Representing complex heterogeneous structures of rocks and capturing their influence on complex thermal-mechanical processes occurring during hydrocarbon generation and production are important for practical use of simulation tools in oil & gas industries. Practical numerical simulation needs to be able to handle large models in terms of the number of simulation parameters to be solved on huge number of spatially and temporary discretised domains. From the scale point of view, it needs to have an ability to homogenise and upscale/downscale models used to simulate processes on basin, field, wellbore, laboratory, grain and sub-grain scales.
The physical behaviour is generally time dependent as well, and it needs to be correctly captured for large variety of time scales - from millennia to microseconds. All these make homogenisation and upscaling methods (HUMs) for Finite/Discrete Element codes very important and powerful items within the framework used for numerical simulation of oil & gas exploration and production processes.
This project is aimed to address the above computational challenges arising in oil & gas applications, by developing efficient and robust mathematical models and numerical strategies, involving both computational solid mechanics and computational fluid dynamics. One of the main industrial targets of the project is the analysis of the characterization and production of tight gas reservoirs using an advanced coupled geomechanica–fluid flow approach.
The starting date for PhD is October 2016.
Swansea University’s College of Engineering provides a fantastic study environment for around 3,000 undergraduate and postgraduate students. We offer a lively multidisciplinary approach to research that has seen over £100 million of research income generated since 2008.
The Research Excellence Framework (REF) 2014 ranks Engineering at Swansea as 10th in the UK for the combined score in research quality across the Engineering disciplines.
Our new Bay Campus has a fantastic beachfront location near to Swansea City Centre and Marina. The Bay Campus is part of a £450 million development project at Swansea University.
This scholarship is funded by and part of The National Research Network in Advanced Engineering and Materials (AEM), a transformative alliance that will enhance fundamental and applied research in Wales.