U.S.-Argentina Cooperative Research Program: Hydrodynamic Dispersion and Surface Roughness

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0304781KoplikThis U.S.-Argentina award will support Drs. Joel Koplik and German Drazer of CUNY City College in research collaboration with Dr. Irene Ippolito at the University of Buenos Aires in Argentina. The Pis will use numerical simulations and experiments to investigate the transport properties of model fractures with controlled surface roughness. The complex geometry of fractures in geological media, usually described in terms of fractal surfaces, strongly affects the transport properties of the system, such as its permeability or the hydrodynamic dispersion of solid particles carried along by the flow. The effect that the statistical properties of the fracture surface have on the transport properties of the systems will be explored in detail, with special focus on the role played by the spatial correlations between different regions of the same fracture. The objective is to obtain a better understanding of the flow behavior in fractured media, and the development of computational and experimental strategies to characterize, and/or predict, the properties of porous underground formations. The results are relevant to many processes that involve the flow of fluids in water or hydrocarbon reservoirs.This project will forge a collaboration of mutual benefit, combining the theoretical and computational expertise of the U.S. Pis with the experimental expertise of the Argentine collaborator. This opportunity will allow the researchers to exchange results and accordingly design/re-design new experiments and simulations.