Ryan M. Pollyea
My research interests are at the intersection of geofluids and energy resources, including geologic CO2 sequestration, hydrothermal fluid systems, and fluid-triggered earthquakes. I specialize in numerical models of multi-phase fluid flow in fractured and porous media, high performance computing, geospatial analysis, and the application of terrestrial LiDAR to fracture network characterization. My research group is currently investigating physical and chemical processes during CO2 sequestration in flood basalt reservoirs, and fluid system processes during underground injections of oilfield wastewater.
Education
Ph.D., University of Idaho, 2012
B.S., University of Dayton, 1999
My current focus is understanding how mechanical and chemical processes influence formation permeability at reservoir scales. In pursuing this research, I am in the process of implementing fully a coupled thermal-hydro-chemical-mechanical numerical modeling framework for investigating these processes.
Current members of my research group include:
- Wu Hao (Ph.D. student) is developing a numerical modeling experiment to quantify the effects of capillary pressure uncertainty during CO2 sequestration in reactive basalt reservoirs.
- Gradyon Konzen (M.S. student) is studying the hydraulics of injection-induced earthquakes in Oklahoma and Kansas to understand how fluid composition and regional-scale structure interact to drive pressure propagation into the seismogenic zone.
A current list of publications is available at:
- GEOS 5984: Geostatistics
- GEOS 4824: Engineering Geology
- GEOS 4804/5804G: Groundwater Hydrology
- GEOS 6604: Reactive Transport Modeling