Description
Confined complex porous media have dominated the energy landscape in recent decades, particularly in the context of the shale revolution. These nanoporous porous media systems are extreme environments characterized by massive heterogeneity and a host of physical mechanisms at various spatio-temporal scales working in tandem to produce system-level behavior. Unlike classical geologic porous media, these extreme environments do not lend themselves to direct visualization and observation of flow, transport, and phase behavior of fluids. Due to the confinement effects, many of the available simulation modeling platforms fail to accurately capture the physics. Recent advances in computational modeling offer a solution to this seemingly intractable problem through mesoscopic simulation models that bridge microscale physical insights from molecular simulations to macroscale models via statistical representation of matter distribution in these confined and complex pore structures. This book begins with a brief review of the fundamentals of the lattice Boltzmann method, including classical boundary and intermolecular force treatments, and the associated esoteric unit conversion systems. It then continues with chapters dedicated to flow, transport, and phase behavior considerations for pure and binary mixtures in confined and complex systems. Subsequently, the book discusses high-performance computing and multiblock techniques to extend the models reach to much larger computational domains, aiming to elucidate the macroscale behavior of confined complex porous media. The book concludes with a discussion on the application of statistical learning techniques to push the boundaries of the models in terms of complexity and speed.
Lingfu Liu is a Ph.D. candidate in Chemical Engineering and works with Dr. Saman Aryana at the University of Wyoming, US. He received his bachelor's degree in Petroleum Engineering and master's degree in Oil and Gas Field Development both at the Southwest Petroleum University, China. His main research focus on fundamental understanding of fluid physics, including transport, adsorption, and phase behavior of hydrocarbons and their mixtures using multi-scale simulation methods.
Nijat Rustamov is a Ph.D. student at the University of Wyoming department of Chemical and Biomedical Engineering under the supervision of Dr Saman A. Aryana. Nijat received his master's degree in chemical engineering from the University of Wyoming and bachelor's in petroleum engineering from Baku Higher Oil School, Azerbaijan. His research is
focused on numerical modeling of transport and adsorption in confined porous media.
Saman A. Aryana: Dr. Aryana is a Professor and the Occidental Chair in Energy and Envir onmental Technologies, as well as the Head of the Department of Chemical and Biomedical Engineering at the University of Wyoming. His research lab focuses on the theoretical and computational study of flow, transport, and phase behavior in complex subsurface systems. Utilizing scalable mesoscopic models that integrate atomistic physics, his team aims to understand system-level behavior arising from complexity. Dr. Aryana's research primarily intersects with energy, water, and environmental concerns and specializes in multiscale, multiphysics systems. He also directs a microfluidic lab where researchers create surrogate porous media to study flow dynamics in complex and disordered porous media.
