Each year ERL invites our Founding Member companies to MIT for talks on our latest research, social events, and a business meeting.  This year's meeting will take place 05/30-06/01/17.  If you work for one of our Founding Member companies, you should have received an invitation in April.  If you did not receive an invitation and you would like to attend, please contact jkastorf@mit.edu ASAP.

New this year: Rock mechanics lab tours!  (more info below the agenda on this page)

Printable agenda with map

Agenda / Technical Program (subject to change):

Date	Location	Time	Session	Speaker	Title
Tuesday, May 30	1-363	14:00-15:00	Einstein Lab Tour
	54-715	15:00-16:00	Evans Lab Tour
	54-209	16:00-18:00	Welcome Reception
Wednesday, May 31	66-110	9:00 - 9:10	Welcome and Introduction	Brad Hager
		9:10 - 10:10	Geomechanics of Earthquakes	Yuval Tal	The effect of roughness on small earthquakes
				Chunfang Meng	Modeling earthquakes induced by fluid withdrawal
				Josimar Alves Da Silva	Slow earthquakes
		10:10 - 10:40	Break
		10:40 - 11:40	Induced Seismicity and Joint inversion	Yusuke Mukuhira	Integration of Induced seismicity and Geomechanics for better understanding of reservoir physics
				David Castineira	Joint inversion for induced seismicity studies
				Chen Gu	Bayesian moment tensor inversion and uncertainty quantification for induced seismicity – uncertainties from both the location and velocity model
		11:40 - 12:00	Student and Postdoc Introductions
		12:00 - 13:00	Lunch
		13:00 - 14:00	Plenary Presentations	Brad Hager	Lab to field scale hydraulic fracturing and acoustic emissions
				Kristin Bergmann	Constraining the thermal evolution of carbonate reservoirs and basin history
		14:00 - 14:20	Break
		14:20 - 15:20	Geomechanics of Hydraulic Fracturing: Field Scale	Omid Moradian	Effect Of Natural Fractures and Bedding Planes on Failure and Seismic Response of Shale
				Farrokh Sheibani	Bridging between Geomechanial and Geophysical Numerical Modeling: Evaluation of Seismic Efficiency and Rupture Velocity with Application to Generated Fractured Network Estimation Due to Hydraulic Fracturing
				Saied Mighani	Scaling of Hydraulic Fracturing Operations to Lab Experiments
		15:20 - 15:40	Break
		15:40 - 16:40	Imaging and Inversion	Ming Fang	Denuisancing the effect of induced ground uplift on time-varying gravity using gravity gradiometry
				Aimé Fournier	The subterranean cocktail party: Identifying your seismic source among multiple random ones with time delays
				Matthias Taus	Fast solvers for seismic imaging
				Greg Ely	Fast nonlinearized uncertainty quantication for velocity model building and imaging
	Depart from MIT Sailing Pavilion (51)	18:00 - 21:00	Dinner Cruise
Thursday, June 1	66-110	9:00 - 10:20	Seismology and Wave Propagation	Marwah Al Ismail and Dale Morgan	On the Relationship Between Compressional Wave Velocity of Saturated Porous Rocks and Density: Theory and Application
				Niels Grobbe	The seismoelectric effect for inferring contrast values between layers of porous rock
				Manuel Florez Torres	Global characterization of Double Seismic Zones
				Shujuan Mao	Noise-based measurements of tidal and thermal induced seismic wave speed changes from large dense arrays.
		10:20 - 10:50	Break
		10:50 - 11:50	Geomechanics of Hydraulic Fracturing: Lab Scale	Omar Al-Dajani	Hydraulic Fracture of Shale under Various Loading Conditions
				Bing Li	Comparison of Visual and Acoustic Emission Observations in a Four Point Bending Experiment on Barre Granite
				Justin Montgomery	Spatial variability of tight oil well productivity and the impact of technology
		11:50 - 12:00	Concluding remarks	Brad Hager
	54-209	12:00 - 14:00	Business Lunch	For representatives of Founding Member companies
		14:00	Meeting Adjourned

 

Lab Tour: MIT Civil & Environmental Engineering Rock Mechanics Laboratory (Einstein Lab)
Meet in MIT building 1, room 363, at 2pm on Tuesday 05/30
Several ERL related activities go on In the CEE Rock Mechanics Laboratory, namely hydraulic fracturing and fracture flow tests. During the lab tour both activities will be shown:

Hydraulic Fracturing: The experiments are intended to provide a more complete understanding of the HF process and to serve as basis for simulation models.  Specimens with preexisting fractures are subjected to biaxial external stresses and are internally pressurized with a liquid. The resulting fracture initiation and -propagation are observed visually (with high speed and high resolution cameras) and with Acoustic Emissions sensors.

Fracture Flow and Matrix Flow Tests: The experiments are intended to get a better understanding of channelization as affected by external and internal stresses and processes such as mechanical breakage and chemical dissolution. This will provide the basis for extending simulation models.  The flow of a liquid through preexisting fractures is tested under different external stresses and internal pressures/flow rates. This is done in modified triaxial equipment. The low pressure (200 psi) equipment, which will be shown, has been used for tests on calibration specimens (acrylic, mortar) and real rock. The high pressure (2000 psi) equipment has been designed and is being built. 

Lab Tour: MIT Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences Rock Mechanics Laboratory (Evans Lab)
Meet in MIT building 54, room 715, at 3pm on Tuesday, 05/30
Students and staff from ERL,CEE, and EAPS have a long history of research aimed at improving knowledge of mechanical and transport properties of rocks at the laboratory scale and in utilizing this information to interpret physical processes occurring in the Earth. We believe that understanding spatial scaling of properties measured in cores in the laboratory, in the region around the borehole, and at field scales using seismic or electrical techniques, is particularly important for increasing the efficiency of resource recovery, improving safety and reliability of the storage of waste, and in utilizing and safeguarding water resources. Recent studies in the rock mechanics lab in EAPS have included investigations of changes in transport properties during the flow of reactive fluids; of the interrelations between fluid flow and brittle fracturing; of production of brittle damage during compressional failure; of acoustic emissions during failure and hydrofracturing; and of scaling of hydrofractures processes from laboratory to field. Join us in the laboratory for informal discussions about current laboratory techniques and experimental results.
(Note that the ERL Annual Meeting Welcome Reception will take place downstairs on the 2nd floor of building 54 just after this tour.)