease, and there is a limit of gas diffusion if the permeability is less than \(1.0\,\times \,10^{-15}\, \hbox { m}^{2}\). The results can provide insights for a better understanding of methane diffusion and adsorption in the shale rocks so as to optimize gas production performance of shale gas reservoirs.