| Natural gas hydrates represent an immense hydrocarbon resource underlying large portions of the world's arctic continental areas and continental shelves. While these deposits ultimately may yield important sources of energy for the world, scientific and engineering research needs to be undertaken to make their exploitation feasible.; Currently, numerical simulation serves as a useful tool in understanding the formation and dissociation processes of gas hydrates. In this research, an attempt has been made to address some issues which are important for mathematical modeling of gas hydrate decomposition in a porous medium. In the first part of the work, experiments were done to understand the formation process of hydrates in a porous medium, and to experimentally determine the permeability of a porous medium in the presence of hydrates.; In the second part of the work, a one-dimensional numerical model was developed for dissociation of gas hydrates in porous media by depressurization. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)... |
