Diver Interest via Pointing in Three Dimensions: 3D Pointing Reconstruction for Diver-AUV Communication

This paper presents Diver Interest via Pointing in Three Dimensions (DIP-3D), a method to relay an object of interest from a diver to an autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) by pointing that includes three-dimensional distance information to discriminate between multiple objects in the AUV's camera image. Traditional dense stereo vision for distance estimation underwater is challenging because of the relative lack of saliency of scene features and degraded lighting conditions. Yet, including distance information is necessary for robotic perception of diver pointing when multiple objects appear within the robot's image plane. We subvert the challenges of underwater distance estimation by using sparse reconstruction of keypoints to perform pose estimation on both the left and right images from the robot's stereo camera. Triangulated pose keypoints, along with a classical object detection method, enable DIP-3D to infer the location of an object of interest when multiple objects are in the AUV's field of view. By allowing the scuba diver to point at an arbitrary object of interest and enabling the AUV to autonomously decide which object the diver is pointing to, this method will permit more natural interaction between AUVs and human scuba divers in underwater-human robot collaborative tasks.Comment: Under Review International Conference of Robotics and Automation 202

Geomechanical Response Of Overburden Caused By CO2 Injection Into A Depleted Oil Reservoir

This study investigates the hydro-mechanical aspects of carbon dioxide (CO2) injection into a depleted oil reservoir through the use of coupled multiphase fluid flow and geomechanical modeling. Both single-phase and multiphase fluid flow analyses coupled with geomechanics were carried out at the West Pearl Queen depleted oil reservoir site, and modeling results were compared with available measured data. The site geology and the material properties determined on the basis of available geophysical data were used in the analyses. Modeling results from the coupled multiphase fluid flow and geomechanical analyses show that computed fluid pressures match well with available measured data. The hydro-mechanical properties of the reservoir have a significant influence on computed fluid pressures and surface deformations. Hence, an accurate geologic characterization of the sequestration site and determination of engineering properties are important issues for the reliability of model predictions. The computed fluid pressure response is also significantly influenced by the relative permeability curves used in multiphase fluid flow models. While the multiphase fluid flow models provide more accurate fluid pressure response, single-phase fluid flow models can be used to obtain approximate solutions. The ground surface deformations obtained from single-phase fluid flow models coupled with geomechanics are slightly lower than those predicted by multiphase fluid flow models coupled with geomechanics. However, the advantage of a single-phase model is the simplicity. Limited field monitoring of subsurface fluid pressure and ground surface deformations during fluid injection can be used in calibrating coupled fluid flow and geomechanical models. The calibrated models can be used for investigating the performance of large-scale CO2 storage in depleted oil reservoirs

Determination of Coal Permeability Using Pressure Transient Methods

Coalbed methane is a significant natural resource in the Appalachian region. It is believed that coalbed methane production can be enhanced by injection of carbon dioxide into coalbeds. However, the influence of carbon dioxide injection on coal permeability is not yet well understood. Competitive sorption of carbon dioxide and methane gases onto coal is a known process. Laboratory experiments and limited field experience indicate that coal will swell during sorption of a gas and shrink during desorption of a gas. The swelling and shrinkage may change the permeability of the coal. In this study, the permeability of coal was determined by using carbon dioxide as the flowing fluid. Coal samples with different dimensions were prepared for laboratory permeability tests. Carbon dioxide was injected into the coal and the permeability was determined by using pressure transient methods. The confining pressure was variedto cover a wide range of depths. The permeability was also determined as a function of exposure time of carbon dioxide while the confining stress was kept constant. CT scans were taken before and after the introduction of carbon dioxide. Results show that the porosity and permeability of the coal matrix was very low. The paper presents experimental data and theoretical aspects of the flow of carbon dioxide through a coal sample during pressure transient tests. The suitability of the pressure transient methods for determining permeability of coal during carbon dioxide injection is discussed in the paper

Two-Phase Flow Simulations In a Natural Rock Fracture using the VOF Method

Standard models of two-phase flow in porous media have been shown to exhibit several shortcomings that might be partially overcome with a recently developed model based on thermodynamic principles (Hassanizadeh and Gray, 1990). This alternative two-phase flow model contains a set of new and non-standard parameters, including specific interfacial area. By incorporating interfacial area production, destruction, and propagation into functional relationships that describe the capillary pressure and saturation, a more physical model has been developed. Niessner and Hassanizadeh (2008) have examined this model numerically and have shown that the model captures saturation hysteresis with drainage/imbibition cycles. Several static experimental studies have been performed to examine the validity of this new thermodynamically based approach; these allow the determination of static parameters of the model. To date, no experimental studies have obtained information about the dynamic parameters required for the model. A new experimental porous flow cell has been constructed using stereolithography to study two-phase flow phenomena (Crandall et al. 2008). A novel image analysis tool was developed for an examination of the evolution of flow patterns during displacement experiments (Crandall et al. 2009). This analysis tool enables the direct quantification of interfacial area between fluids by matching known geometrical properties of the constructed flow cell with locations identified as interfaces from images of flowing fluids. Numerous images were obtained from two-phase experiments within the flow cell. The dynamic evolution of the fluid distribution and the fluid-fluid interface locations were determined by analyzing these images. In this paper, we give a brief introduction to the thermodynamically based two-phase flow model, review the properties of the stereolithography flow cell, and show how the image analysis procedure has been used to obtain dynamic parameters for the numerical model. These parameters include production/destruction of interfacial area as a function of saturation and capillary pressure. Our preliminary results for primary drainage in porous media show that the specific interfacial area increased linearly with increasing gas saturation until breakthrough of the displacing gas into the exit manifold occurred

Relative Permeabilities: a pore-level model study of the capillary number dependence

Relative permeabilities are widely used by the petroleum industry in reservoir simulations of recovery strategies. In recent years, pore level modeling has been used to determine relative permeabilities at zero capillary number for a variety of more and more realistic model porous media. Unfortunately, these studies cannot address the issue of the observed capillary number dependence of the relative permeabilities. Several years ago, we presented a method for determining the relative permeabilities from pore-level modeling at general capillary number. We have used this method to determine the relative permeabilities at several capillary numbers and stable viscosity ratios. In addition, we have determined these relative permeabilities using one of the standard dynamic methods for determining relative permeabilities from core flood experiments. Our results from the two methods are compared with each other and with experimental results

Experimentally Measured Interfacial Area during Gas Injection into Saturated Porous Media: An Air Sparging Analogy

The amount of interfacial area (awn) between air and subsurface liquids during air-sparging can limit the rate of site remediation. Lateral movement within porous media could be encountered during air-sparging operations when air moves along the bottom of a low-permeability lens. This study was conducted to directly measure the amount of awn between air and water flowing within a bench-scale porous flow cell during the lateral movement of air along the upper edge of the cell during air injections into an initially water-saturated flow cell. Four different cell orientations were used to evaluate the effect of air injection rates and porous media geometries on the amount of awn between fluids. Air was injected at flow rates that varied by three orders of magnitude, and for each flow cellover this range of injection rates little change in awn was noted. A wider variation in awn was observed when air moved through different regions for the different flow cell orientations. These results are in good agreement with the experimental findings of Waduge et al. (2007), who performed experiments in a larger sand-pack flow cell, and determined that air-sparging efficiency is nearly independent of flow rate but highly dependent on the porous structure. By directly measuring the awn, and showing that awn does not vary greatly with changes in injection rate, we show that the lack of improvement to remediation rates is because there is a weak dependence of the awn on the air injection rate

Recent advances in risk assessment and risk management of geologic CO2 storage

© 2015 Elsevier Ltd.This paper gives an overview of the advances made in the field of risk assessment and risk management of geologic CO2 storage (GCS), since the publication of the IPCC Special Report on Carbon Capture and Storage in 2005. Development and operation of a wide range of demonstration projects coupled with development of new regulations for safe injection and storage of CO2 have led to development and deployment of a range of risk assessment approaches. New methods and tools have been developed for quantitative and qualitative risk assessment. These methods have been integrated effectively with monitoring and mitigation techniques and deployed in the field for small-scale field tests as well as large-scale commercial projects. An important development has been improved definition of risks, which can be broadly classed as site performance risks, long-term containment risks, public perception risks and market risks. Considerable experience has now been gained on understanding and managing site performance risks. Targeted research on containment risks and induced seismicity risks has led to improved understanding of parameters and processes influencing these risks as well as identifying key uncertainties that need to be targeted. Finally, significant progress has been made to effectively integrate communication strategies with risk management approaches to increase stakeholder confidence in effectiveness of deployed risk management approaches to manage risks

Direct, Dynamic Measurement of Interfacial Area within Porous Media

Standard models of two-phase flow in porous media have been shown to exhibit several shortcomings that might be partially overcome with a recently developed model based on thermodynamic principles (Hassanizadeh and Gray, 1990). This alternative two-phase flow model contains a set of new and non-standard parameters, including specific interfacial area. By incorporating interfacial area production, destruction, and propagation into functional relationships that describe the capillary pressure and saturation, a more physical model has been developed. Niessner and Hassanizadeh (2008) have examined this model numerically and have shown that the model captures saturation hysteresis with drainage/imbibition cycles. Several static experimental studies have been performed to examine the validity of this new thermodynamically based approach; these allow the determination of static parameters of the model. To date, no experimental studies have obtained information about the dynamic parameters required for the model. A new experimental porous flow cell has been constructed using stereolithography to study two-phase flow phenomena (Crandall et al. 2008). A novel image analysis tool was developed for an examination of the evolution of flow patterns during displacement experiments (Crandall et al. 2009). This analysis tool enables the direct quantification of interfacial area between fluids by matching known geometrical properties of the constructed flow cell with locations identified as interfaces from images of flowing fluids. Numerous images were obtained from two-phase experiments within the flow cell. The dynamic evolution of the fluid distribution and the fluid-fluid interface locations were determined by analyzing these images. In this paper, we give a brief introduction to the thermodynamically based two-phase flow model, review the properties of the stereolithography flow cell, and show how the image analysis procedure has been used to obtain dynamic parameters for the numerical model. These parameters include production/destruction of interfacial area as a function of saturation and capillary pressure. Our preliminary results for primary drainage in porous media show that the specific interfacial area increased linearly with increasing gas saturation until breakthrough of the displacing gas into the exit manifold occurred