Lab Overview
The subsurface hydrophysics group is focused on gaining fundamental mechanistic understanding of fluid, solute, and colloid transport processes in heterogeneous porous and fractured media. The image above highlights the complexity of the pore space (black regions) that fluids navigate as they flow through the subsurface. Our approach often leverages in situ imaging—such as X-ray computed tomography, positron emission tomography, or optical imaging—combined with analytical, numerical, and data science methods to describe transport processes in these complex geologic systems across time and length scales. Due to the fundamental nature of this approach, and the ubiquity of fluid transport in porous media, this work has important applications across a range of environmental and geological processes including contaminant migration in the vadose zone, heat recovery in geothermal energy systems, bacteria transport in the subsurface, and carbon dioxide transport and immobilization in geologic carbon storage projects.
Recent Papers
Global geologic carbon storage requirements of climate change mitigation scenarios
Published open access in Energy and Environmental Science (Data and analysis codes)
Pore network model predictions of Darcy-scale multiphase flow heterogeneity validated by experiments
Accepted for publication in Water Resources Research (Postprint, Data)
Spatial and temporal quantification of spontaneous imbibition
Published in the October 2019 volume of Geophysical Research Letters (Postprint, Supplemental Information, Data)
Positron Emission Tomography in Water Resources and Subsurface Energy Resources Engineering Research
Published in the May 2019 volume of Advances in Water Resources (Postprint)
Multimodal imaging and stochastic percolation simulation for improved quantification of effective porosity and surface area in vesicular basalt
Published in the November 2018 volume of Advances in Water Resources (Postprint, Data and Simulation Matlab Codes)
Upcoming conferences
AGU Fall Meeting 2021: New Orleans, LA
Recent Conferences and Presentations
AGU Fall Meeting, December 2019: San Francisco
Presented: Pore network model predictions of Darcy-scale multiphase flow heterogeneity validated with high resolution experimental observations
Trondheim CCS Conference, June 2019: Trondheim, Norway
Presented: In Situ Quantification of Capillary Pressure During Spontaneous Imbibition in Carbon Storage Reservoirs
Interpore 11th Annual Meeting, May 2019: Valencia, Spain
Presented: Positron Emission Tomography in Water Resources and Subsurface Energy Resources Engineering Research
AGU Fall Meeting, December 2018: Washington DC
Presented: Multimodal Imaging and Simulation for Improved Quantification of Effective Porosity and Surface Area in Basalt Carbon Storage Reservoirs
