Current Research | Geosystem Innovation Laboratory

Dynamic Stimulation Technologies

Mon, 01 Sep 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Conventional hydraulic fracturing applies fluid pressure quasi-statically, which often constrains fracture propagation to the direction of minimum in situ stress. Dynamic stimulation technologies instead deliver energy over short timescales, activating stress waves, inertia, rapid fluid–solid interaction, and other transient effects that can promote mixed-mode fracture growth, branching, and distributed fracture networks.

GIL develops experimental and computational frameworks to understand and predict these coupled high-rate processes. The goal is to create stimulation strategies that mitigate short-circuiting, enhance permeability, and expand geochemical reaction surfaces for applications including in-situ mining, geothermal energy extraction, and geologic hydrogen production.

Pulsed-power and electro-hydraulic fracturing

An important current focus is pulsed-power and electro-hydraulic fracturing, in which rapid electrical energy release generates pressure pulses and stress waves in dry or fluid-saturated rock. Our models couple solid deformation, fluid flow, evolving damage, and dynamic fracture propagation to determine how loading rate, saturation, and material heterogeneity control fracture-network development.

Zhao, C., Elbanna, A., Villamor-Lora, R., & Jin, W. (2026). A fully coupled hydro-mechanical phase-field framework for dynamic pulsed-power fracturing in fluid-saturated rocks. Computer Methods in Applied Mechanics and Engineering, 461, 119197.
Zhao, C., Elbanna, A., Villamor-Lora, R., & Jin, W. (2026). A Dynamic Continuum Phase-Field Framework for Electro-Hydraulic Pulse-Power Fracturing. In Proceedings, 51st Workshop on Geothermal Reservoir Engineering, Stanford University, Stanford, California.
Jin, W., Zhao, C., Pham, V. V., Yang, M., Egert, R., McLing, T., … & Villamor-Lora, R. (2025, June). ELK: a MOOSE framework based computational tool for modeling electro-hydraulic fracturing. In ARMA US Rock Mechanics/Geomechanics Symposium (p. D021S009R002). ARMA.

Multiphase Flow in Porous Media

Wed, 29 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Multiphase flow through porous media governs critical processes in subsurface energy, carbon and hydrogen storage, groundwater systems, and resource recovery. Yet commonly used continuum-scale descriptions rely on empirical closure laws that do not explicitly account for pore architecture, fluid-interface dynamics, or deformation of the solid skeleton.

Supported by an ACS Petroleum Research Fund New Doctoral Investigator award, GIL is investigating how solid deformation reshapes pore-scale multiphase flow and transport. A central focus is the Haines jump—a rapid interface-rearrangement event that occurs when a nonwetting fluid abruptly invades a pore body. The research integrates microfluidics experiments with a deformation-enabled Lattice Boltzmann solver to resolve how changes in pore geometry affect invasion thresholds, jump dynamics, phase connectivity, fluid trapping, and transport.

Deformation-coupled Haines jump dynamics

Microfluidic devices provide controlled, optically accessible pore networks in which deformation, injection conditions, wettability, and pore geometry can be varied systematically. High-resolution experiments will be paired with Lattice Boltzmann simulations that explicitly represent moving fluid interfaces and deformation of pore boundaries. Direct comparison between experiments and simulations will enable model validation and reveal the coupled mechanisms governing Haines jumps in deformable porous materials.

From pore structure to multiphase behavior

A complementary research thrust will quantify relationships between pore-network statistics and emergent multiphase-flow behavior through an integrated workflow:

CT imaging → pore-network statistics → statistically controlled pore-network generation → 3D printing → experiments and simulations

CT scans will be used to characterize pore-size distributions, throat-size distributions, coordination, connectivity, tortuosity, and spatial correlations. These descriptors will guide the generation and 3D printing of controlled pore networks, allowing experiments and simulations to isolate how individual statistics—and combinations of statistics—govern displacement patterns, capillary instabilities, phase connectivity, and trapping.

Predictive closure laws

The ultimate goal is to develop physically informed closure laws that express continuum-scale multiphase behavior in terms of measurable pore-scale parameters and deformation state. Target relationships include:

Capillary pressure–saturation behavior,
Relative permeability,
Residual phase saturation, and
Deformation-dependent trapping and transport.

These closure laws will provide a pathway from pore-scale mechanisms and statistical structure to predictive reservoir- and continuum-scale models.

Induced Seismicity

Mon, 01 Sep 2025 00:00:00 +0000

It is well known that fluid injection (e.g., CO₂ sequestration, waterflooding, or subsurface stimulation) can induce seismic events. The mechanisms for injection-time seismicity are relatively well established, typically attributed to either effective stress reduction due to elevated pore pressure or increased total stress that reactivates pre-existing fractures. However, a significant portion of induced seismic events, particularly those with larger magnitudes, occur after injection has ceased. The mechanisms driving these post-injection events remain poorly understood. Our laboratory is actively investigating this knowledge gap using advanced numerical modeling tools.

Cardenas-Acevedo, N., Si, X., Dai, S., Peng, Z., Williams, J., & Jin, W. (2026). Modeling Microseismicity in Enhanced Geothermal Systems: Impacts of Injection Parameters at Utah FORGE. In Proceedings, 51st Workshop on Geothermal Reservoir Engineering, Stanford University, Stanford, California.

Hydraulic fracturing

Thu, 01 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Hydraulic fracturing has revolutionized the oil and gas industry, and decades of field practice have enabled a deep understanding of many aspects of the process. However, several key phenomena remain insufficiently addressed:

The conventional mode-I fracture propagation mechanism does not explain the observed generation of fracture swarms;
Modeling of fracture growth coupled with proppant transport and settlement requires significant improvement;
Fracture closure during shut-in and flowback periods—and the resulting residual fracture aperture—are still not well characterized.

Beyond the inherent complexity of these multiphysics processes, achieving high-fidelity modeling of hydraulic fracturing demands extensive computational resources. Our group is developing advanced computational tools, incorporating refined physical mechanisms and GPU-accelerated simulations, to tackle these challenges.

W. Jin, C. Arson, (2019). Fluid-driven transition from damage to fracture in anisotropic porous media: a multi-scale XFEM approach. Acta Geotechnica, 15(1), 113-144.
Jin, W., Zhao, C., Pham, V. V., Yang, M., Egert, R., McLing, T., … & Villamor-Lora, R. (2025, June). ELK: a MOOSE framework based computational tool for modeling electro-hydraulic fracturing. In ARMA US Rock Mechanics/Geomechanics Symposium (p. D021S009R002). ARMA.
Egert, R., Fournier, A., & Jin, W. (2026). Modeling proppant transport and settling in a 3D propagating fracture. Deep Underground Science and Engineering.
Amirov, R., Meehan, D. N., & Jin, W. (2026). Lattice-Beam Modeling of Mixed-Mode Fracture: Benchmarking 3-Point-Bending with Asymmetric Notch. In ARMA US Rock Mechanics/Geomechanics Symposium (p. D022S041R005). ARMA.

Geothermal Energy Storage

Wed, 01 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Geothermal battery energy storage, using geological formations to store energy in the form of thermally heated brine, has been proposed as a solution to balance the increasing and intermittent nature of renewable energy generation and to enhance the stability of U.S. power grids. This concept has already been successfully applied for building heating and data center cooling by storing excess heat or cold during periods of low demand and recovering it during peak demand. This research aims to:

Identify suitable subsurface formations for geothermal energy storage,
Quantify storage efficiency within an integrated energy storage framework,
Develop strategies to mitigate risks associated with subsurface system failures.

Jin, W., Atkinson, T., Doughty, C., Neupane, G., Spycher, N., McLing, T., … & Podgorney, R. (2022). Machine-learning-assisted high-temperature reservoir thermal energy storage optimization. Renewable Energy, 197, 384-397
Jin, W., Atkinson, T., Neupane, G., McLing, T., Doughty, C., Spycher, N., … & Smith, R. (2022, June). Influence of mechanical deformation and mineral dissolution/precipitation on reservoir thermal energy storage. In ARMA US Rock Mechanics/Geomechanics Symposium (pp. ARMA-2022). ARMA.
Oh, H., Jin, W., Peng, P., Winick, J. A., Sickinger, D., Sartor, D., … & Dobson, P. (2025). Techno-economic performance of reservoir thermal energy storage for data center cooling system. Applied Energy, 391, 125858.

Current Research | Geosystem Innovation Laboratory

Dynamic Stimulation Technologies

Pulsed-power and electro-hydraulic fracturing

Related publications

Multiphase Flow in Porous Media

Deformation-coupled Haines jump dynamics

From pore structure to multiphase behavior

Predictive closure laws

Induced Seismicity

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Hydraulic fracturing

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Geothermal Energy Storage

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