Genetic Analysis of Structural Styles in the Makran Accretionary Wedge–Insight from Physical Simulations

The Makran accretionary wedge has the smallest subduction angle among any accretionary prism in the world. The factors controlling the spacing and morphological development of its deep thrust faults, as well as the formation mechanism of shallow normal faults, remain unclear. Meanwhile, the factors affecting the continuity of plane faults must be comprehensively discussed. Clarifying the development characteristics and deformation mechanisms of the Makran accretionary wedge is crucial to effectively guide the exploration of gas hydrate deposits in the area. This study aims to interpret seismic data to identify typical structures in the Makran accretionary wedge, including deep imbricate thrust faults, shallow and small normal faults, wedge-shaped piggyback basins, mud diapirs with fuzzy and disorderly characteristics of reflection, décollements with a northward tilt of 1° – 2°, and large seamounts. Physical simulation-based experiments are performed to comprehensively analyze the results of the plane, section, and slices of the wedge. Results reveal that the distances between and shapes of thrust faults in the deep parts of the Makran accretionary wedge are controlled by the bottom décollement. The uplift of the thrust fault-related folds and the upwelling of the mud diapirs primarily contribute to the formation of small normal faults in the shallow part of the area. The mud diapirs originate from plastic material at the bottom, while those that have developed in the area near the trench are larger. Seamounts and mud diapirs break the continuity of fault plane distribution.

An online physical simulation method for enhanced oil recovery by air injection in shale oil

In order to understand the mechanism of air flooding shale oil, an online physical simulation method for enhanced shale oil recovery by air injection was established by integrating CT scanning and nuclear magnetic resonance(NMR). The development effect of shale oil by air flooding under different depletion pressures, the micro-production characteristics of pore throats with different sizes and the mechanism of shale oil recovery by air flooding were analyzed. The effects of air oxygen content, permeability, gas injection pressure, and fractures on the air flooding effect in shale and crude oil production in pores with different sizes were analyzed. The recovery of shale oil can be greatly improved by injecting air into the depleted shale reservoir, but the oil displacement efficiency and the production degree of different levels of pore throats vary with the injection timing. The higher the air oxygen content and the stronger the low-temperature oxidation, the higher the production degree of pores with different sizes and the higher the shale oil recovery. The higher the permeability and the better the pore throat connectivity, the stronger the fluid flow capacity and the higher the shale oil recovery. As the injection pressure increases, the lower limit of the production degree of pore throats decreases, but gas channeling may occur to cause a premature breakthrough;as a result, the recovery increases and then decreases. Fractures can effectively increase the contact area between gas and crude oil, and increase the air sweep coefficient and matrix oil drainage area by supplying oil to fractures through the matrix, which means that a proper fracturing before air injection can help to improve the oil displacement effect under a reasonable production pressure difference.

Melting and floating processes of inorganic materials in molten steel:Visualization physical simulation and mathematical modelling

It has been demonstrated that heat absorption method by using the inorganic material rod to cool the molten steel can significantly reduce the macrosegregation level of the large steel ingot.However,owing to the opacity of the molten steel,the physical mechanism of the heat absorption method is not clear.In this work,a transparent hydraulic physical model with water and paraffin wax was built to simulate the melting and floating processes of inorganic materials in the molten steel.A mathematical simulation was also carried out to analyze the connection between the actual ingot and the physical model.Results show that it is feasible to simulate the molten steel and inorganic materials with water and paraffin wax.With the help of the physical model,the process of the melting of paraffin wax and its floating to the surface of water were clearly observed,during which the temperature of water at some characteristic positions in the mold was recorded.The visualization findings demonstrate that the melting and floating processes of paraffin wax can help to bring the heat from the center of the mold to the top surface more quickly,which reduces the superheat and significantly accelerates the cooling rate of water.The experimental results show that for the water with a certain superheat,the use of a larger mass of paraffin wax can accelerate the cooling of the water,but there is a risk of incomplete melting of the paraffin wax.A higher superheat of water will lead to a quicker melting rate for a given mass of paraffin wax,while a lower superheat leads to the incomplete melting of paraffin wax as well.

A three dimensional visualized physical simulation for natural gas charging in the micro-nano pore system

A micro-nano pore three-dimensional visualized real-time physical simulation of natural gas charging, in-situ pore-scale computation, pore network modelling, and apparent permeability evaluation theory were used to investigate laws of gas and water flow and their distribution, and controlling factors during the gas charging process in low-permeability(tight) sandstone reservoir. By describing features of gas-water flow and distribution and their variations in the micro-nano pore system, it is found that the gas charging in the low permeability(tight) sandstone can be divided into two stages, expansion stage and stable stage. In the expansion stage, the gas flows continuously first into large-sized pores then small-sized pores, and first into centers of the pores then edges of pores;pore-throats greater than 20 μm in radius make up the major pathway for gas charging. With the increase of charging pressure, movable water in the edges of large-sized pores and in the centers of small pores is displaced out successively. Pore-throats of 20-50 μm in radius and pore-throats less than 20 μm in radius dominate the expansion of gas charging channels at different stages of charging in turn, leading to reductions in pore-throat radius, throat length and coordination number of the pathway, which is the main increase stage of gas permeability and gas saturation. Among which, pore-throats 30-50 μm in radius control the increase pattern of gas saturation. In the stable stage, gas charging pathways have expanded to the maximum, so the pathways keep stable in pore-throat radius, throat length, and coordination number, and irreducible water remains in the pore system, the gas phase is in concentrated clusters, while the water phase is in the form of dispersed thin film, and the gas saturation and gas permeability tend stable. Connected pore-throats less than 20 μm in radius control the expansion limit of the charging pathways, the formation of stable gas-water distribution, and the maximum gas saturation. The heterogeneity of connected pore-throats affects the dynamic variations of gas phase charging and gas-water distribution. It can be concluded that the pore-throat configuration and heterogeneity of the micro-nanometer pore system control the dynamic variations of the low-permeability(tight) sandstone gas charging process and gas-water distribution features.

Mechanical behaviors of backfill-rock composites: Physical shear test and back-analysis

The shear behavior of backfill-rock composites is crucial for mine safety and the management of surface subsidence.For exposing the shear failure mechanism of backfill-rock composites,we conducted shear tests on backfill-rock composites under three constant normal loads,compared with the unfilled rock.To investigate the macro-and meso-failure characteristics of the samples in the shear tests,the cracking behavior of samples was recorded by a high-speed camera and acoustic emission monitoring.In parallel with the experimental test,the numerical models of backfill-rock composites and unfilled rock were established using the discrete element method to analyze the continuous-discontinuous shearing process.Based on the damage mechanics and statistics,a novel shear constitutive model was proposed to describe mechanical behavior.The results show that backfill-rock composites had a special bimodal phenomenon of shearing load-deformation curve,i.e.the first shearing peak corresponded to rock break and the second shearing peak induced by the broken of aeolian sand-cement/fly ash paste backfill.Moreover,the shearing characteristic curves of the backfill-rock composites could be roughly divided into four stages,i.e.the shear failure of the specimens experienced:stage I:stress concentration;stage II:crack propagation;stage III:crack coalescence;stage IV:shearing friction.The numerical simulation shows that the existence of aeolian sand-cement/fly ash paste backfill inevitably altered the coalescence type and failure mode of the specimens and had a strengthening effect on the shear strength of backfillrock composites.Based on damage mechanics and statistics,a shear constitutive model was proposed to describe the shear fracture characteristics of specimens,especially the bimodal phenomenon.Finally,the micro-and meso-mechanisms of shear failure were discussed by combining the micro-test and numerical results.The research can advance the better understanding of the shear behavior of backfill-rock composites and contribute to the safety of mining engineering.

PHYSICAL SIMULATION BASED INTELLIGENT SYSTEM FOR THE PREDICTION OF SHEET METAL DRAWING CAPABILITY

With the combination of a new theoretical formula, physical simulation experiments, the technology of artificial neural network and database, an intelligent system for the prediction of sheet metal drawing capability is constructed for the first time. A modified criterion for sheet metal drawing capability is proposed in this paper, namely, the Technological Limiting Drawing Ratio, TLDR = f(R, n, s, t, F, μ,r_d,r_p…). Based on the studies of other scholars, a new formula is derived to predict the TLDR in this paper. Then a series of orthogonal physical simulation experiments are designed to investigate the effect of technological parameters on the TLDR, and the results are analyzed in the paper. Then the predicting system is constructed with the combination of the theoretical formula, orthogonal experiments, the technology of artifocial neural network and database. The predicted results show good agreements with experimental data, so it can be used to avoid the blindness in the selection of sheet metal before stamping. The system operates under the Windows operating system, and it supports the mechanism of Client/Server as well as Intranet, so the system has high engineering value.

Numerical simulation and physical analysis for dynamic behaviors of P/M TiAl alloy in hot-packed forging process

The hot forging of large-scale P/M TiAl alloy billet deformation was investigated based on a joint application of Deform-3D-based numerical simulation and physical simulation techniques.The temperature dependence on the thermal and mechanical properties of the billet was considered and the optimum hot working temperature of packed TiAl alloy was 1150-1200 °C.Based on the simulation,the material flow and thermo mechanical field variables,such as stress,strain,and temperature distribution were obtained and the relationships of load—displacement and load—time were figured out.To verify the validity of the simulation results,the experiments were also carried out in a forging plant,and a pancake with diameter of 150 mm was obtained exhibiting a regular shape.

Similarity criteria and coal-like material in coal and gas outburst physical simulation

Coal and gas outburst is one of the main gas hazards in coal mines. However, due to the risks of the coal and gas outburst, the field test is difficult to complete. Therefore, an effective approach to studying the mechanism and development of outburst is to conduct the similar physical simulation. However, the similarity criteria and similar materials in outburst are the key factors which restrict the development of physical simulation. To solve those problems, this paper has established similarity criteria base on mechanics model, solid-fluid coupling model and energy model, and presented high similar materials. Combining with three groups of similar number, and considering similar mechanical parameters and deformation and failure regularity, the similarity criteria of outburst is determined on the basis of the energy model. According to those criteria, we put forward a similar material consists of pulverized coal, cement, sand, activated carbon, and water. The similar material has high compressive strength and the accordant characteristics with the raw coal, include density, porosity, adsorption, desorption. The new research is promising for preventing and controlling gas hazards in the future.

Physical Simulation and Experimental Examination of ε-Cu Particles Dissolution Evolution During Welding of Copper Precipitation Strengthening Steel

The kinetics of ε-Cu particles dissolution in the matrix during welding of a copper-precipitation strengthening steel was determined by a combination of GleebleTM physical simulation, TEM examination and hardness meas urement. The ε-Cu particles underwent a coarsening and part dissolution and then complete dissolution reaction as the peak temperature increased from 750 to 1 000℃, which resulted in the decrease in the number density of ε-Cu particles and hardness in the heat affected zone （HAZ）. The results can be used to understand the evolution of this transformation and a softening behavior of the HAZ during welding of this type of steel.

Physical Simulation of Mold-Filling Processing of Thin-Walled Castings under Traveling Magnetic Field

Mold-filling process of thin-walled castings under the condition of traveling magnetic field has been studied by physical simulation method using gallium melt and fast speed photography. Flow morphology and its formation mechanism were obtained and discussed for thin-walled casting. The influences of magnetic field density on the filling ability, filling velocity and mold filling time have been studied. The differences in filling capability between gravity casting and casting under the traveling magnetic field have been compared. The results indicate that the mold filling ability of the gallium melt increases greatly under the condition of traveling magnetic field; the filling time is shortened from 18 s under gravity field to 3 s under the traveling magnetic field and average flow rate of the melt increases from 1.6 to 8.68 cm3/s; the change law of the cross-section morphology of the gallium melt during the mold filling is that at first, the cross-section area does not change, then it decreases gradually. When the front of the melt reaches the end of the mold cavity, the front melt will backfill the mold; the wider the width of mold cavity, the better the mold filling ability. The mold filling ability of gallium melt in mold with upper magnetic conductor is better than that without upper magnetic conductor.

Physical simulation of rock burst induced by stress waves

The behavior of stress wave propagation in rock walls and the process of rock bursts were simulated by application tests of material similar to rock. Results show that 1) the attenuation characteristics of stress waves were related to the material proper-ties, stress waves attenuate more quickly in soft material and 2) when the explosion load was applied at the top of the roadway, the number and the length of the cracks increased with a decrease in the distance between the explosive point and roof of the roadway. When the distance was 280 mm, only some chips appeared near the source, when the distance was 210 mm, some small cracks started to appear near the road-rib and when the distance was reduced to 140 mm, larger cracks appeared at the road-rib. It can be concluded that, under a given stress the number of cracks is closely related to the intensity of stress waves. The cracks in the sur-rounding rock can be reduced by controlling the intensity of the stress waves and rock bursts can be avoided to some extent by pre-venting the formation of layered crack structures. A new experimental approach has been provided for studying rock bursts by using physical simulation.

A Physical Simulation Test for the RockBurst in Tunnels

According to the test results of the physical and mechanical properties of similar materials in various quality mixture, a type of material with obvious tendency of rockburst was selected to produce a large-size model to simulate rockburst phenomena in tunnels. The prototype model comes from a typical section of diversion tunnels in Jinping Hydropower Station in China. The simulation of excavating tunnels is carried out by opening a hole in the model after loading. The modeling results indicated that under the condition of normal stresses in the model boundaries the arch top, spandrel and side walls of the tunnel produced an obvious jump reaction of stress and strain and the acoustic emission counts of the surrounding rock also increased rapidly in a different time period after the "tunnel" excavation, showing the clear features of rockburst. The spalling, buckling and breaking occurred in the surrounding rock of model in conditions of over loading. It is concluded that the modeling tunnel segment in Jinping Hydropower Station is expected to form the tensile rockburst with the pattern of spalling, buckling and breaking.

Sweet spot prediction in tight sandstone reservoir based on well-bore rock physical simulation

To establish the relationship among reservoir characteristics and rock physical parameters,we construct the well-bore rock physical models firstly,considering the influence factors,such as mineral composition,shale content,porosity,fluid type and saturation.Then with analyzing the change rules of elastic parameters along with the above influence factors and the cross-plots among elastic parameters,the sensitive elastic parameters of tight sandstone reservoir are determined,and the rock physics template of sweet spot is constructed to guide pre-stack seismic inversion.The results show that velocity ratio and Poisson impedance are the most sensitive elastic parameters to indicate the lithologic and gas-bearing properties of sweet spot in tight sandstone reservoir.The high-quality sweet spot is characterized by the lower velocity ratio and Poisson impedance.Finally,the actual seismic data are selected to predict the sweet spots in tight sandstone gas reservoirs,so as to verify the validity of the rock physical simulation results.The significant consistency between the relative logging curves and inversion results in different wells implies that the utilization of well-bore rock physical simulation can guide the prediction of sweet spot in tight sandstone gas reservoirs.

Physical simulation of hydrodynamic conditions in high rank coalbed methane reservoir formation

In order to select highly productive and enriched areas of high rank coalbed methane reservoirs, based on hydrologic geology as one of the main factors controlling coalbed methane （CBM） reservoir formations, the effect of hydrodynamic forces controlling CBM reservoir formations was studied by a physical simulation experiment in which we used CBM reservoir simulation facilities. The hydrodynamic conditions of high coal rank reservoirs in the Qinshui basin were analyzed. Our experiment shows the following results： under strong hydrodynamic alternating action, 6C~ of coalbed methane reservoir changed from the start at -2.95% ~ -3.66%, and the lightening process occurred in phases; the CI-I4 volume reduced from 96.35% to 12.42%; the CO2 vo- lume decreased from 0.75% in sample 1 to 0.68% in sample 2, then rose to 1.13% in sample 3; the N2 volume changed from 2.9% in sample 1 to 86.45% in sample 3. On one hand, these changes show the complexity of CBM reservoir formation; on the other hand, they indicate that strong hydrodynamic actions have an unfavorable impact on CBM reservoir formation. It was found that the gas volume and hydrodynamic intensity were negatively correlated and low hydrodynamic flow conditions might result in highly productive and enriched areas of high rank CBM.

Physical Simulation of Multidirectional Irregular Wave Groups

Real waves are multidirectional waves. In the present study, the calculation method for the wave maker driving signals for generating multidirectional wave groups in physical wave basin is proposed. Its validity is first confirmed by a numerical model for which the incident boundary condition is determined by use of the proposed method. Then, the physical simulation of multidirectional wave groups is performed in laboratory wave basin. The experimental results show that multidirectional waves with expected wave groupiness, which includes not only its group height but also its group length, can be satisfactorily zenerated at the soecified oosition in the tphvsical wave basin.

Force Feedback Coupling with Dynamics for Physical Simulation of Product Assembly and Operation Performance

Most existing force feedback methods are still difficult to meet the requirements of real-time force calculation in virtual assembly and operation with complex objects. In addition, there is often an assumption that the controlled objects are completely flee and the target object is only completely fixed or flee, thus, the dynamics of the kinematic chain where the controlled objects are located are neglected during the physical simulation of the product manipulation with force feedback interaction. This paper proposes a physical simulation method of product assembly and operation manipulation based on statistically learned contact force prediction model and the coupling of force feedback and dynamics. In the proposed method, based on hidden Markov model （HMM） and local weighting learning （LWL）, contact force prediction model is constructed, which can estimate the contact force in real time during interaction. Based on computational load balance model, the computing resources are dynamically assigned and the dynamics integral step is optimized. In addition, smoothing process is performed to the force feedback on the synchronization points. Consequently, we can solve the coupling and synchronization problems of high-frequency feedback force servo. low-frequency dynamics solver servo and scene rendering servo, and realize highly stable and accurate force feedback in the physical simulation of product assembly and operation manipulation. This research proposes a physical simulation method of product assembly and operation manipulation.

Physical simulation of fluid flow and production performance in extra-low permeability porous media

For extra-low permeability reservoirs, with a permeability of about 0.3×10?3 μm2, fluid flow and production performance in cores were studied. A long core holder with a multi-location piezometric measurement was specially designed. An artificial long core, about 700 mm long and with a cross section of 45mm×45mm, was used. In the experiment, pressure distribution along the core can be measured in real time. Single phase flow in the core was investigated. Different modes of production in long cores were also simulated including natural depletion, water flooding, and advanced water flooding. Through physical simulation, flow parameters were collected and production characteristics in extra-low permeability cores were studied. From experimental results, it can be seen that fluid flow in extra-low permeability cores is different from that in high permeability cores. Transmission of pressure in extra-low permeability cores is very slow, and it needs a long time for the pressure to become stable. The distribution curve of pressure along the core is nonlinear and the production rate in extra-low permeability reservoirs decreases sharply. The development effects of different production modes in extra-low permeability cores were compared with one another. Among the production modes, advanced water flooding has much potential for effective development of extra-low permeability reservoirs. Natural depletion and conventional water flooding can also be used in early production periods. In addition, the countermeasures and some ideas especially for the potential development of extra-low permeability reservoirs are suggested.

Fast weighting method for plasma PIC simulation on GPU-accelerated heterogeneous systems

Particle-in-cell (PIC) method has got much benefits from GPU-accelerated heterogeneous systems.However,the performance of PIC is constrained by the interpolation operations in the weighting process on GPU (graphic processing unit).Aiming at this problem,a fast weighting method for PIC simulation on GPU-accelerated systems was proposed to avoid the atomic memory operations during the weighting process.The method was implemented by taking advantage of GPU's thread synchronization mechanism and dividing the problem space properly.Moreover,software managed shared memory on the GPU was employed to buffer the intermediate data.The experimental results show that the method achieves speedups up to 3.5 times compared to previous works,and runs 20.08 times faster on one NVIDIA Tesla M2090 GPU compared to a single core of Intel Xeon X5670 CPU.

THE PHYSICAL SIMULATION ON EXTRUSION PROCESS OF GLASS FIBER COMPOSITE WIRE COATED BY LEAD

The method of manufacturing the composite wire by extruding lead to coated glass fiber is described. The different composite wire that diameter is from 0.5 to 1.0mm has been produced by two kinds of different extruding technology (getting wire along horizontal direction and getting wire along perpendicular direction). The optimal extruding techno- logical parameter has been given in different extruding technology by the physical simulation (H: 300℃, 550kN, 0.16mm. P: 300℃, 215kN, 0.16mm). The effect on the coating speed by other extruding technological parameters in the different extruding technology has been discussed. The extruding temperature and extruding force is higher, the coating speed is faster. It has been pointed, that the affection on the extruding technology by the extruding temperature has also behaved as the extruding temperature rising up spontaneously. The reason for exiting the minimum extruding force and maximum extruding force also has been discussion in this paper. It is also important to the extruding process and coating speed that is the coating clearance.

DISCREPANCIES IN THE REGRESSION MODELLING OF RECRYSTALLIZATION RATE AS USING THE DATA FROM PHYSICAL SIMULATION TESTS

The analysis of numerous experimental equations published in the literature reveals awide scatter in the predictions for the static recrystallization kinetics of steels. Thepowers of the deformation variables, strain and strain rate, similarly as the powerof the grain size vary in these equations. These differences are highlighted and thetypical values are compared between torsion and compression tests. Potential errorsin physical simulation testing are discussed.