Scaling Immiscible Displacements in Porous Media with Horizontal Wells

Despite the increase in horizontal well applications, scaling fluid displacement in porous medium with horizontal wells is yet to be fully investigated. Determining the conditions under which horizontal wells may lead to better oil recovery is of great importance to the petroleum industry. In this paper, a numerical sensitivity study was performed for several well configurations. The study is performed in order to reveal the functional relationships between the scaling groups governing the displacement and the performance of immiscible displacements in homogeneous reservoirs produced by horizontal wells. These relationships can be used as a quick prediction tool for the fractional oil recovery for any combinations of the scaling groups, thus eliminating the need for the expensive fine-mesh simulations. In addition, they provide the condition under which a horizontal well configuration may yield better recovery performance. These results have potential applications in modeling immiscible displacements and in the scaling of laboratory displacements to field conditions.     

Hydrodynamic thickness of petroleum oil adsorbed layers in the pores of reservoir rocks

The hydrodynamic thickness delta of adsorbed petroleum (crude) oil layers into the pores of sandstone rocks, through which the liquid flows, has been studied by Poiseuille's flow law and the evolution of (electrical) streaming current. The adsorption of petroleum oil is accompanied by a numerical reduction in the (negative) surface potential of the pore walls, eventually stabilizing at a small positive potential, attributed to the oil macromolecules themselves. After increasing to around 30% of the pore radius, the adsorbed layer thickness delta stopped growing either with time or with concentrations of asphaltene in the flowing liquid. The adsorption thickness is confirmed with the blockage value of the rock pores' area determined by the combination of streaming current and streaming potential measurements. This behavior is attributed to the effect on the disjoining pressure across the adsorbed layer, as described by Derjaguin and Churaev, of which the polymolecular adsorption films lose their stability long before their thickness has approached the radius of the rock pore.     

Silhouette Analysis for Performance Evaluation in Machine Learning with Applications to Clustering

Grouping the objects based on their similarities is an important common task in machine learning applications. Many clustering methods have been developed, among them k-means based clustering methods have been broadly used and several extensions have been developed to improve the original k-means clustering method such as k-means ++ and kernel k-means. K-means is a linear clustering method; that is, it divides the objects into linearly separable groups, while kernel k-means is a non-linear technique. Kernel k-means projects the elements to a higher dimensional feature space using a kernel function, and then groups them. Different kernel functions may not perform similarly in clustering of a data set and, in turn, choosing the right kernel for an application could be challenging. In our previous work, we introduced a weighted majority voting method for clustering based on normalized mutual information (NMI). NMI is a supervised method where the true labels for a training set are required to calculate NMI. In this study, we extend our previous work of aggregating the clustering results to develop an unsupervised weighting function where a training set is not available. The proposed weighting function here is based on Silhouette index, as an unsupervised criterion. As a result, a training set is not required to calculate Silhouette index. This makes our new method more sensible in terms of clustering concept.     

Fractional Dynamics of HIV with Source Term for the Supply of New CD4+ T-Cells Depending on the Viral Load via Caputo–Fabrizio Derivative

Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is a life life-threatening and serious infection caused by a virus that attacks CD4+ T-cells, which fight against infections and make a person susceptible to other diseases. It is a global public health problem with no cure; therefore, it is highly important to study and understand the intricate phenomena of HIV. In this article, we focus on the numerical study of the path-tracking damped oscillatory behavior of a model for the HIV infection of CD4+ T-cells. We formulate fractional dynamics of HIV with a source term for the supply of new CD4⁺ T-cells depending on the viral load via the Caputo–Fabrizio derivative. In the formulation of fractional HIV dynamics, we replaced the constant source term for the supply of new CD4+ T-cells from the thymus with a variable source term depending on the concentration of the viral load, and introduced a term that describes the incidence of the HIV infection of CD4+ T-cells. We present a novel numerical scheme for fractional view analysis of the proposed model to highlight the solution pathway of HIV. We inspect the periodic and chaotic behavior of HIV for the given values of input factors using numerical simulations.     

An Integrated Fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) Model for Studying Significant Factors Associated with Frequent Lane Changing

Frequent lane changes cause serious traffic safety concerns, which involve fatalities and serious injuries. This phenomenon is affected by several significant factors related to road safety. The detection and classification of significant factors affecting lane changing could help reduce frequent lane changing risk. The principal objective of this research is to estimate and prioritize the nominated crucial criteria and sub-criteria based on participants’ answers on a designated questionnaire survey. In doing so, this paper constructs a hierarchical lane-change model based on the concept of the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) with two levels of the most concerning attributes. Accordingly, the fuzzy analytic hierarchy process (FAHP) procedure was applied utilizing fuzzy scale to evaluate precisely the most influential factors affecting lane changing, which will decrease uncertainty in the evaluation process. Based on the final measured weights for level 1, FAHP model estimation results revealed that the most influential variable affecting lane-changing is ‘traffic characteristics’. In contrast, compared to other specified factors, ‘light conditions’ was found to be the least critical factor related to driver lane-change maneuvers. For level 2, the FAHP model results showed ‘traffic volume’ as the most critical factor influencing the lane changes operations, followed by ‘speed’. The objectivity of the model was supported by sensitivity analyses that examined a range for weights’ values and those corresponding to alternative values. Based on the evaluated results, stakeholders can determine strategic policy by considering and placing more emphasis on the highlighted risk factors associated with lane changing to improve road safety. In conclusion, the finding provides the usefulness of the fuzzy analytic hierarchy process to review lane-changing risks for road safety.     

Entropy generation in electrical magnetohydrodynamic flow of Al2O3–Cu/H2O hybrid nanofluid with non-uniform heat flux

Journal of Thermal Analysis and Calorimetry - This paper explores the influence of entropy production on MHD hybrid nanofluid (Al2O3–Cu/H2O) flow due to permeable stretching sheet with...     

Novasomes as Nano-Vesicular Carriers to Enhance Topical Delivery of Fluconazole: A New Approach to Treat Fungal Infections

The occurrence of fungal infections has increased over the past two decades. It is observed that superficial fungal infections are treated by conventional dosage forms, which are incapable of treating deep infections due to the barrier activity possessed by the stratum corneum of the skin. This is why the need for a topical preparation with advanced penetration techniques has arisen. This research aimed to encapsulate fluconazole (FLZ) in a novasome in order to improve the topical delivery. The novasomes were prepared using the ethanol injection technique and characterized for percent entrapment efficiency (EE), particle size (PS), zeta potential (ZP), drug release, Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and antifungal activity. The FN7 formulation with 94.45% EE, 110 nm PS and −24 ZP proved to be the best formulation. The FN7 formulation showed a 96% release of FLZ in 8 h. FTIR showed the compatibility of FLZ with excipients and DSC studies confirmed the thermal stability of FLZ in the developed formulation. The FN7 formulation showed superior inhibition of the growth of Candida albicans compared to the FLZ suspension using a resazurin reduction assay, suggesting high efficacy in inhibiting fungal growth.