Hydrofracking-on-a-chip: Particle Laden Transport Under High Pressure

Hydraulic fracturing (hydrofracking) has enabled recovery of natural gas and oil embedded in low permeability reservoirs. Despite its advancement in significant recovery of hydrocarbons not previously accessible from low permeability reservoirs, understanding the particle interactions and injected fluid retraction is lacking. The goal of this project is to investigate fluid dynamics of the fracking fluid (particle-laden flow) under instant fluid injection and withdrawal. We will use a microfluidic-based approach in order to visualize a fluid displacement as well as particle-particle interactions in a micromodel that mimics the flow in actual reservoirs. Nanoporous spherical silica particles in diameter of 0.1 mm are going to be utilized in this project. A high-speed visualization tool will characterize the dynamic and complex nature of particle transportation, deposition and their interactions under dynamic flow conditions. In addition, the role of surface properties on these behaviors will be tested.