Speaker: Malgorzata Peszynska, Oregon State University
Date: June 2, 2016
Title: Methane hydrate evolution: framework for analysis and simulations
Abstract: We start by overviewing nonlinear parabolic equations with a
nonlinearity represented by a monotone graph rather than a function, such as in, e.g., Stefan free boundary problem for ice-water phase transitions. Next we present a model of methane hydrate evolution which requires substantial generalization of the free boundary framework, and we discuss our results on its analysis and simulation. We pay particular attention to the phase constraints represented as a parameter dependent variational inequality.
The motivation for the study of gas hydrates is as follows. Methane hydrate, an ice-like substance containing methane molecules trapped in a lattice of water molecules, are present in large amounts along continental slopes and in permafrost regions. They are a possible source of energy, a potential environmental hazard, and a significant factor in the global climate studies. Gas hydrate evolution, in its most general context, falls in the category of multiphase multicomponent models known from, e.g., petroleum industry, but it has particular characteristics which present new challenges to the analysis and simulation. I will report on joint work with collaborators from mathematics (R.E. Showalter, F.P. Medina, N. Gibson, J. Webster), and Oceanography (M. Torres, W.L. Hong, A. Trehu, J.H. Kim).