P-6527-2-smallAll are welcome to attend the Distinguished Lecture presented by Dr. Robert Podgorney, Lead of Energy Resource Recovery and Sustainability at Idaho National Laboratory and Director of Snake River Geothermal Consortium, as he presents his lecture on “A High Performance Computing Approach for Simulating Coupled Thermal-Hydro-Mechanical-Chemical Processes in Geothermal Reservoirs.” The lecture will take place on Tuesday, December 2nd, in WEB L104 from 10:45-11:35am.

Abstract: Numerical modeling has played an important role in understanding the behavior of subsurface systems for decades. While capabilities of reservoir simulators have grown, the prospect of simulating more challenging classes of tightly-coupled geothermal problems (such as fracture propagation in shale gas systems, high enthalpy supercritical magmatic systems, or reservoir creation of engineered geothermal systems) pose additional and very significant computational and conceptual challenges. A growing area of interest is the simulation of coupled-physics problems, such as coupled thermal-hydrologic-mechanic-chemical (THMC) processes. A number of subsurface THMC simulation codes are currently in development, all of which aim to develop predictive capabilities to support expanded geothermal development. This talk highlights the development of the FALCON code, which is being specifically designed for high-fidelity simulations of strongly coupled THMC process in geothermal reservoirs. The code is developed using the Multiphysics Object Oriented Simulation Environment (MOOSE) framework, developed at the
Idaho National Laboratory. The code employs finite element methods and a modular approach to solve the governing PDEs, taking advantage of high-performance parallel computing techniques and start-of-the-art nonlinear/linear solvers. The modular architecture of the code enables broad-based collaboration between diverse domain scientists and also allows for rapid inclusion of new physics into simulations for hypothesis testing.

Biography: Dr. Robert Podgorney is a senior scientist and department manager at the Idaho National Laboratory and an affiliate faculty member with the Center for Advanced Energy Studies, a public–private research partnership between the Idaho National Laboratory and Idaho public research universities. His research interests generally center on water and energy related issues, focusing on experimental and numerical investigations of fluid flow in porous media, fractures and fracture networks, as well as the development of numerical simulation tools for describing these systems. His experience spans from field-based activities, such as well drilling and monitoring, to regional scale modeling and resource management, for both energy and environmental resources. He currently serves as the United States chair to the Reservoir Modeling Working Group of the International Partnership for Geothermal Technology.