Home | People | Research | Projects | Publications | Lab | Join Us | 中文
Four Research Directions
Our research centers on the physics of multiphase flow in porous media, from pore-scale experimentation and theory to upscaling for subsurface applications. Current work is organized along one fundamental direction and three application directions.
1. Multiphase Flow and Pore-Scale Physics
We study how pore-throat geometry reshapes the dynamics and thermodynamics of fluid particles (bubbles, droplets, and ganglia) in porous media. Starting from the experimental discovery of Ostwald-ripening-derived anticoarsening (Phys. Rev. Lett. 2017), we established the capillary equilibrium theory of trapped bubbles (PNAS 2021) and closed-form kinetics for bubble coarsening (Geophys. Res. Lett. 2023) and dissolution (Phys. Rev. Fluids 2026), showing that classical open-system theories (Lifshitz-Slyozov-Wagner, Epstein-Plesset) must be replaced in porous media. We further examine how structural heterogeneity, boundary geometry, and phase change regulate Rayleigh-Darcy convection (Science Advances 2025; Phys. Rev. Fluids 2026; Int. J. Heat Mass Transfer 2026), and how roughness, nondilute effects, and evaporation reshape two-phase displacement, miscible transport, and drying in micromodels (PNAS 2023; Phys. Rev. Fluids 2023; Adv. Water Resour. 2026), supported by high-fidelity multicomponent lattice-Boltzmann simulation (Phys. Fluids 2026).
2. Geologic CO2 Storage
We use high-pressure visualization experiments to reveal how convective dissolution of overlaying CO2 couples with reactive precipitation, and how porous structure reshapes the reaction front and the dissolution flux (Adv. Water Resour. 2025). For CO2 stored as hydrates, we directly observe nucleation and growth in unsaturated porous media and uncover an explosive-crystallization mechanism by which hydrates propagate across disconnected water pockets, explaining field observations of early hydrate enrichment in low-permeability intervals (Geophys. Res. Lett. 2025). This direction serves the assessment of storage security, capacity, and efficiency.
3. Shale Oil and Gas
From molecular dynamics of methane diffusion through converging-diverging nanopore throats (SPE J. 2022) and water-vapor sorption on shale organic matter (J. Hydrol. 2025), to countercurrent imbibition in densely fractured continental shale with REV-scale modeling (SPE J. 2024) and ganglion startup dynamics (Chem. Eng. Sci. 2024), we build the pore-to-reservoir chain of mass-transport mechanisms for shale systems, and identify the key fracturing-recovery bottlenecks of lacustrine shale in the Sichuan Basin together with geology-engineering integration pathways (Oil & Gas Geol. 2025, in Chinese).
Read more on Shale Oil and Gas »
4. Extraterrestrial Water Resources
We develop rarefied-gas diffusion theory and probability-based pore-network upscaling for volatile transport in lunar regolith under extreme vacuum (Phys. Fluids 2025), quantify the billion-year retention of water ice in lunar permanently shadowed regions (Icarus 2026), derive the Ostwald ripening of pore ice in lunar regolith (Space Sci. Exp. Technol. 2025, in Chinese), and use Chang’e-5/6 in-situ observations to quantify rocket-exhaust-derived water migration at lunar landing sites with planetary-protection implications (JGR Planets 2026). This direction is supported by a National Key R&D Program Young Scientist Project on large-scale in-situ extraction of lunar water ice.