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Abstract

Zheng, L., H. Zhang, M. Zhang, P. Kerkar, and D. Mahajan, 2009, Modeling methane-hydrate formation in marine sediments, in T. Collett, A. Johnson, C. Knapp, and R. Boswell, eds., Natural gas hydrates—Energy resource potential and associated geologic hazards: AAPG Memoir 89, p. 770–781.

DOI:10.1306/13201140M893371

Copyright copy2009 by The American Association of Petroleum Geologists.

Modeling Methane-hydrate Formation in Marine Sediments

Lili Zheng,1 Hui Zhang,2 Mingyu Zhang,3 Prasad Kerkar,4 Devinder Mahajan5

1Mechanical Engineering Department, State University of New York at Stony Brook, Stony Brook, New York, U.S.A.; Present address: School of Aerospace, Tsinghua University, China.
2Mechanical Engineering Department, State University of New York at Stony Brook, Stony Brook, New York, U.S.A.; Present address: Department of Engineering Physics, Tsinghua University, China.
3Mechanical Engineering Department, State University of New York at Stony Brook, Stony Brook, New York, U.S.A.; Present address: Institute of Applied Physics and Computational Mathematics, Beijing, China.
4Materials Science and Engineering Department, State University of New York at Stony Brook, Stony Brook, New York, U.S.A.
5Energy Sciences and Technology Department, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, New York, U.S.A. and Materials Science and Engineering Department, State University of New York at Stony Brook, Stony Brook, New York, U.S.A.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Support of this work from the State University of New York (SUNY) at Stony Brook through a start-up grant to Devinder Mahajan is gratefully acknowledged. This work was partially supported by the U.S. Department of Energy under contract DE-AC02-98CH10886 at Brookhaven National Laboratory.

ABSTRACT

In this chapter, we review knowledge critical to simulating hydrate formation and dissociation in marine sediments. The advantages and disadvantages of existing numerical models are summarized. An advanced computational model (meshless-particle-based model) is introduced to simulate fluid flow, heat and mass transfer, and hydrate formation at the pore level. In the model, the spatial distribution and uncertainty of porosity and variation of permeability with hydrate formation can be predicted. The model has been tested for different crystal growth kinetics. The pore-level simulation results may help us understand the quantity and distribution of methane hydrate within the confines of a pore space.

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