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DOE OSTI2013

Isomorphism in Fluid Phase Diagrams: Kulinskii Transformations Related to the Acentric Factor

For a wide class of molecular fluids, the temperature-density phase diagrams exhibit two prominent generic properties: a nearly linear locus, termed the Zeno line, along which the compressibility factor, Z = P/rho RT = 1 (same as an ideal gas), and the widely arching border of the vapor-liquid coexistence region, termed the binodal curve, with gas and liquid branches meeting at the critical point. The Zeno and binodal loci have been known for more than a century, yet only during the past two decades were striking empirical correlations between them recognized. Recently, Kulinskii introduced a remarkably simple projective transformation, wherein the linearity of the Zeno line and its relation to the binodal curve are geometrical consequences of an approximate isomorphism of the fluid with a venerable theoretical model, the lattice gas (equivalent to the Ising spin model). Here we show the Kulinskii transformation is significantly improved in accuracy and scope by using as input, in place of the lattice gas, the original van der Waals equation or simulation results for the Lennard-Jones potential. Moreover, the key parameters in these transformations can be expressed in terms of the acentric factor, introduced by Pitzer to extend corresponding states.

Wei, Q↗

DOE OSTI2018

The Relative Importance of Saturated Silica Sand Interfacial and Pore Fluid Geochemistry on the Spectral Induced Polarization Response

Adsorption at the solid-pore fluid interface is a key mechanism controlling the mobility of nutrients and contaminants in subsurface soils and sediments. The spectral induced polarization (SIP) method has been shown to be sensitive to the quantity and type of adsorbed ions. Extending previous results, we investigated the relevance of pH, solution conductivity, and ion type on the SIP response of saturated silica sand. We also performed adsorption experiments to evaluate whether adsorption plays a relevant role on the effect of saturating solution conductivity and pH. Given their environmental relevance and different electrochemical characteristics, we focused on exploring the influence of Cu 2+ and Na + adsorption on the SIP signature. The adsorption results confirm the expected and modeled pH influence on the adsorption of both Cu 2+ and Na + . The measured quadrature conductivity spectra indicate that pH and solution conductivity control the electrical double layer electrochemical state and its capacitive behavior. On the contrary, no appreciable SIP signal changes are associated with ion substitution. The adsorption experiments highlight low values of site occupancy for Na and Cu, which suggests that the effects of pH and fluid conductivity are unrelated to their control on the ion adsorption. We interpret the solution conductivity as a proxy for ionic strength. The relative importance of pH and solution conductivity over ion type helps to further constrain the interpretation of SIP results in field geochemical and biogeochemical characterization and monitoring.

58 GEOSCIENCES↗

DOE OSTI2018

Variations in Gas and Water Pulses at an Arctic Seep: Fluid Sources and Methane Transport

Methane fluxes into the oceans are largely dependent on the methane phase as it migrates upward through the sediments. Here we document decoupled methane transport by gaseous and aqueous phases in Storfjordrenna (offshore Svalbard) and propose a three-stage evolution model for active seepage in the region where gas hydrates are present in the shallow subsurface. In a preactive seepage stage, solute diffusion is the primary transport mechanism for methane in the dissolved phase. Fluids containing dissolved methane have high 87 Sr/ 86 Sr ratios due to silicate weathering in the microbial methanogenesis zone. During the active seepage stage, migration of gaseous methane results in near-seafloor gas hydrate formation and vigorous seafloor gas discharge with a thermogenic fingerprint. In the postactive seepage stage, the high concentration of dissolved lithium points to the contribution of a deeper-sourced aqueous fluid, which we postulate advects upward following cessation of gas discharge.

58 GEOSCIENCES↗

DOE OSTI2019

Basement Fault Reactivation by Fluid Injection Into Sedimentary Reservoirs: Poroelastic Effects

Abstract To investigate mechanisms of seismic fault reactivation in crystalline basement in response to fluid injection in overlying sedimentary reservoirs, we conducted three‐dimensional finite element simulations to assess the effects of direct pore pressure communication and indirect poroelastic stress transfer on the change in Coulomb failure stress of favorably oriented faults of varying permeability structure in normal, strike‐slip, and reverse faulting stress regimes. We demonstrate that the direct pore pressure effect transmitted along a hydraulically conductive fault exceeds the indirect poroelastic effect, but alone is insufficient for fault reactivation in the basement. The poroelastic effect on the Coulomb failure stress results from induced normal tractions and, to a lesser extent, from induced shear tractions that relate to the flexing of the fault as the reservoir expands poroelastically with fluid injection. Assuming a higher Biot coefficient for reservoir over basement rock as previously reported, the combined direct pore pressure and indirect poroelastic effects result in reactivation of hydraulically conductive faults in the basement in normal and strike‐slip faulting stress regimes and in the reservoir in reverse faulting regimes. Sealing normal faults that are not preferentially conductive also preferentially reactivate in the reservoir. These findings apply to injection in either hanging or footwall of normal and reverse faults. Reducing the contrast in Biot coefficient between reservoir and basement favors fault reactivation in the reservoir for injection in the footwall in normal faulting stress regimes. These simulations demonstrate that geomechanical models without coupled poroelasticity underestimate the potential of fault reactivation in crystalline basement.

Fan, Zhiqiang↗

DOE OSTI2019

Validation of anisotropic electron fluid closure through in situ spacecraft observations of magnetic reconnection

A valid fluid model for electrons in collisionless space plasmas is desirable for understanding the structure and evolution of magnetic reconnection geometries. Additionally, such a fluid model would be useful for the simulation of systems too large to be tractable in a fully-kinetic model. Using MMS spacecraft observations, we provide direct confirmation of the Le 2009 equations of state for the electron pressure tensor during guide field reconnection and demonstrate how the closure can be applied in efficient numerical simulation, yielding new physical insight to the electron heating problem. Furthermore, we use the Le 2009 equations of state to predict a scaling of electron heating in the exhaust comparable to the available observational data.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

DOE OSTI2019

Stabilizing Effect of High Pore Fluid Pressure on Slip Behaviors of Gouge-bearing Faults

We conducted experiments to investigate the influence of pore fluid pressure on the frictional strength and slip behavior of gouge bearing faults. Saw cut porous sandstone samples with a layer of gouge powders placed between the precut surfaces were deformed in the conventional triaxial loading configuration. A series of velocity-step tests were performed to measure the response of the friction coefficient to variations in sliding velocity. Pore volume changes were monitored during shearing of the gouge. Our results demonstrate that under constant effective pressure, increasing pore pressure stabilizes the frictional slip of faults with all four gouge materials including antigorite, olivine, quartz, and chrysotile. The stabilizing effect is the strongest in antigorite gouge, which shows an evolution of friction parameters from velocity-weakening toward velocity-strengthening behavior with increasing pore pressure. Experiments with controlled pore volume show that the pore volume reduction diminishes under high pore fluid pressures, implying an increasing dilation component at these conditions. The dilatant hardening mechanism can explain the observed strengthening. These results provide a possible explanation to the observed spatial correlation between slow slip events and high pore pressure in many subduction zones.

58 GEOSCIENCES↗

DOE OSTI2020

Quantifying Fluid-Wettable Effective Pore Space in the Utica and Bakken Oil Shale Formations

Combined (ultra-) small angle neutron scattering measurements [(U)SANS] and a contrast matching technique were employed to quantify the porosity and pore size distribution from 1 nm to 10 μm and to differentiate accessible (open) pores and inaccessible (closed) pores with respect to organophilic and hydrophilic fluids for two Utica and two Bakken shale samples. Overall, the results indicate that around 40–70% of the pores in the Utica oil shales (mixed carbonate mudstone) are accessible to oil, and 34–37% of the pore surfaces are water-wet. In contrast, the Bakken oil shales (mixed siliceous mudstone and carbonate/siliceous mudstone), which have high total organic carbon contents, have a higher proportion of isolated pore space that is not preferentially wet by oil or water, with less than 36% of the pores accessible to both fluids. In addition, for both formations, pores less than 3 nm in diameter are not oil accessible (organic matter related) but water accessible (clay tactoids related).

58 GEOSCIENCES↗

DOE OSTI2021

Viscous Behavior of Clay‐Rich Rocks and Its Role in Focused Fluid Flow

Abstract Focused fluid flow is common in sedimentary basins worldwide, where flow structures often penetrate through sandy reservoir rocks, and clay‐rich caprocks. To better understand the mechanisms forming such structures, the impacts of the viscoelastic deformation and strongly nonlinear porosity‐dependent permeability of clay‐rich materials are assessed from an experimental and numerical modeling perspective. The experimental methods to measure the poroviscoelastic and transport properties of intact and remolded shale have been developed, and the experimental data is used to constrain the numerical simulations. It is demonstrated that viscoelastic deformation combined with nonlinear porosity‐dependent permeability triggers the development of localized flow channels, often imaged as seismic chimneys. The permeability inside a channel increases by several orders of magnitude compared to the background values. In addition, the propagation time scale and the channel size strongly depend on the material properties of the fluid and the rock. The time‐dependent behavior of the clay‐rich rock may play a key role in the long‐term integrity of the subsurface formations.

58 GEOSCIENCES↗

DOE OSTI2026

Fluid‐Driven Cohesive Strengthening: Critical Role of Reaction Kinetics as the Determinant for Frictional Stability

After an earthquake, faults in the Earth's crust lock up and slowly regain strength. This process, called fault healing, plays a key role in determining how often earthquakes happen and how large they can be. While scientists know that healing involves both mechanical friction and chemical changes in rocks, it has been unclear how these processes work together, especially over shorter timescales in laboratory settings. In our study, we ran controlled experiments on the mineral anhydrite under different fluid conditions. We found that the presence and pressure of water speeds up fault healing by triggering a chemical reaction that strengthens the fault over time. This strengthening makes the fault more resistant to sliding, which could delay future earthquakes—but also sets the stage for larger ones when they do occur. We propose a model that combines frictional and chemical processes to explain this water‐activated, time‐dependent healing. Importantly, our results show that even faults typically considered stable could still produce earthquakes if they undergo sufficient chemical healing. This has broad implications for understanding where and when earthquakes might strike, especially in fluid‐rich environments such as subduction zones and geoenergy settings.

Affinito, R [Pennsylvania State Univ., University ↗

DOE OSTI2026

Fault Slip and Fluid Flow: Seismic Source Analysis to Assess Role of Multiple Slip Patches in Fault Permeability

The relationship between fault reactivation, microearthquakes (MEQs), and permeability evolution during fluid injection plays a critical role in energy harvesting and waste disposal. Recent studies have demonstrated the possibility of predicting fault permeability using cumulative seismic moments of MEQs quantitatively. To understand the underlying physical processes, we conduct fault reactivation experiments using Utah FORGE granitoid and analyze acoustic emission (AE) signals generated during stepwise increases in fluid injection pressure. Frequency analysis of thousands of calibrated AE signals reveals that fault reactivation produces multiple AE source patches with millimeter-scale radii—smaller than the sample fault radius. The cumulative area of the reactivated patches covers the fault multiple times over (∼10x–50x area) for each pressure step. These findings provide mechanistic insight that measured permeability enhancement is not driven by a single large slip event, but by the sequential and interacting activation of multiple slip patches that create a continuous flow pathway.

Nurshal, M. E. M. [Pennsylvania State University, ↗

DOE OSTI2018

The two-fluid dynamics and energetics of the asymmetric magnetic reconnection in laboratory and space plasmas

Magnetic reconnection is a fundamental process in magnetized plasma where magnetic energy is converted to plasma energy. Despite huge differences in the physical size of the reconnection layer, remarkably similar characteristics are observed in both laboratory and magnetosphere plasmas. Here we present the comparative study of the dynamics and physical mechanisms governing the energy conversion in the laboratory and space plasma in the context of two-fluid physics, aided by numerical simulations. In strongly asymmetric reconnection layers with negligible guide field, the energy deposition to electrons is found to primarily occur in the electron diffusion region where electrons are demagnetized and diffuse. A large potential well is observed within the reconnection plane and ions are accelerated by the electric field toward the exhaust region. In conclusion, the present comparative study identifies the robust two-fluid mechanism operating in systems over six orders of magnitude in spatial scales and over a wide range of collisionality.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗

DOE OSTI2022

Cooperation in a fluid swarm of fuel-free micro-swimmers

Abstract While motile bacteria display rich dynamics in dense colonies, the phoretic nature of artificial micro-swimmers restricts their activity when crowded. Here we introduce a new class of synthetic micro-swimmers that are driven solely by light. By coupling a light absorbing particle to a fluid droplet we produce a colloidal chimera that transforms optical power into propulsive thermo-capillary action. The swimmers’ internal drive allows them to operate for a long duration (days) and remain active when crowded, forming a high density fluid phase. We find that above a critical concentration, swimmers form a long lived crowded state that displays internal dynamics. When passive particles are introduced, the dense swimmer phase can re-arrange to spontaneously corral the passive particles. We derive a geometrical, depletion-like condition for corralling by identifying the role the passive particles play in controlling the effective concentration of the micro-swimmers.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗

DOE OSTI2023

Thermodynamic behavior of correlated electron-hole fluids in van der Waals heterostructures

Abstract Coupled two-dimensional electron-hole bilayers provide a unique platform to study strongly correlated Bose-Fermi mixtures in condensed matter. Electrons and holes in spatially separated layers can bind to form interlayer excitons, composite Bosons expected to support high-temperature exciton condensates. The interlayer excitons can also interact strongly with excess charge carriers when electron and hole densities are unequal. Here, we use optical spectroscopy to quantitatively probe the local thermodynamic properties of strongly correlated electron-hole fluids in MoSe 2 /hBN/WSe 2 heterostructures. We observe a discontinuity in the electron and hole chemical potentials at matched electron and hole densities, a definitive signature of an excitonic insulator ground state. The excitonic insulator is stable up to a Mott density of ~0.8 × 10 12 cm −2 and has a thermal ionization temperature of ~70 K. The density dependence of the electron, hole, and exciton chemical potentials reveals strong correlation effects across the phase diagram. Compared with a non-interacting uniform charge distribution, the correlation effects lead to significant attractive exciton-exciton and exciton-charge interactions in the electron-hole fluid. Our work highlights the unique quantum behavior that can emerge in strongly correlated electron-hole systems.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗

DOE OSTI2024

Biomolecular condensates form spatially inhomogeneous network fluids

The functions of biomolecular condensates are thought to be influenced by their material properties, and these will be determined by the internal organization of molecules within condensates. However, structural characterizations of condensates are challenging, and rarely reported. Here, we deploy a combination of small angle neutron scattering, fluorescence recovery after photobleaching, and coarse-grained molecular dynamics simulations to provide structural descriptions of model condensates that are formed by macromolecules from nucleolar granular components (GCs). We show that these minimal facsimiles of GCs form condensates that are network fluids featuring spatial inhomogeneities across different length scales that reflect the contributions of distinct protein and peptide domains. The network-like inhomogeneous organization is characterized by a coexistence of liquid- and gas-like macromolecular densities that engenders bimodality of internal molecular dynamics. These insights suggest that condensates formed by multivalent proteins share features with network fluids formed by systems such as patchy or hairy colloids.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗

DOE OSTI2024

Flower-shaped 2D crystals grown in curved fluid vesicle membranes

Abstract The morphologies of two-dimensional (2D) crystals, nucleated, grown, and integrated within 2D elastic fluids, for instance in giant vesicle membranes, are dictated by an interplay of mechanics, permeability, and thermal contraction. Mitigation of solid strain drives the formation of crystals with vanishing Gaussian curvature (i.e., developable domain shapes) and, correspondingly, enhanced Gaussian curvature in the surrounding 2D fluid. However, upon cooling to grow the crystals, large vesicles sustain greater inflation and tension because their small area-to-volume ratio slows water permeation. As a result, more elaborate shapes, for instance, flowers with bendable but inextensible petals, form on large vesicles despite their more gradual curvature, while small vesicles harbor compact planar crystals. This size dependence runs counter to the known cumulative growth of strain energy of 2D colloidal crystals on rigid spherical templates. This interplay of intra-membrane mechanics and processing points to the scalable production of flexible molecular crystals of controllable complex shape.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

DOE OSTI2023

Variable-moment fluid closures with Hamiltonian structure

Abstract Based on ideas due to Scovel–Weinstein, I present a general framework for constructing fluid moment closures of the Vlasov–Poisson system that exactly preserve that system’s Hamiltonian structure. Notably, the technique applies in any space dimension and produces closures involving arbitrarily-large finite collections of moments. After selecting a desired collection of moments, the Poisson bracket for the closure is uniquely determined. Therefore data-driven fluid closures can be constructed by adjusting the closure Hamiltonian for compatibility with kinetic simulations.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗

DOE OSTI2021

Emergence of Lanes and Turbulent-like Motion in Active Spinner Fluid

Assemblies of self-rotating particles are gaining interest as a novel realization of active matter with unique collective behaviors such as edge currents and non-trivial dynamic states. Here, we develop a continuum model for a system of fluid-embedded spinners by coarse-graining the equations of motion of the discrete particles. We apply the model to explore mixtures of clockwise and counterclockwise rotating spinners. We find that the dynamics is sensitive to fluid inertia: in the inertialess system, after transient turbulent-like motion the spinners segregate and form steady traffic lanes. At small but finite Reynolds number instead, the turbulent-like motion persists and the system exhibits a chirality breaking transition leading to a single rotation sense state. Our results shed light on the dynamic behavior of non-equilibrium materials exemplified by active spinners.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

DOE OSTI2025

Deep learning forecasts the spatiotemporal evolution of fluid-induced microearthquakes

Microearthquakes generated by subsurface fluid injection record the evolving stress state and permeability of reservoirs. Forecasting their spatiotemporal evolution is therefore critical for applications such as enhanced geothermal systems, carbon dioxide sequestration and other geoengineering applications. Here we propose a transformer neural network model that ingests hydraulic stimulation history and prior microearthquake observations to forecast four key quantities: cumulative microearthquake count, cumulative logarithmic seismic moment, and the 50th- and 95th-percentile extents of the microearthquake cloud. Applied to the EGS Collab Experiment 1 dataset, the model achieves R2 > 0.98 for the 1-s forecast horizon and R2 > 0.88 for the 15-s forecast horizon across all targets, and supplies uncertainty estimates through a learned standard deviation term. These accurate, uncertainty-quantified forecasts enable real-time inference of fracture propagation and permeability evolution, demonstrating the strong potential of deep-learning approaches to improve seismic-risk assessment and guide mitigation strategies in future fluid-injection operations.

Chung, Jaehong↗