Cracking is ubiquitous in a geomaterial when it is subject to an environmental perturbation. Controlling environmentally assisted subcritical crack growth is the key enabler to a safe and active geo-energy adaptation to Climate Change, particularly in the domain of e.g., unconventional shale hydrocarbon recovery, Carbon Capture Utilisation and Storage (CCUS) and enhanced geothermal systems (EGS). The aim of these applications is commonly to achieve an enhanced permeability and injectivity in the formation by the stimulation of hydraulic fracturing. In order to maximize the effectiveness of the technique and meanwhile limit the extent of chemical footprint, a sophisticated understanding of the feedback between the mechanics of a geomaterial and the surrounding environment it is subject to is required. In this talk, modelling approaches on the effect of chemical environment on subcritical cracking in a stressed geomaterial at multiple scales and an extension to an alternative non-destructive shear stimulation will be presented.
Dr Manman Hu holds a Ph.D from Duke University (USA) and a B.Eng from Zhejiang University (China). Prior to joining HKU, Dr. Hu worked as Vice Chancellor’s Research Fellow at UNSW, Sydney (Australia). Dr. Hu’s research work has been focusing on the interdisciplinary field of environmental geomechanics driven by modern-day geo-engineering activities and the fundamental understandings of geomaterial behavior in response to environmental perturbations of all sorts. Her current research group focuses on tackling the fundamental Multi-scale Multiphysics processes in geomaterials that play an essential role in a wide-context geoenvironmental circumstances concerning carbon neutrality and geo-engineering adaptation to Climate Change.
Clean water and clean air are vital for public health. This project focuses on developing high-efficiency and environmentally sustainable filters for removing harmful air/water pollutants. The team has developed novel architectures and functionalities for the filters to achieve high permeance, high removal efficiency, and excellent reusability.
