The ability to image in three dimensions, from the nanometre to the centimetre scales, reservoir rocks, and the fluids within them, has transformed our understanding of flow and transport processes in porous media.  In addition, the use of various methods in computational fluid dynamics now allows us to model flow processes at the pore scale and to predict averaged properties, such as absolute and relative permeabilities. I will give an overview of the technology, highlighting some of the latest developments in this area, including the imaging of fluid displacement at reservoir conditions with micron resolution, prediction of multiphase flow properties in complex carbonates, and pore-by-pore measurements of contact angle.  I will conclude by discussing how these results can be used for better reservoir management of performance prediction.

Biography: Martin Blunt joined Imperial in June 1999 as a Professor of Petroleum Engineering. He served as Head of the Department of Earth Science and Engineering from 2006-2011. Previous to this he was Associate Professor of Petroleum Engineering at Stanford University in California. Before joining Stanford in 1992, he was a research reservoir engineer with BP in Sunbury-on-Thames. He holds MA and PhD (1988) degrees in theoretical physics from Cambridge University. Professor Blunt's research interests are in multiphase flow in porous media with applications to geological carbon storage, oil and gas recovery, and contaminant transport and clean-up in polluted aquifers. He performs experimental, theoretical and numerical research into many aspects of flow and transport in porous systems, including pore-scale modelling of displacement processes, and large-scale simulation using streamline-based methods.