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At least 361 records · Page 20

A comparative experimental study of IOR potential in fractured shale reservoirs by cyclic water and nitrogen gas injection

Oil production from tight and shale formations accounted for more than half of total U.S. oil production in 2015 (EIA, 2016). Such amount is expected to grow significantly as the active development of low permeability reservoirs continues. Since the primary recovery is becoming less effective and large amounts of oil are locked in matrix, IOR techniques should be considered to face such challenge. Many recent studies have evaluated the potential of gas injection in shale plays. However, few studies discussed the feasibility of water huff-n-puff process. Here this study evaluated the potential of cyclic water injection (CWI) in shale plugs and compared it with the performance of cyclic gas injection (CGI). Eagle Ford core samples were used in this study and saturated with dead shale oil. X-ray diffraction (XRD) technique was employed to analyze the mineral composition of the sample. To reduce clay swelling, 5 wt% of potassium chloride (KCl) solution was used as the injection fluid in CWI tests. Two groups of experiments were performed to examine the effects of soaking time and injection pressure (Pin) on the recovery performance. For one cycle of huff-n-puff, after reaching the Pin, the core plug was soaked with water for a certain time, then the surrounding pressure was released to enter the production period. Under the same operating conditions, CGI tests were conducted to compare the two IOR performances. The CWI experimental results show that soaking time affects the recovery factor (RF) of a single cycle within a certain range, which was similarly concluded from the CGI tests. Injection pressure can affect the recovery performance of CWI significantly. For example, after performing 12 cycles of water huff-n-puff, the RF for tests with Pin of 1000 psi and 5000 psi were 14% and 21%, respectively. When applying 5000 psi, fractures were created on the plug and the size enlarged with further cycles operated. Comparing the two processes of CWI and CGI, different recovery characters can be observed. CWI showed the recovery potential at the first four cycles, and then the incremental oil recovery decreased dramatically in the subsequent cycles. By contrast, CGI presented a more continuous and steady recovery performance with high incremental RF, and then gradually diminished after seven cycles of huff-n-puff processes.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗

Flow regimes for fluid injection into a confined porous medium

We report theoretical and numerical studies of the flow behaviour when a fluid is injected into a confined porous medium saturated with another fluid of different density and viscosity. For a two-dimensional configuration with point source injection, a nonlinear convection–diffusion equation is derived to describe the time evolution of the fluid–fluid interface. In the early time period, the fluid motion is mainly driven by the buoyancy force and the governing equation is reduced to a nonlinear diffusion equation with a well-known self-similar solution. In the late time period, the fluid flow is mainly driven by the injection, and the governing equation is approximated by a nonlinear hyperbolic equation that determines the global spreading rate; a shock solution is obtained when the injected fluid is more viscous than the displaced fluid, whereas a rarefaction wave solution is found when the injected fluid is less viscous. In the late time period, we also obtain analytical solutions including the diffusive term associated with the buoyancy effects (for an injected fluid with a viscosity higher than or equal to that of the displaced fluid), which provide the structure of the moving front. Numerical simulations of the convection–diffusion equation are performed; the various analytical solutions are verified as appropriate asymptotic limits, and the transition processes between the individual limits are demonstrated.

58 GEOSCIENCES↗

Effect of the Injection Pressure on Enhancing Oil Recovery in Shale Cores during the CO 2 Huff-n-Puff Process When It Is above and below the Minimum Miscibility Pressure

In CO 2 injection, there is a minimum miscibility pressure (MMP) above that CO 2 can be miscible with oil, so that oil recovery will be high. This work is to investigate the effect of the injection pressure on enhanced oil recovery in shale oil cores under huff-n-puff CO 2 injection, when the pressure is above and below the MMP. We first estimated the MMP for a Wolfcamp oil using slimtube tests. The slimtube test results showed that the estimated MMP for the CO 2 –Wolfcamp crude oil system was about 1620 psi at 104 °F. After that, we conducted 15 CO 2 huff-n-puff experiments using three different Wolfcamp shale cores at pressures below and above the MMP. These pressures were 1200, 1600, 1800, 2000, and 2400 psi. Each huff-n-puff test has 7 cycles. The huff-n-puff experiments for three cores showed that, below the MMP, the injection pressure had a significant effect on enhancing oil recovery. Higher than the MMP, the increased pressure further increased the oil recovery until the injection pressure was about 200 psi higher than the MMP. In the extremely low-permeability shale oil cores, additional pressure is needed to push gas into the deeper core to be miscible with the crude oil inside the core. The results indicated that, to have a high oil recovery in shale oil reservoirs during the CO 2 huff-n-puff process, the injection pressure should be higher (at least 200 psi in this case) than the MMP estimated from slimtube tests.

04 OIL SHALES AND TAR SANDS↗

Optimization of Secondary Air Injection in a Wood-Burning Cookstove: An Experimental Study

Nearly 40% of the world's population regularly cooks on inefficient biomass stoves that emit harmful airborne pollutants, such as particulate matter (PM). Secondary air injection can significantly reduce PM mass emissions to mitigate the health and climate impacts associated with biomass cookstoves. However, secondary air injection can also increase the number of ultrafine particles emitted, which may be more harmful to health. This research investigates the effect of secondary air injection on the mass and size distribution of PM emitted during solid biomass combustion. An experimental wood-burning cookstove platform and parametric testing approach are presented to identify and optimize secondary air injection parameters that reduce PM and other harmful pollutants. Size-resolved measurements of PM emissions were collected and analyzed as a function of parametric stove design settings. The results show that PM emissions are highly sensitive to secondary air injection flow rate and velocity. Although increasing turbulent mixing (through increased velocity) can promote more complete combustion, increasing the total flow rate of secondary air may cause localized flame quenching that increases particle emissions. As a result, biomass cookstoves that implement secondary air injection should be carefully optimized and validated to ensure that PM emission reductions are achieved throughout the particle size range.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Suppressing the Skin-Core Structure of Injection-Molded Isotactic Polypropylene via Combination of an in situ Microfibrillar Network and an Interfacial Compatibilizer

Injection-molded semicrystalline polymer parts generally exhibited a so-called skin-core structure basically as a result of the large gradients of temperature, shear rate, stress, and pressure fields created by the boundary conditions of injection molding. Suppression of the skin-core structure is a long-term practical challenge. In the current work, the skin-core structure of the conventional injection-molded isotactic polypropylene (iPP) was largely relieved by the cooperative effects of an in situ microfibrillar network and interfacial compatibilizer. The in situ poly(ethylene terephthalate) microfibrils of 1-8 {micro}m in diameter and large aspect ratios of above 40 tended to entangle with each other to generate a microfibrillar network in the iPP melt. During injection molding, the iPP molecules experienced confined flow in the microchannels or pores formed by the microfibrillar network, which could redistribute and homogenize the flow field of polymer melt. Addition of the compatibilizer, glycidyl methacrylate-grafted iPP, restrained the molecular orientation but facilitated preservation of oriented molecules due to the chemical bonds at the interface between PET microfibrils and iPP. The cooperative effects of in situ microfibrillar network and interfacial compatibilizer led to almost the same molecular orientation across the whole thickness of the injection-molded parts. Additionally, the content of {beta} crystals in different layers of injection-molded iPP parts depended on the combined effects of the molecular orientation, the amount of oriented crystals, and the crystallization time between 105 and 140 C. The presence of the interfacial compatibilizer facilitated formation of the {beta} crystals because of preservation of the oriented molecules.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

The Potential of Stratospheric Aerosol Injection to Reduce the Climatic Risks of Explosive Volcanic Eruptions

Sulfur-rich volcanic eruptions happen sporadically. If Stratospheric Aerosol Injection (SAI) were to be deployed, it is likely that explosive volcanic eruptions would happen during such a deployment. Here we use an ensemble of Earth System Model simulations to show how changing the injection strategy post-eruption could be used to reduce the climate risks of a large volcanic eruption; the risks are also modified even without any change to the strategy. For a medium-size eruption (10 Tg-SO 2 ) comparable to the SAI injection rate, the volcanic-induced cooling would be reduced if it occurs under SAI, especially if artificial sulfur dioxide injections were immediately suspended. Alternatively, suspending injection only in the eruption hemisphere and continuing injection in the opposite would reduce shifts in precipitation in the tropical belt and thus mitigate eruption-induced drought. Finally, we show that for eruptions much larger than the SAI deployment, changes in SAI strategy would have minimal effect.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Stratigraphy‐Induced Localization of Microseismicity During CO 2 Injection in Illinois Basin

Abstract Subsurface fluid injection stimulates complex hydromechanical interaction, necessitating the integration of geomechanical data across spatial and temporal scales to consider the sophisticated behavior. Induced seismic response is usually associated with the complex reservoir architecture and pre‐existing features that are three‐dimensional, such as local stratigraphy, fractures, faults, and other discontinuities. This study encompasses laboratory characterization of the coupled hydromechanical response of cores extracted from rock formations in Illinois Basin: reservoir ‐ Mt. Simon sandstone, basal seal ‐ Argenta sandstone, and crystalline basement ‐ Precambrian rhyolite. High‐resolution numerical modeling allows considering the three‐dimensional complexity of the Illinois Basin Decatur Project with spatial resolution comparable to one of the active seismic surveys. A detailed reconstruction of the evolving state of stress in formations lacking direct stress measurements is achieved by numerical modeling that integrated laboratory‐derived hydromechanical properties, a porosity‐permeability relationship, active seismic data, and an inverted three‐dimensional porosity distribution. It appears that the microseismic clusters, mainly observed in the crystalline basement during the injection, are linked to zones experiencing more critically stressed conditions prior to injection. These zones have a potential for reactivation during the injection and are attributed to the specific local stratigraphy of the injection site, as well as transfer of triggering perturbations during the injection.

Bondarenko, N. [University of Illinois Urbana‐Cham↗

Injections through skin colonized with Staphylococcus aureus biofilm introduce contamination despite standard antimicrobial preparation procedures

While surgical site preparation has been extensively studied, there is little information about resistance of skin microbiota in the biofilm form to antimicrobial decontamination, and there are no quantitative models to study how biofilm might be transferred into sterile tissue/implant materials during injections for joint spine and tendon, aspiration biopsies and dermal fillers (DF). In this work, we develop two in vitro models to simulate the process of skin preparation and DF injection using pig skin and SimSkin (silicone) materials, respectively. Using the pig skin model, we tested three of the most common skin preparation wipes (alcohol, chlorhexidine and povidone iodine) and found that during wiping they reduced the biofilm bacterial burden of S. aureus (CFU cm-2) by three logs with no statistically significant differences between wipes. Using the SimSkin model, we found that transfer of viable bacteria increased with needle diameter for 30G, 25G and 18G needles. Transfer incidence decreased as injection depth was increased from 1 mm to 3 mm. Serial puncture and linear threading injection styles had similar transfer incidence, whereas fanning significantly increased transfer incidence. The results show that contamination of DF during injection is a risk that can be reduced by modifying skin prep and injection practices.

60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES↗

Cavity morphology in a Ni based superalloy under heavy ion irradiation with hot pre-injected helium. II

In the current investigation, TEM in-situ heavy ion (1 MeV Kr{sup 2+}) irradiation with helium pre-injected at elevated temperature (400 °C) was conducted to simulate in-reactor neutron irradiation induced damage in CANDU spacer material Inconel X-750, in an effort to understand the effects of helium on irradiation induced cavity microstructures. Three different quantities of helium, 400 appm, 1000 appm, and 5000 appm, were pre-injected directly into TEM foils at 400 °C. The samples containing helium were then irradiated in-situ with 1 MeV Kr{sup 2+} at 400 °C to a final dose of 5.4 dpa (displacement per atom). Cavities were formed from the helium injection solely and the cavity density and size increased with increasing helium dosage. In contrast to previous heavy ion irradiations with cold pre-injected helium, heterogeneous nucleation of cavities was observed. During the ensuing heavy ion irradiation, dynamical observation showed noticeable size increase in cavities which nucleated close to the grain boundaries. A “bubble-void” transformation was observed after Kr{sup 2+} irradiation to high dose (5.4 dpa) in samples containing 1000 appm and 5000 appm helium. Cavity distribution was found to be consistent with in-reactor neutron irradiation induced cavity microstructures. This implies that the distribution of helium is greatly dependent on the injection temperature, and helium pre-injection at high temperature is preferred for simulating the migration of the transmutation produced helium.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Ferromagnetic-organic interfacial states and their role on low voltage current injection in tris-8-hydroxyquinloline (Alq{sub 3}) organic spin valves

Organic Spin Valves (OSVs) operate at small bias (<100 mV) when carrier injection should not occur due to injection barriers and in built potentials. We explore the consequences of hybrid-interface states between a ferromagnetic electrode and an organic semiconductor in OSV carrier injection. By temperature-dependent Dark Injection measurements, we observe hole trapping due to these filled states and measure a low thermal activation energy (∼100 meV) of the carrier density within OSVs. The small injection barrier is consistent with a significant interfacial potential, due to hybrid-interface state filling, overcoming the injection barrier due to the electrode work function—transport level mismatch.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗

Numerical investigation into the injection-locking phenomena of gain switched lasers for optical frequency comb generation

We present detailed numerical simulations of the laser dynamics that describe optical frequency comb formation by injection-locking a gain-switched laser. The typical rate equations for semiconductor lasers including stochastic carrier recombination and spontaneous emission suffice to show the injection-locking behavior of gain switched lasers, and we show how the optical frequency comb evolves starting from the free-running state, right through the final injection-locked state. Unlike the locking of continuous wave lasers, we show that the locking range for gain switched lasers is considerably greater because injection locking can be achieved by injecting at frequencies close to one of the comb lines. The quality of the comb lines is formally assessed by calculating the frequency modulation (FM)-noise spectral density and we show that under injection-locking conditions the FM-noise spectral density of the comb lines tend to that of the maser laser.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗

Fast piezoelectric valve offering controlled gas injection in magnetically confined fusion plasmas for diagnostic and fuelling purposes

In magnetically confined fusion plasmas controlled gas injection is crucial for plasma fuelling as well as for various diagnostic applications such as active spectroscopy. In this paper, we present a new, versatile system for the injection of collimated thermal gas beams into a vacuum chamber. This system consists of a gas pressure chamber, sealed by a custom made piezo valve towards a small capillary for gas injection. The setup can directly be placed inside of the vacuum chamber of fusion devices as it is small and immune against high magnetic fields. This enables gas injection close to the plasma periphery with high duty cycles and fast switch on/off times ≲ 0.5 ms. In this work, we present the design details of this new injection system and a systematic characterization of the beam properties as well as the gas flowrates which can be accomplished. The thin and relatively short capillary yields a small divergence of the injected beam with a half opening angle of 20°. The gas box is designed for pre-fill pressures of 10 mbar up to 100 bars and makes a flowrate accessible from 10 18 part/s up to 10 23 part/s. It hence is a versatile system for both diagnostic as well as fuelling applications. Finally, the implementation of this system in ASDEX Upgrade will be described and its application for line ratio spectroscopy on helium will be demonstrated on a selected example.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗

Characterization of injection and confinement improvement through impurity induced profile modifications on the Wendelstein 7-X stellarator

Pulsed injections of boron carbide granules into Wendelstein 7-X stellarator (W7-X) plasmas transiently increase the plasma stored energy and core ion temperatures above the reference W7-X experimental programs by up to 30%. In a series of 4 MW electron cyclotron resonance heating experiments, the PPPL Probe Mounted Powder Injector provided 50 ms bursts of 100 μm granules every 350 ms at estimated quantities ranging from approximately 1 mg/pulse to over 30 mg/pulse. For each injection, the stored energy was observed to initially drop and the radiated power transiently increased, while the radial electron density profile rose at the edge as material was assimilated. Once the injected boron carbide was fully absorbed, the density rise transitioned to the core while the stored energy increased above the previous baseline level by an amount linearly correlated with the injection quantity. During the injection, the ion temperature gradient steepened with peak core ion temperatures observed to increase from a nominal 1.7 keV to over 2.6 keV for the largest injection amounts. Enhanced performance is accompanied by a reversal of the radial electric field at ρ < 0.3, indicating that the core transport has switched to the ion root. These observations are suggestive of a change in transport and provide further evidence that externally induced profile modifications provide a possible path to enhanced W7-X performance metrics.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗

The effect of pellet injection on turbulent transport in TJ-II

An improvement in confinement associated with the injection of pellets has been observed in TJ-II and other devices. By means of a simple model, we study here the modification of turbulent transport by the injection of pellets in TJ-II and how this modification affects the particle confinement time. The analysis of the results shows the relationship of the confinement improvement with the evolution of the shear flow due to turbulence, especially near low order rational surfaces. This work is based on pellet injections into the neutral beam injection heated phase of TJ-II plasmas. For this, single, double, or triple hydrogen pellet injection are considered and the post-injection evolution of selected plasma parameters are analyzed and compared.

Physics↗

Impact of threading dislocations on the V-defect assisted lateral carrier injection and recombination in InGaN quantum well LEDs

The nonuniform hole distribution between InGaN quantum wells (QWs) of light emitting diodes (LEDs) has a negative impact on LED efficiency. The uniformity can be increased by using lateral hole injection through sidewalls of V-defects, which form at threading dislocations. However, the inherent coupling between the V-defects and dislocations might affect efficiency of the hole injection and nonradiative recombination. In this work, we have tested the possible impact of the dislocations on the injection and recombination by means of scanning near-field electroluminescence and photoluminescence spectroscopy on single green-emitting InGaN QW LEDs containing large (∼0.5 μm) V-defects. The measurements have not provided any evidence of a lower hole injection efficiency or enhanced nonradiative recombination at the dislocations located at the V-defect facets or their apexes. This shows that large V-defects are excellent volumetric injectors for long wavelength InGaN LEDs. Furthermore, it was established that V-defects are preferential hole injectors even in single quantum well devices. Compared to vertical injection, the V-defect injection allows lowering the operating voltage, which should contribute to an enhanced wall plug efficiency.

42 ENGINEERING↗

CURRENT SHEET REGULATION OF SOLAR NEAR-RELATIVISTIC ELECTRON INJECTION HISTORIES

We present a sample of three large near-relativistic (>50 keV) electron events observed in 2001 by both the ACE and the Ulysses spacecraft, when Ulysses was at high-northern latitudes (>60 Degree-Sign ) and close to 2 AU. Despite the large latitudinal distance between the two spacecraft, electrons injected near the Sun reached both heliospheric locations. All three events were associated with large solar flares, strong decametric type II radio bursts and accompanied by wide (>212 Degree-Sign ) and fast (>1400 km s{sup -1}) coronal mass ejections (CMEs). We use advanced interplanetary transport simulations and make use of the directional intensities observed in situ by the spacecraft to infer the electron injection profile close to the Sun and the interplanetary transport conditions at both low and high latitudes. For the three selected events, we find similar interplanetary transport conditions at different heliolatitudes for a given event, with values of the mean free path ranging from 0.04 AU to 0.27 AU. We find differences in the injection profiles inferred for each spacecraft. We investigate the role that sector boundaries of the heliospheric current sheet (HCS) have on determining the characteristics of the electron injection profiles. Extended injection profiles, associated with coronal shocks, are found if the magnetic footpoints of the spacecraft lay in the same magnetic sector as the associated flare, while intermittent sparse injection episodes appear when the spacecraft footpoints are in the opposite sector or a wrap in the HCS bounded the CME structure.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

Triggering collapse of the presolar dense cloud core and injecting short-lived radioisotopes with a shock wave. III. Rotating three-dimensional cloud cores

A key test of the supernova triggering and injection hypothesis for the origin of the solar system's short-lived radioisotopes is to reproduce the inferred initial abundances of these isotopes. We present here the most detailed models to date of the shock wave triggering and injection process, where shock waves with varied properties strike fully three-dimensional, rotating, dense cloud cores. The models are calculated with the FLASH adaptive mesh hydrodynamics code. Three different outcomes can result: triggered collapse leading to fragmentation into a multiple protostar system; triggered collapse leading to a single protostar embedded in a protostellar disk; or failure to undergo dynamic collapse. Shock wave material is injected into the collapsing clouds through Rayleigh-Taylor fingers, resulting in initially inhomogeneous distributions in the protostars and protostellar disks. Cloud rotation about an axis aligned with the shock propagation direction does not increase the injection efficiency appreciably, as the shock parameters were chosen to be optimal for injection even in the absence of rotation. For a shock wave from a core-collapse supernova, the dilution factors for supernova material are in the range of ∼10{sup –4} to ∼3 × 10{sup –4}, in agreement with recent laboratory estimates of the required amount of dilution for {sup 60}Fe and {sup 26}Al. We conclude that a type II supernova remains as a promising candidate for synthesizing the solar system's short-lived radioisotopes shortly before their injection into the presolar cloud core by the supernova's remnant shock wave.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

Energy injection in gamma-ray burst afterglows

We present multi-wavelength observations and modeling of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) that exhibit a simultaneous re-brightening in their X-ray and optical light curves, and are also detected at radio wavelengths. We show that the re-brightening episodes can be modeled by injection of energy into the blastwave and that in all cases the energy injection rate falls within the theoretical bounds expected for a distribution of energy with ejecta Lorentz factor. Our measured values of the circumburst density, jet opening angle, and beaming-corrected kinetic energy are consistent with the distribution of these parameters for long-duration GRBs at both z∼1 and z≳6, suggesting that the jet launching mechanism and environment of these events are similar to that of GRBs that do not have bumps in their light curves. However, events exhibiting re-brightening episodes have lower radiative efficiencies than average, suggesting that a majority of the kinetic energy of the outflow is carried by slow-moving ejecta, which is further supported by steep measured distributions of the ejecta energy as a function of Lorentz factor. We do not find evidence for reverse shocks over the energy injection period, implying that the onset of energy injection is a gentle process. We further show that GRBs exhibiting simultaneous X-ray and optical re-brightenings are likely the tail of a distribution of events with varying rates of energy injection, forming the most extreme events in their class. Future X-ray observations of GRB afterglows with Swift and its successors will thus likely discover several more such events, while radio follow-up and multi-wavelength modeling of similar events will unveil the role of energy injection in GRB afterglows.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗