Professor Inga Berre will deliver the Earth Science and Engineering Departmental Seminar on 19 November, on “Modelling of injection-induced coupled dynamics in faulted formations”

Join us online by clicking “Livestream” at 12pm on this page www.imperial.ac.uk/events/123841/subsurface-fractures-modelling

Injection of fluid in faulted subsurface formations cause flow, transport and deformation processes dominated by pre-existing faults. The faults are also affected by dynamics induced by the injection, causing them to deform and propagate. In this talk, we consider modeling of this phenomena, considering thermo-hydro-mechanical processes interacting with deforming and propagating fractures. Numerical examples illustrate the extreme coupling in the dynamics, showing that it is not possible to study different mechanisms on their own without accounting for their mutual interaction. Finally, we show recent results on how the numerical modeling can be applied to complement field observations based on a case study of hydraulic stimulation of a geothermal reservoir from Reykjanes, Iceland.

About Prof Inga Berre

Inga Berre is Professor at the Department of Mathematics, University of Bergen. Her work is centered around mathematical modelling and numerical methods, in particular motivated by simulation of coupled thermal-hydraulic-mechanical processes in fractured geothermal systems. She is Associate Editor of Geothermal Energy (Springer), member of the Norwegian Academy of Technological Sciences, Program Officer for the SIAM GS activity group and member of the Interpore Program Committee.  Since 2018, she has chaired the Joint Program Geothermal, European Energy Research Alliance.