Research status of laser cladding on titanium and its alloys: A review

The injected fluids in secondary processes supplement the natural energy present in the reservoir to displace oil. The recovery efficiency mainly depends on the mechanism of pressure maintenance. However, the injected fluids in tertiary or enhanced oil recovery (EOR) processes interact with the reservoir rock/oil system. Thus, EOR techniques are receiving substantial attention worldwide as the available oil resources are declining. However, some challenges, such as low sweep efficiency, high costs and potential formation damage, still hinder the further application of these EOR technologies. Current studies on nanoparticles are seen as potential solutions to most of the challenges associated with these traditional EOR techniques. This paper provides an overview of the latest studies about the use of nanoparticles to enhance oil recovery and paves the way for researchers who are interested in the integration of these progresses. The first part of this paper addresses studies about the major EOR mechanisms of nanoparticles used in the forms of nanofluids, nanoemulsions and nanocatalysts, including disjoining pressure, viscosity increase of injection fluids, preventing asphaltene precipitation, wettability alteration and interfacial tension reduction. This part is followed by a review of the most important research regarding various novel nano-assisted EOR methods where nanoparticles are used to target various existing thermal, chemical and gas methods. Finally, this review identifies the challenges and opportunities for future study regarding application of nanoparticles in EOR processes.

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Application of Nanoparticles in Enhanced Oil Recovery: A Critical Review of Recent Progress

The coupling between subsurface flow and geomechanical deformation is critical in the assessment of the environmental impacts of groundwater use, underground liquid waste disposal, geologic storage of carbon dioxide, and exploitation of shale gas reserves. In particular, seismicity induced by fluid injection and withdrawal has emerged as a central element of the scientific discussion around subsurface technologies that tap into water and energy resources. Here we present a new computational approach to model coupled multiphase flow and geomechanics of faulted reservoirs. We represent faults as surfaces embedded in a three-dimensional medium by using zero-thickness interface elements to accurately model fault slip under dynamically evolving fluid pressure and fault strength. We incorporate the effect of fluid pressures from multiphase flow in the mechanical stability of faults and employ a rigorous formulation of nonlinear multiphase geomechanics that is capable of handling strong capillary effects. We develop a numerical simulation tool by coupling a multiphase flow simulator with a mechanics simulator, using the unconditionally stable fixed-stress scheme for the sequential solution of two-way coupling between flow and geomechanics. We validate our modeling approach using several synthetic, but realistic, test cases that illustrate the onset and evolution of earthquakes from fluid injection and withdrawal.

https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/2013WR015175

Coupled multiphase flow and poromechanics: A computational model of pore pressure effects on fault slip and earthquake triggering

This paper relates landslide inventories to erosion rates and provides quantitative estimates of the landslide hazard associated with earthquakes. We do this by utilizing a three-parameter inverse-gamma distribution, which fits the frequency– area statistics of three substantially dcompleteT landslide-event inventories. A consequence of this general distribution is that a landslide-event magnitude mL=logNLT can be introduced, where NLT is the total number of landslides associated with the landslide event. Using this general distribution, landslide-event magnitudes mL can be obtained from incomplete landslide inventories, and the total area and volume of associated landslides, as well as the area and volume of the maximum landslides, can be directly related to the landslide-event magnitude. Using estimated recurrence intervals for three landslide events and the time span for two historical inventories, we estimate regional erosion rates associated with landslides as typically 0.1–2.5 mm year � 1 . We next give an empirical correlation between the earthquake magnitude, associated landslideevent magnitude, and the total volume of associated landslides. Using these correlations, we estimate that the minimum earthquake magnitudes that will generate landslides is M=4.3F0.4. Finally, using Gutenberg–Richter frequency-magnitude statistics for regional seismicity, we relate the intensity of seismicity in an area and the magnitude of the largest regional earthquakes to erosion rates. We find that typical seismically induced erosion rates in active subduction zones are 0.2–7 mm year � 1 and adjacent to plate boundary strike-slip fault zones are 0.01–0.7 mm year � 1 .

Landslides, Earthquakes, and Erosion

Projected increases in aridity throughout the southwestern United States due to anthropogenic climate change will likely cause reductions in perennial vegetation cover, which leaves soil surfaces exposed to erosion. Accelerated rates of dust emission from wind erosion have large implications for ecosystems and human well-being, yet there is poor understanding of the sources and magnitude of dust emission in a hotter and drier climate. Here we use a two-stage approach to compare the susceptibility of grasslands and three different shrublands to wind erosion on the Colorado Plateau and demonstrate how climate can indirectly moderate the magnitude of aeolian sediment flux through different responses of dominant plants in these communities. First, using results from 20 y of vegetation monitoring, we found perennial grass cover in grasslands declined with increasing mean annual temperature in the previous year, whereas shrub cover in shrublands either showed no change or declined as temperature increased, depending on the species. Second, we used these vegetation monitoring results and measurements of soil stability as inputs into a field-validated wind erosion model and found that declines in perennial vegetation cover coupled with disturbance to biological soil crust resulted in an exponential increase in modeled aeolian sediment flux. Thus the effects of increased temperature on perennial plant cover and the correlation of declining plant cover with increased aeolian flux strongly suggest that sustained drought conditions across the southwest will accelerate the likelihood of dust production in the future on disturbed soil surfaces.

Responses of Wind Erosion to Climate-Induced Vegetation Changes on the Colorado Plateau

In recent years, the effective stress approach has received much attention in the constitutive modeling of unsaturated soils. In this approach, the effective stress parameter is very important. This parameter needs a correct definition and has to be determined properly. In this paper, a thermodynamic approach is used to develop a physically-based formula for the effective stress tensor in unsaturated soils. This approach accounts for the hydro-mechanical coupling, which is quite important when dealing with hydraulic hysteresis in unsaturated soils. The resulting formula takes into account the role of interfacial energy and the contribution of air–water specific interfacial area to the effective stress tensor. Moreover, a bi-quadratic surface is proposed to represent the contribution of the so-called suction stress in the effective stress tensor. It is shown that the proposed relationship for suction stress is in agreement with available experimental data in the full hydraulic cycle (drying, scanning, and wetting).

Effective Stress in Unsaturated Soils: A Thermodynamic Approach Based on the Interfacial Energy and Hydromechanical Coupling

Investigating the effect of different asphaltene structures on surface topography and wettability alteration

Investigating wettability alteration due to asphaltene precipitation: Imprints in surface multifractal characteristics

Stabilization of dispersive soils by means of biological calcite precipitation

In this study, a grain-scale modelling technique has been developed to generate the capillary pressure–saturation curves for swelling granular materials. This model employs only basic granular properties such as particles size distribution, porosity, and the amount of absorbed water for swelling materials. Using this model, both drainage and imbibition curves are directly obtained by pore-scale simulations of fluid invasion. This allows us to produce capillary pressure–saturation curves for a large number of different packings of granular materials with varying porosity and/or amount of absorbed water. The algorithm is based on combining the Discrete Element Method for generating different particle packings with a pore-unit assembly approach. The pore space is extracted using a regular triangulation, with the centres of four neighbouring particles forming a tetrahedron. The pore space within each tetrahedron is referred to as a pore unit. Thus, the pore space of a particle packing is represented by an assembly of pore units for which we construct drainage and imbibition capillary pressure–saturation curves. A case study on Hostun sand is conducted to test the model against experimental data from literature and to investigate the required minimum number of particles to have a Representative Elementary Volume. Then, the capillary pressure–saturation curves are constructed for Absorbent Gelling Material particles, for different combinations of porosity values and amounts of absorbed water. Each combination yields a different configuration of pore units, and thus distinctly different capillary pressure–saturation curves. All these curves are shown to collapse into one curve for drainage and one curve for imbibition when we normalize capillary pressure and saturation values. We have developed a formula for the Van Genuchten parameter α (which is related to the inverse of the entry pressure) as a function of porosity and the amount of absorbed water.

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E. Nikooee

Papers

Effective Stress in Unsaturated Soils: A Thermodynamic Approach Based on the Interfacial Energy and Hydromechanical Coupling

Investigating the effect of different asphaltene structures on surface topography and wettability alteration

Investigating wettability alteration due to asphaltene precipitation: Imprints in surface multifractal characteristics

Stabilization of dispersive soils by means of biological calcite precipitation

The Effects of Swelling and Porosity Change on Capillarity: DEM Coupled with a Pore-Unit Assembly Method