ESE March Newsletter

Streamlines in a Darcy flow, numerical simulation

An overview of the recent publications, events and exciting work that's been happening in the Department of Earth Science and Engineering.

Contents

Publications
Conferences, Talks, Lectures, Seminars
Research Funding
Software Release
Outreach
Media and Impact
PhD Vivas
Awards

Publications

Bhullar, A. S., Stewart, G. E., and Zimmerman, R. W. (2021). Perturbation solution for one-dimensional flow to a constant-pressure boundary in a stress-sensitive reservoir, Transport in Porous Media. DOI: 10.1007/s11242-021-01570-w

Bullen, J. C., Saleesongsom, S., Gallagher, K., & Weiss, D. J. (2021). A Revised Pseudo-Second-Order Kinetic Model for Adsorption, Sensitive to Changes in Adsorbate and Adsorbent Concentrations. 37, 10, 3189–3201. DOI: 10.1021/acs.langmuir.1c00142

Bullen, J. C. (2021). Surface complexation modelling: building tools to understand and predict adsorption. RSC ECG Bulletin January 2021, pp 27-28. Available at: https://www.envchemgroup.com/eb24-surface-complexation-modelling.html

Heaney, C. E., Buchan, A. G., Pain, C. C. and Jewer, S. (2021). Reduced-Order Modelling Applied to the Multigroup Neutron Diffusion Equation Using a Nonlinear Interpolation Method for Control-Rod Movement. Energies, 14(5), 1350. DOI: 10.3390/en140511 

Jacquemyn, C., Pataki, M.E.H., Hampson, G.J., Jackson, M.D., Petrovskyy, D., Geiger, S., Marques, C.C., Machado Silva, J.D., Judice, S., Rahman, F., Costa Sousa, M. (2021) Sketch-based interface and modelling of stratigraphy and structure in three dimensions. Journal of the Geological Society. DOI: 10.1144/jgs2020-187

Reeve, MT., Magee, C., Bastow, I.D., McDermott, C., Jackson, C.A.-L.; Bell, R.E., Prytulak, J. (2021): Nature of the Cuvier Abyssal Plain crust, offshore NW Australia. Geological Society of London. Collection. DOI: 10.6084/m9.figshare.c.5332172.v1 

Salinas, P., Regnier, G., Jacquemyn, C., Pain, C.C., Jackson, M.D. (2021) Dynamic mesh optimisation for geothermal reservoir modelling. Geothermics. DOI: 10.1016/j.geothermics.2021.102089

Santibanez-Borda, E., Korre, A., Nie, Z., Durucan, S. (2021). A multi-objective optimisation model to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and costs in offshore natural gas upstream chains. Journal of Cleaner Production., 297. DOI: 10.1016/j.jclepro.2021.126625 

Yekta, A., Salinas, P., Hajirezaie, S., Amooie, M.A., Pain, C.C., Jackson, M.D., Jacquemyn, C., Soltanian, M.R. (2021) Reactive transport modeling in heterogeneous porous media with dynamic mesh optimization. Computational Geosciences, 25, 357-372. DOI: 10.1007/s10596-020-10009-y

Conferences, Talks, Lectures, Seminars

Dick Selley gave a Zoom talk on the impact of geology and climate change on UK viticulture to Cambridge University's Fitzwilliam Society.

Dr Kathryn Hadler presented at a Women in Mining UK event about the technical challenges of Mining on the Moon.

Research Funding

Robin Thomas of the ESE Rock Mechanics Research Group UK received a highly competitive UK Unconventional Hydrocarbons Small Project Grant, entitled ”Numerical geomechanics study of the influence of injection scenarios to quantify seismic hazard at Preston New Road".

The project, which will run from 1^st March 2021 through 1^st March 2022, will be carried out by Robin in collaboration with Adriana Paluszny and Robert Zimmerman, as well as with collaborators from Oxford, Bristol, and Leicester.

After the success of their Phase 1 project last year, Philippa Mason and Jian Guo Liu secured a Phase 2 grant from DSTL’s Defence and Security Accelerator (DASA) programme, an exciting and challenging 12-month £400K project, which kicked-off this month.

The project will develop and refine an integrated software-hardware solution for real-time Digital Elevation Model (DEM) generation and image-based autonomous navigation for drones. A new PDRA will join the department in the coming weeks and will undertake the software development.

This research has potential for exploitation across many application fields, including planetary exploration where there is no GPS for positional guidance!

Software Release

Sketch-based 3D geological modelling software Rapid Reservoir Modelling (RRM) is released open source and is available for all to use. The geological basis for RRM is developed here in ESE.

Sketch-based geologic modelling is a new, intuitive approach that uses hand-drawn sketches to generate 3D geological models. These models can be assessed visually and quantitatively, to understand the complex spatial relationships and the impact of different scenarios on connectivity and flow.

Download here, find out more information, or email Carl Jacquemyn if interested in using RRM.

Outreach

Adriana Paluszny of the ESE Rock Mechanics Research Group UK received a Royal Society Public Engagement Fund Grant, entitled "Discovering Science at Home". 

The project will run from May 2021 through April 2022; in collaboration with a teacher and an artist, they will develop targeted activity resources for primary school children to be distributed through food banks in London.

The project aims to provide access to high-quality science-based printed materials to children for free. Adriana and her team will aim to create enthusiasm around the subjects of Earth Science, Computer Science, Material Science, and Mathematics while promoting interest in the green and sustainable future of our planet.

 Media and Impact 

Jay Bullen published two video tutorials on YouTube, on how to fit models of adsorption isotherms and adsorption kinetics using Microsoft Excel.

Dick Selley's research on the suitability of chalk for English viticulture was cited in The Guardian. Dick Selley also gave an interview to BBC on the control of geology and climate change on English viticulture. 

PhD Vivas

Andrea Lombardo passed her viva with minor corrections. Andrea's PhD project, entitled "Machine Learning and Simulation for the Optimization and Characterization of Electrodes in Batteries", was supervised by Nigel Brandon (ESE), Stephen Neethling (ESE) and Samuel Cooper (Dyson School of Design Engineering).

Awards

Paula Gago won the BP-ICAM image competition. Paula’s winning picture is part of the project "Improving water injection in soft sand" (ICAM-39) that has just concluded this year. The image depicts a quasi-two-dimensional Hele-Shaw cell filled with a porous material, and fluid being injected from the central inlet.