Engineering Papers⌕ Search

SEARCH · Engineering Papers

Results for “well casing”

Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 37 records · Page 2

Underground storage systems for high-pressure air and gases

This paper is a discussion of the safety and cost of underground high-pressure air and gas storage systems based on recent experience with a high-pressure air system installed at Moffett Field, California. The system described used threaded and coupled oil well casings installed vertically to a depth of 1200 ft. Maximum pressure was 3000 psi and capacity was 500,000 lb of air. A failure mode analysis is presented, and it is shown that underground storage offers advantages in avoiding catastrophic consequences from pressure vessel failure. Certain problems such as corrosion, fatigue, and electrolysis are discussed in terms of the economic life of such vessels. A cost analysis shows that where favorable drilling conditions exist, the cost of underground high-pressure storage is approximately one-quarter that of equivalent aboveground storage.

Beam, B. H.↗

Well Abandonment at Various Sites, John F. Kennedy Space Center, Florida

Between January 29 and March 9, 2016, a total of 23 monitoring wells were properly abandoned-in-place at five KSC sites (OPF-1&2, OPF-3, RDG, SRB, and HSB). The total abandonment encompassed 489.06 linear feet. The wells abandoned were constructed of PVC with diameters ranging from 1-inch to 2-inches. The shallowest well abandoned was measured to be 11.6 ft bls (OPF) and the deepest well abandoned was documented to be 51.45 feet bls (HSB). All aboveground completions were removed and each area was re-graded and/or grouted to surface to match existing surroundings. All materials (concrete pads, well casings, etc.) were disposed of accordingly.

MW↗

System and method for optimizing hydrocarbon production from subsurface reservoirs

A method is described for subsurface hydrocarbon reservoir characterization including receiving a time-lapse electromagnetic (EM) dataset and a flow dataset; inverting the time-lapse EM dataset using a parametric inversion that models steel well casings to determine a volume of fluid-changed reservoir; inverting the time-lapse EM dataset and the flow dataset using a joint inversion that honors the volume of the fluid-changed reservoir to determine relative permeability and capillary pressure; and characterizing flow characteristics in the volume of the fluid-changed reservoir. The method may be executed by a computer system.

Hoversten, Gary Michael↗

Meteorological analysis of the November 25 FIRE cirrus-2 case: A well-defined ridge-crest cirrus system over Oklahoma

On the morning of 25 Nov. 1991, a cirrus cloud system formed in a region extending eastward from the continental divide into central Oklahoma and southwestern Kansas. The system moved slowly eastward during the day and maintained a relatively constant scale and shape. From the satellite perspective, this cloud system had a number of morphological similarities to the 27-28 Oct. FIRE (First International Satellite Cloud Climatology Project Regional Experiment) Cirrus-1 case analyzed by Starr and Wylie. By comparison, the present case had much better rawinsonde coverage. The rawinsonde network was much more extensive and the cloud system was relatively slow moving and well-located with respect to the enhanced sounding network and the National Weather Service (NWS) Wind Profiler Network. In addition to the rawinsonde soundings (1200 and 1800 UTC on 25 Nov. and 0000 and 0600 UTC on 26 Nov.) and satellite observations, four aircraft sorties were flown in the northern portion of this cirrus cloud system from mid-morning to mid afternoon. These included microphysical-radiation profiling missions by the NCAR Sabreliner near Tulsa (about midway between COF and OUN) and the NCAR King Air near Ponca City (about 80 km upwind of Tulsa), a microphysical profiling mission by the UND Citation near Tulsa, and a NASA ER-2 overflight. Thus, very good data are available for this case although, unfortunately, the cloud system remained south of the FIRE Hub site at Coffeyville (COF) where extensive ground-based remote sensor was located. The northern edge of the cloud system was visible from COF during most of the day. Given the wealth of available in situ and remote sensing observations, the similarity to the FIRE Cirrus-1 focal case study, and the particularly good match in scale and location of the cloud system with the rawinsonde and profiler networks, analysis of this case may yield very useful results on the life-cycle of this cirrus cloud system. The quality of the meteorological description for this case was assessed based on our preliminary analysis of the rawinsonde observations.

Starr, David↗

Finite difference numerical methods for boundary control problems governed by hyperbolic partial differential equations

This paper briefly reviews convergent finite difference schemes for hyperbolic initial boundary value problems and their applications to boundary control systems of hyperbolic type which arise in the modelling of vibrations. These difference schemes are combined with the primal and the dual approaches to compute the optimal control in the unconstrained case, as well as the case when the control is subject to inequality constraints. Some of the preliminary numerical results are also presented.

Chen, G.↗

Numerical simulation of transonic propeller flow using a 3-dimensional small disturbance code employing novel helical coordinates

The numerical simulation of three-dimensional transonic flow about propeller blades is discussed. The equations for the unsteady potential flow about propellers is given for an arbitrary coordinate system. From this the small disturbance form of the equation is derived for a new helical coordinate system. The new coordinate system is suited to propeller flow and allows cascade boundary conditions to be applied straightforward. A numerical scheme is employed which solves the steady flow as an asymptotic limit of unsteady flow. Solutions are presented for subsonic and transonic flow about a 5 percent thick bicircular arc blade of an eight bladed cascade. Both high and low advance ratio cases are given which include a lifting case as well as nonlifting cases. The nonlifting cases are compared to solutions from a Euler code.

Snyder, Aaron↗

Numerical simulation of transonic propeller flow using a three-dimensional small disturbance code employing novel helical coordinates

The numerical simulation of three-dimensional transonic flow about propeller blades is discussed. The equations for the unsteady potential flow about propellers is given for an arbitrary coordinate system. From this the small disturbance form of the equation is derived for a new helical coordinate system. The new coordinate system is suited to propeller flow and allows cascade boundary conditions to be applied straightforward. A numerical scheme is employed which solves the steady flow as an asymptotic limit of unsteady flow. Solutions are presented for subsonic and transonic flow about a 5 percent thick bicircular arc blade of an eight bladed cascade. Both high and low advance ratio cases are given which include a lifting case as well as nonlifting cases. The nonlifting cases are compared to solutions from a Euler code.

Snyder, Aaron↗

Derivation of Aerosol Profiles for MC3E Convection Studies and Use in Simulations of the 20 May Squall Line Case

Advancing understanding of deep convection microphysics via mesoscale modeling studies of well-observed case studies requires observation-based aerosol inputs. Here, we derive hygroscopic aerosol size distribution input profiles from ground-based and airborne measurements for six convection case studies observed during the Midlatitude Continental Convective Cloud Experiment (MC3E) over Oklahoma. We demonstrate use of an input profile in simulations of the only well-observed case study that produced extensive stratiform outflow on 20 May 2011. At well-sampled elevations between −11 and −23 C over widespread stratiform rain, ice crystal number concentrations are consistently dominated by a single mode near approx. 400 microm in randomly oriented maximum dimension (Dmax). The ice mass at −23 C is primarily in a closely collocated mode, whereas a mass mode near Dmax approx. 1000 microns becomes dominant with decreasing elevation to the −11 C level, consistent with possible aggregation during sedimentation. However, simulations with and without observation-based aerosol inputs systematically overpredict mass peak Dmax by a factor of 3-5 and underpredict ice number concentration by a factor of 4-10. Previously reported simulations with both two-moment and size-resolved microphysics have shown biases of a similar nature. The observed ice properties are notably similar to those reported from recent tropical measurements. Based on several lines of evidence, we speculate that updraft microphysical pathways determining outflow properties in the 20 May case are similar to a tropical regime, likely associated with warm-temperature ice multiplication that is not well understood or well represented in models.

Fridlind, Ann M.↗

Derivation of Aerosol Profiles for MC3E Convection Studies and Use in Simulations of the 20 May Squall Line Case

Advancing understanding of deep convection microphysics via mesoscale modeling studies of well-observed case studies requires observation-based aerosol inputs. Here, we derive hygroscopic aerosol size distribution input profiles from ground-based and airborne measurements for six convection case studies observed during the Midlatitude Continental Convective Cloud Experiment (MC3E) over Oklahoma. We demonstrate use of an input profile in simulations of the only well-observed case study that produced extensive stratiform outflow on 20 May 2011. At well-sampled elevations between -11 and -23 degree C over widespread stratiform rain, ice crystal number concentrations are consistently dominated by a single mode near 400 micrometer in randomly oriented maximum dimension (D[superscript max] ). The ice mass at -23 degree C is primarily in a closely collocated mode, whereas a mass mode near D[superscript max] -1000 micrometer becomes dominant with decreasing elevation to the -11 degree C level, consistent with possible aggregation during sedimentation. However, simulations with and without observation-based aerosol inputs systematically overpredict mass peak D[superscript max] by a factor of 3-5 and underpredict ice number concentration by a factor of 4-10. Previously reported simulations with both two-moment and size-resolved microphysics have shown biases of a similar nature. The observed ice properties are notably similar to those reported from recent tropical measurements. Based on several lines of evidence, we speculate that updraft microphysical pathways determining outflow properties in the 20 May case are similar to a tropical regime, likely associated with warm-temperature ice multiplication that is not well understood or well represented in models.

Fridlind, Ann M.↗

Accelerating and stabilizing the convergence of vibrational self-consistent field calculations via the direct inversion of the iterative subspace (vDIIS) algorithm

The vibrational self-consistent field (VSCF) method yields anharmonic states and spectra for molecular vibrations, and it serves as the starting point for more sophisticated correlated-vibration methods. Convergence of the iterative, non-linear optimization in VSCF calculations can be erratic or altogether unsuccessful, particularly for chemical systems involving low-frequency motions. In this work, a vibrational formulation of the Direct Inversion of the Iterative Subspace method of Pulay is presented and investigated. This formulation accounts for distinct attributes of the vibrational and electronic cases, including the expansion of each single-mode vibrational wavefunction in its own basis set. The resulting Direct Inversion of the Iterative Subspace method is shown to substantially accelerate VSCF convergence in all convergent cases as well as rectify many cases where Roothaan-based methods fail. Performance across systems ranging from small, rigid molecules to weakly bound molecular clusters is investigated in this analysis.

Chemistry↗

The effect of barriers on wave propagation phenomena: With application for aircraft noise shielding

The frequency spectrum was divided into high and low frequency regimes and two separate methods were developed and applied to account for physical factors associated with flight conditions. For long wave propagation, the acoustic filed due to a point source near a solid obstacle was treated in terms of an inner region which where the fluid motion is essentially incompressible, and an outer region which is a linear acoustic field generated by hydrodynamic disturbances in the inner region. This method was applied to a case of a finite slotted plate modelled to represent a wing extended flap for both stationary and moving media. Ray acoustics, the Kirchhoff integral formulation, and the stationary phase approximation were combined to study short wave length propagation in many limiting cases as well as in the case of a semi-infinite plate in a uniform flow velocity with a point source above the plate and embedded in a different flow velocity to simulate an engine exhaust jet stream surrounding the source.

Mgana, C. V. M.↗

Comparitive Study of High-Order Positivity-Preserving WENO Schemes

In gas dynamics and magnetohydrodynamics flows, physically, the density ρ and the pressure p should both be positive. In a standard conservative numerical scheme, however, the computed internal energy is The ideas of Zhang & Shu (2012) and Hu et al. (2012) precisely address the aforementioned issue. Zhang & Shu constructed a new conservative positivity-preserving procedure to preserve positive density and pressure for high-order Weighted Essentially Non-Oscillatory (WENO) schemes by the Lax-Friedrichs flux (WENO/LLF). In general, WENO/LLF is obtained by subtracting the kinetic energy from the total energy, resulting in a computed p that may be negative. Examples are problems in which the dominant energy is kinetic. Negative ρ may often emerge in computing blast waves. In such situations the computed eigenvalues of the Jacobian will become imaginary. Consequently, the initial value problem for the linearized system will be ill posed. This explains why failure of preserving positivity of density or pressure may cause blow-ups of the numerical algorithm. The adhoc methods in numerical strategy which modify the computed negative density and/or the computed negative pressure to be positive are neither a conservative cure nor a stable solution. Conservative positivity-preserving schemes are more appropriate for such flow problems. too dissipative for flows such as turbulence with strong shocks computed in direct numerical simulations (DNS) and large eddy simulations (LES). The new conservative positivity-preserving procedure proposed in Hu et al. (2012) can be used with any high-order shock-capturing scheme, including high-order WENO schemes using the Roe's flux (WENO/Roe). The goal of this study is to compare the results obtained by non-positivity-preserving methods with the recently developed positivity-preserving schemes for representative test cases. In particular the more di cult 3D Noh and Sedov problems are considered. These test cases are chosen because of the negative pressure/density most often exhibited by standard high-order shock-capturing schemes. The simulation of a hypersonic nonequilibrium viscous shock tube that is related to the NASA Electric Arc Shock Tube (EAST) is also included. EAST is a high-temperature and high Mach number viscous nonequilibrium ow consisting of 13 species. In addition, as most common shock-capturing schemes have been developed for problems without source terms, when applied to problems with nonlinear and/or sti source terms these methods can result in spurious solutions, even when solving a conservative system of equations with a conservative scheme. This kind of behavior can be observed even for a scalar case as well as for the case consisting of two species and one reaction.. This EAST example indicated that standard high-order shock-capturing methods exhibit instability of density/pressure in addition to grid-dependent discontinuity locations with insufficient grid points. The evaluation of these test cases is based on the stability of the numerical schemes together with the accuracy of the obtained solutions.

Schemes↗

Time-reversed nonlinear acoustic downhole pore pressure measurements

Apparatus (10) and methods for measurement of pore pressure in rock formations through a metal borehole casing (32) after a well is cased and cemented, are described. Such measurements may be accomplished by using the Dynamic Acoustic Elasticity (DAE) method for characterizing nonlinear parameters by perturbing a selected rock formation region with a High Amplitude, Low Frequency (HALF) acoustic strain wave, and probing this region using a Low Amplitude, High Frequency (LAHF) acoustic wave (18), (22). Time reversal techniques (36) may be employed for focusing acoustic energy into the formation in the vicinity of the pipe or open hole. The change in wave speed of the probe pulses as the HALF induced strain wave oscillation propagates through the formation, as a function of the induced strain, may be used to determine the nonlinear elastic parameters α, β, δ, and A of the pore pressure, from which the pore pressure may be determined in the region of the HALF wave.

Goodman, Harvey E.↗

Comparison of Commercial, State-of-the-Art, Fossil-Based Hydrogen Production Technologies

Presentation describing NETL's public report entitled "Comparison of Commercial, State-of-the-Art, Fossil-Based Hydrogen Production Technologies" which features levelized cost of hydrogen (LCOH) and greenhouse gas emissions from six cases (3 reforming and 3 gasification technology cases) as well as CO2 capture. One case also features coal/biomass co-gasification that targeted net-zero emissions.

Stevens, Robert↗

Enhancements to Overset Methods for Achieving Higher Accuracy and Solution Convergence: Preprint

Overset methods, when utilized within a multi-solver framework, provide a very flexible and powerful toolset for analyzing moving body problem. However, many overset framework suffer from several deficiencies such as (1) convergence degradation of the non-linear iterative schemes (2) difficulty in achieving higher-order accuracy and (3) high computational costs over long simulation times. In this work, we explore approaches that mitigate these deficiencies and provide a pathway for improved accuracy and fidelity of overset methods. A high-order, discontinuous Galerkin solver is integrated into an existing overset framework and applied to an unsteady ROBIN fuselage case. For convergence acceleration, an Overset-GMRES linear solver with a timestep controller is applied to a DLR-F6 aircraft steady simulation and an unsteady, notional rotor-fuselage. Finally the same rotor-fuselage case as well as the JVX rotor/wing case is simulated using a reduced-order aerodynamic model.

aerospace↗

Inversion of downhole electrical measurements for proppant mapping using very fast simulated annealing

Proppant mapping is critical for optimizing fracture treatment design and improving wells’ productivity. An electrode-based resistivity tool concept was developed earlier for proppant mapping in cased-hole wells. An array of insulating gaps is installed and cemented in place as a permanent part of the casing string. The electrical measurements are performed by imposing a voltage across each insulating gap, one at a time, before and after hydraulic fracture operations. The voltages across other insulating gaps near the transmitter gap are recorded. The method relies on direct excitation of the casing, which is expected to overcome the severe limitations of induction tools in cased-hole wells. A forward model based on a finite volume method has been developed to simulate the tool’s response to one or multiple fractures. To enable the implementation of such a practical system in multistage fractured horizontal wells, a fast and robust inversion approach is required. To that end, we have developed a divide-and-conquer approach based on a global optimization algorithm very fast simulated annealing (VFSA). Specifically, the original inverse problem is divided into subproblems and each subproblem can be solved separately using VFSA. The results indicate that our approach can invert the data and output widths and radii of multiple fractures without requiring a large number of forward simulations. The robustness of the inverse solver is also tested by adding Gaussian noise to the synthetic data. We tested example cases that demonstrate that when up to 5% noise is introduced, VFSA still provides very accurate inversion results with moderate uncertainties. Inversion results with some more realistic conditions, e.g., tilted fractures, complex fractures, and so on, are also presented.

Geochemistry & Geophysics↗

CFD Sensitivity Analysis of a Modern Civil Transport Near Buffet-Onset Conditions

A computational fluid dynamics (CFD) sensitivity analysis is conducted for a modern civil transport at several conditions ranging from mostly attached flow to flow with substantial separation. Two different Navier-Stokes computer codes and four different turbulence models are utilized, and results are compared both to wind tunnel data at flight Reynolds number and flight data. In-depth CFD sensitivities to grid, code, spatial differencing method, aeroelastic shape, and turbulence model are described for conditions near buffet onset (a condition at which significant separation exists). In summary, given a grid of sufficient density for a given aeroelastic wing shape, the combined approximate error band in CFD at conditions near buffet onset due to code, spatial differencing method, and turbulence model is: 6% in lift, 7% in drag, and 16% in moment. The biggest two contributers to this uncertainty are turbulence model and code. Computed results agree well with wind tunnel surface pressure measurements both for an overspeed 'cruise' case as well as a case with small trailing edge separation. At and beyond buffet onset, computed results agree well over the inner half of the wing, but shock location is predicted too far aft at some of the outboard stations. Lift, drag, and moment curves are predicted in good agreement with experimental results from the wind tunnel.

Rumsey, Christopher L.↗

A Deep Learning Based Framework to Identify Undocumented Orphaned Oil and Gas Wells from Historical Maps: A Case Study for California and Oklahoma

Undocumented Orphaned Wells (UOWs) are wells without an operator that have limited or no documentation with regulatory authorities. An estimated 310,000 to 800,000 UOWs exist in the United States (US), whose locations are largely unknown. These wells can potentially leak methane and other volatile organic compounds to the atmosphere, and contaminate groundwater. In this study, we developed a novel framework utilizing a state-of-the-art computer vision neural network model to identify the precise locations of potential UOWs. The U-Net model is trained to detect oil and gas well symbols in georeferenced historical topographic maps, and potential UOWs are identified as symbols that are further than 100 m from any documented well. A custom tool was developed to rapidly validate the potential UOW locations. We applied this framework to four counties in California and Oklahoma, leading to the discovery of 1301 potential UOWs across >40,000 km 2 . We confirmed the presence of 29 UOWs from satellite images and 15 UOWs from magnetic surveys in the field with a spatial accuracy on the order of 10 m. This framework can be scaled to identify potential UOWs across the US since the historical maps are available for the entire nation.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗