Production mechanism of diluent injection in heavy oil and bitumen

The invention of horizontal and hydraulic fractured have shaped the oil and gas industry in such a way that engineers could never imagine. Thanks to the new technology, tight formation productions help the United States comes tantalizingly close to energy independent. After four decades, the U.S lifted the ban on crude oil export increased the competition in the energy market. However, tight formations productions require high capital investment, and high water consumption but its production declines fast. Scientist have been actively seeking for alternative resources for future supply. Heavy oil and bitumen is one of interesting alternative, as the resource can be all over the world, but the largest reserves are concentrated in Americas: Venezuela, and in Canada’s Alberta Province. The production of heavy oil and bitumen is an extremely energy-intensive activity with the associated high environmental impact. Most common methods for heavy oil and bitumen production are surface mining or heat injection. The heat lost associated with steam injection is a big concern, sometimes it can be as high as 90%. To reduce heat loss, the use of solvent was employed. However, solvent processes with vertical wells could be much slower than the thermal process such as steam injection. Since the introduction of horizontal well and hydraulic fracture that helps increase the contact area between the solvent and oil, the investigation of solvent injection process has been widely revisited. Solvent or diluent injection without understanding asphaltene behavior can cause permeability and porosity reduction. In this study, I have investigated the mass transfer mechanisms in diluent processes with focus on understanding how these mechanisms govern asphaltene precipitation, flocculation and transportation.Petroleum and Geosystems Engineerin

Adaptive backstepping control for ship nonlinear active fin system based on disturbance observer and neural network

Adaptive backstepping control based on disturbance observer and neural network for ship nonlinear active fin system is proposed. One disturbance observer is given to observe the disturbances of the system, by this way, the response time is shorten and the negative impact of disturbance and uncertain elements of the system is reduced. In addition, radial basic function neural network (RBFNN) is proposed to approach the unknown elements in the ship nonlinear active fin system, therefor the system can obtain good roll reduction effectiveness and overcome the uncertainties of the model, the designed controller can maintain the ship roll angle at desired value. Finally, the simulation results are given for a supply vessel to verify the successfulness of the proposed controller

On the weighted m-energy classes

In this article, we investigate the weighted $m-$subharmonic functions. We shall give some properties of this class and consider its relation to the $m-$Cegrell classes. We also prove an integration theorem and an almost everywhere convergence theorem for this class

On the finite energy classes of quaternionic plurisubharmonic functions

We investigate the finite $p$-energy classes $E_p$ of quaternionic plurisubharmonic functions of Cegrell type. We also construct an example to show that the optimal constant in the energy estimate is strictly bigger than $1$ for $p>0$, $p\neq 1$. This leads us to the fact that we can not use the variational method to solve the quaternionic Monge-Amp\`ere equation for the classes $E_p$ when $p>0$, $p\neq 1$

Effect of cerium salt-activated ceria on the UV degradation resistance of waterborne epoxy coatings

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Trigonometric-series solution for analysis of laminated composite beams

A new analytical solution based on a higher-order beam theory for static, buckling and vibration of laminated composite beams is proposed in this paper. The governing equations of motion are derived from Lagrange’s equations. An analytical solution based on trigonometric series, which satisfies various boundary conditions, is developed to solve the problem. Numerical results are obtained to compare with previous studies and to investigate the effects of length-to-depth ratio, fibre angles and material anisotropy on the deflections, stresses, natural frequencies and critical buckling loads of composite beams with various configurations

Level of Factors impact on the Buyers’ Intention in Buying Private Health Insurance with the Case of Vietnam Non-Life Insurance Companies

The study aims to determine the influence of factors affecting the intention to purchase private health insurance at non-life insurance companies in Vietnam. The samples were surveyed from 500 people from many areas but mostly in Hanoi. The study identified and clarified 5 independent factors affecting the intention to buy private health insurance at non-life health insurance companies in Vietnam. The analysis results show 5 variables: "Past experience", "Perception of service quality of insurance companies", "Perceived behavioral control", "Attitude towards risks and private health insurance ", and the variable "Subjective norms on private health insurance" affect people's intention to buy private health insurance. Several policies have been proposed to increase customers' intention to buy private health insurance at non-life insurance companies from the analysis. To raise customer's intention to purchase private health insurance, the research team recommends non-life insurance company to improve service quality, especially after-sales service, the quality and expertise of staff, and the government to complete policies and legal framework on private health insurance. Moreover, the research team also recommend to renovate the quality of organizing the private health insurance regime and form the basis of the entire population pathology record. Keywords: private health insurance, intention to purchase, non-life insurance company. DOI: 10.7176/EJBM/12-27-06 Publication date:September 30th 202