Salem Saaed Akarri joined PoreLab Trondheim on April 1st, 2019, as PhD candidate. His PhD is related to WP6 (Microfluidics and field studies) under the Geoscience and Petroleum department of NTNU. Salem has a master’s degree in Reservoir Engineering and Petrophysics from NTNU, 2018, and a Bachelor of science from King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals, Saudia Arabia, 2015.
His master’s degree thesis was about:
• Integrating miniature core-flooding setup with a micro-CT scanner for pore-scale studies.
• Experimental pore-scale investigation of two-phase flow and trapping in porous media.
• Effect of Silica-based nanofluid on residual non-wetting phase topology and trapping.
• A new wettability descriptor using 3D image analysis.
Salem has been working as laboratory research assistant at the Geophysics and Petroleum department, NTNU, during the last summer. He was working with X-ray microtomography experiment for imbibition and drainage, microfluidics for flow in network-structured models, nano-based fluids for EOR experiments and conventional core analysis.
His PhD research project is about experimental study of two-phase flow in porous media on pore-scale, with a main objective of establishing a better understanding of wettability. He will use high resolution X-ray computed microtomography as well as glass micromodels, which have been state-of-the-art techniques to provide in-situ characterization of flow in porous media. The extracted information from the pore-scale experiments will be utilized to describe changes of non-wetting phase (i.e. oil) cluster-size distribution, topology, and contact with grain/solid surfaces, under different wettability conditions. During the project, collaboration with PoreLab researchers, postdoctoral fellows and PhD candidates as well as our local and international research partners will enhance the experimental work, enable simulation of the experimental results, and advance the understanding of flow in porous media.
His supervisor is Professor Ole Torsæter and co-supervisor Professor Knut Jørgen Måløy
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