Understanding Fluid Flow in Geological Mesoporous Media: Pore Structure and Confinement Effect

Computational modeling and simulation have elucidated novel flow phenomena that are challenging or currently almost impossible for physical experiments to explore in important subsurface energy source and environmental sustainability research areas. This seminar will introduce research in the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science Energy Frontier Research Center (EFRC) – MUSE, which over the recent years has significantly advanced the scientific understandings of transport phenomena of water and hydrocarbon liquids in geological mesoporous media via novel modeling approaches and experimental measurements. The research findings can provide important references to the emergent needs for sustainable natural energy source recovery and permanent geologic carbon sequestration toward the goal of carbon neutrality.

Dr. Yidong Xia is a senior scientist specializing in computational modeling & simulation for the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Idaho National Laboratory (INL). Dr. Xia obtained his PhD degree in Aerospace Engineering with a Minor in General Mathematics at North Carolina State University. At INL, Dr. Xia’s research has been in the areas of geosciences, bioenergy, high-performance computing, nuclear energy, and geothermal energy. Dr. Xia’s technical expertise spans several fields, including computational fluid dynamics and heat transfer, computational particle mechanics, computational chemistry, nuclear material & thermal hydraulics, nano/micro-computed tomography (nano/micro-CT). Dr. Xia serves as a principal investigator (PI) in multiple research projects and coordinates efforts of multiple national laboratories and universities. Dr. Xia has served as PI for INL as a partner an Energy Frontier Research Center (EFRC) under the support of the DOE Office of Science Basic Energy Sciences Program. Dr. Xia has also been leading the Material Handling Task in the DOE Bioenergy Technologies Office (BETO) Feedstock-Conversion Interface Consortium (FCIC) project since 2020.