Pore-Scale Research

Prodanovic

Masa Prodanović is a professor in the Department of Petroleum and Geosystems Engineering and Chris Landry is a Research Scientist in the Department of Petroleum & Geosystems Engineering. Previously he was a senior Postdoctoral Fellow at the Bureau of Economic Geology.

Prodanović holds the Pioneer Corporation Faculty Fellowship in Petroleum Engineering. Her research covers fluid displacement in porous media, porous matrix and microfractured media characterization, unconventional reservoirs modeling and ferrohydrodynamics. Prodanović holds a Bachelor of Science in Applied Mathematics from the University of Zagreb, Croatia and a PhD in Computational Applied Mathematics from Stony Brook University, New York, USA. She had held a Research Associate position, as well as prestigious J.T. Oden Postdoctoral Fellowship prior to her current post. PGE profile.

Landry holds a Ph.D. in Energy and Mineral Engineering from The Pennsylvania State University, M.S. Petroleum and Natural Gas Engineering, The Pennsylvania State University and B.S. Geology and Physics, Western Michigan University. A Senior Research Fellow at the Bureau since 2013, Landry held the Marathon Alumni Centennial Graduate Fellowship in the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences at Pennsylvania State University. In 2006 he won the Outstanding Student Paper Award in the Division of Geochemistry, American Chemistry Society.

Landry’s research interests revolve around prediction of fluid migration in porous and fractured porous media, including the study of non-continuum, multiphase, and reactionary flows with a focus on pore-scale processes. His expertise is in the application of image-based analysis and employment and development of pore-scale flow models to predict fluid transport properties of heterogeneous and fractured geomedia and elucidating coupled flow processes, as well as the development of methods to upscale these results to intermediate and field scales. He is generally interested in research involving fluid flow in geomedia, including, but not limited to, hydrocarbon recovery, CO2 sequestration, contaminant transport, and water resources management. JSG profile

Masa Prodanović and Chris Landry and others in the group are involved in a systematic research effort that applies pore- and fracture-scale 2D and 3D imaging to model single- and multi-phase flow in partially cemented fractures.

Landry

Pore-Scale Imaging and Modeling

We apply micro-CT and SEM imaging to obtain high-resolution visualizations of the pore network in partially cemented fractures. Single- and multiphase flow physics is evaluated using level set techniques and Lattice Boltzmann modeling.

3D rendering of porosity.

These techniques are being applied to a suite of samples from a wide range of unconventional shale, carbonate rocks and sandstone oil and gas reservoirs and from various other subsurface and outcrop settings to understand fundamental processes of fluid flow in partly cemented fractures.

The research is applicable to contemporary flow, with implications for engineering operations, as well as to flows in the past that contributed to accumulation of cements in natural fractures, a widely observed phenomenon.

The following papers reflect some of the current work on this topic:

• Tokan-Lawal, A., Prodanović, M., and Eichhubl, P., 2015, Investigating flow properties of partially cemented fractures in Travis Peak Formation using image-based pore scale modeling, Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth, 120 | view at publisher
• Tokan-Lawal, A., Prodanovic, M., Landry, C. J., & Eichhubl, P., 2014, Understanding tortuosity and permeability variations in naturally fractured reservoirs: Niobrara Formation. Society of Petroleum Engineers. doi:10.15530/urtec-2014-1922870
• Landry, C. J., Karpyn, Z. T., and Oyala, O., 2014, Pore-scale lattice Boltzmann Modeling and 4D X-ray computed microtomography imaging of fracture-matrix fluid transfer: Transport in Porous Media, v. 103, p. 449-468, http://doi.org/10.1007/s11242-014-0311-x.
• Landry, C. J., Karpyn, Z. T., and Oyala, O., 2014, Relative permeability of homogenous-wet and mixed-wet porous media as determined by pore-scale lattice Boltzmann modeling: Water Resources Research, v. 50, p. 3672-3689, http://doi.org/10.1002/2013WR015148.
• Mehmanic, A., Chen, J.-H., Prodanovic, M., & Edwards, C., 2014, A pore scale analysis of restricted diffusion in shale gas media. Society of Petroleum Engineers. doi:10.15530/urtec-2014-1921981

Key background references

• Prodanović, M., Lindquist, W. B., & Seright, R. S., 2007. 3D image-based characterization of fluid displacement in a Berea core. Advances in Water Resources, 30(2), 214-226.
• Prodanović, M., & Bryant, S. L., 2006. A level set method for determining critical curvatures for drainage and imbibition. Journal of Colloid and Interface Science, 304(2), 442-458.
• Mehmani, A., Prodanović, M., & Javadpour, F., 2013. Multiscale, multiphysics network modeling of shale matrix gas flows. Transport in Porous Media, 99(2), 377-390.

For more information on this research contact Prodanović  or Landry.

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