The most common method of secondary oil recovery is waterflooding, whereby water is injected into a reservoir

to displace the oil in the reservoir towards production wells. Under ideal conditions, the injected water (flood
water) uniformly sweeps the oil towards the wells. However, carbonate reservoirs, which contain around half of
the worlds oil reserves, are known to be extensively fractured. In such reservoirs, the flood water preferentially
flows through the network of fractures, leaving behind a large fraction of the original oil in the low permeability
regions between them (the rock matrix). Then, more gradually, flood water in the fractures enters the rock matrix
by buoyancy, diffusion, and capillary-driven imbibition, displacing the oil that was left behind. The proposed
project is focused on the third mechanism.
Despite a large body of literature on imbibition, many fundamental questions remain open. The proposed project
will address one or more of these using a combination of cutting-edge imaging techniques, customized laboratory
apparatus, and theoretical analysis. Possible topics include:
recovery under evolving matrix wettability
sensitivity to oil chemistry
sensitivity to depth within the transition zone
impact of the capillary-hydraulic properties of the fracture
The ultimate goal is to develop a model that predicts the dependence of oil recovery on these factors.
The successful candidate will join the Environmental & Industrial Fluid Mechanics Group, a vibrant group of
academics, postdoctoral researchers, and PhD students within the School of Engineering. Members of the Group
use different combinations of laboratory experiments, field measurements, numerical simulations, and theoretical
analysis to study physical processes associated with a wide range of applications, including geological CO2
storage, wind energy, and coastal erosion. The student will also work closely with colleagues in the Aberdeen
Biomedical Imaging Centre to access imaging facilities and the School of Geosciences.
The successful applicant will have a first or upper second class degree (or equivalent) in relevant engineering,
applied mathematics, or physics discipline. Knowledge of Expertise in fluid mechanics, laboratory experience,
and knowledge of MATLAB will be an advantage.
Additional Research costs are required for this project to the sum of 5,000 per annum.

After water flooding, main part of the oil remains trapped in

several methodologies can be used referred to improved
portfolio comprises several methods such as surfactant
injection,
nano-technology,
microbial
enhanced

the reservoir. To recover more oil from the reservoir,

and enhanced oil recovery. Enhanced oil recovery
flooding Alkaline Surfactant Polymer (ASP), foam
recovery,
low
salinity
water
injection.

Although each of these techniques target specific property of rock-crude oil- brine system, such as interfacial
tension, wettability, or mobility ratio, they share the common objective of the reduction of the capillary trapping.
Several factors such as rock morphology, rock surface chemistry, crude oil chemistry and initial and injected brine
composition
can
control
the
success
of
these
techniques.
Research on enhanced oil recovery goes back to several decades ago. Although a wealth of researchers focuses
on this topic, understanding and optimization of the employed technology according to the rock-crude oil- brine
system is an active research area. The general objective of this project is to investigate fundamentals of
enhanced
oil
recovery
and
the
focus
of
the
project
is
open.
The successful candidate will develop novel computational models to simulate the experimental results at micro
scale and core scale. The project will cover image analysis, development of numerical models, and laboratorial
experiments at micro scale and core scale for validation objectives. The applicant ideally should have a 1st or 2:1
degree (or equivalent) in Petroleum engineering, hydrogeology, fields related to flow and transport in porous
media. The applicant should be familiar with programming and should have experience in laboratorial
experiments,
data
management
and
data
processing.
Successful candidates will be enrolled in the 3-year Ph.D. program of the School of Chemical Engineering and
Analytical
Science.
Starting
date
is
negotiable.

The successful PhD candidate will be a member of the IMPRES (Integrated Multiscale Porous media Research)
team, which has been recently established. IMPRES team focused on diverse problems of porous media
applications across different scales through advanced computational and experimental methods. The state-ofthe-art micromodel lab, access to DIAMOND X-ray synchrotron and microCT imaging facilities are some of the
available experimental facilities.

Wettability is a fundamental and complex phenomenon that can be found in many industrial applications.
Controlled wettability or fabrication of materials with a desired wettability are the major industrial challenges in
applications such as paint industry, fuel cells, reservoir engineering, paper and filter industry, and membranes.
Although a wealth of researchers focuses on wettability on a surface, mostly for fabricated industrial systems,
understanding the effect of wettability across scales is still an open question. In many porous systems the
objective is to control or modify the wettability. Low salinity water flooding, as one of the enhanced oil recoveries,
is one of the techniques to modify the wettability to improve oil recovery at reservoir scale. The objective of this
study is to investigate the fundamentals of wettability in natural porous materials, sandstone and carbonate
rocks, and to investigate the effect of wettability at higher scale rock properties such as capillary pressure and
relative permeability curves. The applicant should develop novel pore-scale computational methods to investigate
the wettability at pore scale including surface and fluid chemistry. The project will cover image analysis of natural
porous media, analytical characterization techniques, development of pore-scale numerical models, and
laboratorial experiments for validation objectives. The applicant ideally should have a 1st or 2:1 degree (or
equivalent) in (computational/experimental) physics, chemical engineering with strong mathematical background.
The
applicant
should
be
familiar
with
programming
in
FORTRAN,
C
or
C++.
Successful candidates will be enrolled in the 3-year Ph.D. program of the School of Chemical Engineering and
Analytical
Science.
Starting
date
is
negotiable.
The successful PhD candidate will be a member of the IMPRES (Integrated Multiscale Porous media Research)
team, which has been recently established. IMPRES team focused on diverse problems of porous media
applications across different scales through advanced computational and experimental methods. The state-ofthe-art micromodel lab, access to DIAMOND synchrotron and microCT imaging facilities are some of the
available experimental facilities.