PhD Studentship funded by Industry

 

Technical Scope: The objective of this project is to undertake and disseminate research in the use of computational modelling of rock fracturing, deformation and block sliding in response to tension and compression. The student will aim to develop fracture patterns with aperture characteristics applicable to fractures found in reservoir rocks at in-situ stress and formation fluid pressure conditions.

 

The fractures will include those associated with fracturing in virgin rock and the straining of mapped fracture patterns. Major challenges are to include fluid pressure effects and to provide fracture network characterisations from which fracture and matrix flow simulations can give appropriate upscaling properties at decimetre and larger scales.

Requirements: Applicants should have an undergraduate degree in engineering, physics, geology, geophysics, applied mathematics, or computer science. The successful candidate will have most of the following knowledge and skills: • Structural geology and brittle failure in the Earth’s crust: knowledge of continuum mechanics and fracture mechanics.• Numerical methods: knowledge of finite element methods and/or discrete element methods. • Communication: excellent writing and presentation skills. • Scientific programming: ability to program in a scientific programming language such as C/C++, Fortran, Matlab.

Other details: This is a 3-year PhD studentship, paying a non-taxable bursary of 16,000 per year. The student will work under the supervision of Dr. J-P Latham and Dr. Jiansheng Xiang, with frequent interaction with the itf-ISF3 team, geologists and other members of the department’s PERM and AMCG research groups.

Closing date: is 15 January 2012
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Pana la:2012-01-15 00:00:00