My research interests are at the intersection of geofluids and energy resources, including geologic CO2 sequestration, hydrothermal fluid systems, and fluid-triggered earthquakes. I specialize in numerical models of multi-phase fluid flow in fractured and porous media, high performance computing, geospatial analysis, and the application of terrestrial LiDAR to fracture network characterization. My research group is currently investigating physical and chemical processes during CO2 sequestration in flood basalt reservoirs, and fluid system processes during underground injections of oilfield wastewater.
My current focus is understanding how mechanical and chemical processes influence formation permeability at reservoir scales. In pursuing this research, I am in the process of implementing fully a coupled thermal-hydro-chemical-mechanical numerical modeling framework for investigating these processes.
Wu Hao (Ph.D. student) is developing a numerical modeling experiment to quantify the effects of capillary pressure uncertainty during CO2 sequestration in reactive basalt reservoirs.
Richard Jayne (Ph.D. student) is studying the spatial correlation of high permeability basalt flow interiors in order to quantify the effects heterogeneity for CO2 sequestration in flood basalt reservoirs.