Modeling Methane Hydrate across the Scales

Methane hydrate is an ice-like substance abundantly present in deep ocean sediments and in the Arctic. Geoscientists recognize the tremendous importance of gas hydrate in the global carbon cycle and climate change, while reservoir engineers evaluate its potential as a possible energy source. For computational science the modeling of hydrate formation and evolution presents challenges and exciting opportunities, since models have to handle multiple fluid and solid phases, phase transitions, multiple components, and scales, in a context frequently dissimilar from hydrocarbon reservoirs. In the talk we will provide an overview of the challenges as well as present our recent work on phase field models for hydrates.

Speaker: Malgorzata Peszynska, Oregon State University