MINERALOGICAL, PORE AND PETROPHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF THE DEVONIAN JAUF SANDSTONE RESERVOIR, HAWIYAH FIELD, EASTERN SAUDI ARABIA

Throughout the subsurface of the Arabian Peninsula, the approximately 460ft thick, Devonian Jauf Formation generally consists of well-compacted, low-porosity sandstones and shales, but it also includes friable and highly porous sandstones which form significant gas and condensate reservoir intervals. The mineralogy and pore properties of these reservoir intervals at the Hawiyah field (part of the giant Ghawar structure) were studied by integrating petrographic data with petrophysical measurements of reservoir sandstone samples.
The reservoir sandstones are mainly composed of quartz arenites containing small amounts of altered potassium feldspar grains, authigenic illite and chlorite. Based on the pore types, which reflect the habits of the intergranular clays, three reservoir sandstone types have been defined: Type A, characterized by macroporosity; Type B, with microporosity; and Type C, with combined laminations of Types A and B. The dominance of pore-lining clay (as in Type A) or pore-filling clay (as in Type B) is the principal factor controlling the petrophysical properties of the samples. Types A and C sandstones contain macro pores, but irreducible water saturation is high (25 to 45%) compared to clean samples elsewhere, because of the presence of micropores associated with clay. In Type B sandstones the irreducible water saturation is commonly greater than 40% because all the pores spaces are in the microporosity range. The irreducible water saturation in Type B sandstones increases rapidly as porosity decreases. When porosity is less than 10%, the corresponding permeability is 0.2 mD, but no economic production can be expected because water saturation is as high as 100%. In the producing intervals, authigenic clays result in low electrical resistivity due to high water saturation; however, water-free gas is produced.     

Encapsulation and Ostwald Ripening of Au and Au–Cl Complex Nanostructures in Silica Shells

We report a general template strategy for rational fabrication of a new class of nanostructured materials consisting of multicore shell particles. Our approach is demonstrated by encapsulating Au or Pt nanoparticles in silica shells. Other superstructures of these hollow shells, like dimers, trimers, and tetramers can also be formed by nanoparticle‐mediated self‐assembly. We have also used the as‐prepared multicore Au–silica hollow particles to perform the first studies of Ostwald ripening in confined microspace, in which chloride was found to be an efficient mediating ligand. After treatment with aqua regia, Au–Cl complex is formed inside the shell, and is found to be very active under in situ transmission electron microscopy observations while confined in a microcell. This aspect of the work is expected to motivate further in situ studies of confined crystal growth.     

Improved homogenization of Ni in sintered steels through the use of Cr-containing prealloyed powders

The homogenization of Ni in powder metal (PM) steel compacts is usually difficult even after high-temperature sintering at 1250°C. An earlier study by the authors demonstrated that this problem can be alleviated through the addition of 0.5 wt pct Cr in the form of stainless steel powders. To further improve the microstructure and mechanical properties of Ni-containing PM steels and to understand the mechanisms, an attempt was made in this study using the Fe-3Cr-0.5Mo prealloyed powder as the base material. The results showed that the distribution of the Ni additives was significantly improved. As a result, the tensile strength of the Fe-3Cr-0.5Mo-4Ni-0.5C compact sintered at 1250°C reached 1323 MPa. The elongation was higher than 1 pct. These sinter-hardened properties, which were attained using a slow furnace cooling rate, were comparable to those of the sinter-hardened alloys reported in the literature using accelerated cooling and were equivalent to those of the best quenched-and-tempered alloys registered in the Metal Powder Industries Federation (MPIF) standards. These improvements were attributed to the positive effect of Cr addition on alloy homogenization due to the reduction of the repelling effect between Ni and C, as was demonstrated through the thermodynamic analysis using the Thermo-Calc program.     

Understanding silica-supported metal catalysts: Pd/silica as a case study

Supported metal catalysts, particularly noble metals supported on SiO₂, have attracted considerable attention due to the importance of the silica–metal interface in heterogeneous catalysis and in electronic device fabrication. Several important issues, e.g., the stability of the metal–oxide interface at working temperatures and pressures, are not well-understood. In this review, the present status of our understanding of the metal–silica interface is reviewed. Recent results of model studies in our laboratories on Pd/SiO₂/Mo(1 1 2) using LEED, AES and STM are reported. In this work, epitaxial, ultrathin, well-ordered SiO₂ films were grown on a Mo(1 1 2) substrate to circumvent complications that frequently arise from the silica–silicon interface present in silica thin films grown on silicon.     

Inhibition of microbial growth in ready‐to‐eat food stored at ambient temperature by modified atmosphere packaging

This study was undertaken to develop a modified atmosphere package to control microbial growth in ready‐to‐eat (RTE) products stored at ambient temperature. Ethanol and/or limonene associated with modified atmosphere (CO₂ : O₂ : N₂ = 30% : 5% : 65%) was used to inhibit the growth of total air‐borne microorganisms and Escherichia coli in RTE products stored at 25°C. The results indicated that 0.05% ethanol vapour in the headspace was effective to inhibit the growth of air‐borne microorganisms and E. coli at 25°C for 72 h in a model study, and the effectiveness was related to ethanol content. Both 73 ppm limonene and 0.05% ethanol vapour enhanced the bacteriostatic effect of modified atmosphere in RTE sushi roll products, and no off‐flavour was detected using this formulated gas; however, no significant inhibitory effect was observed for RTE cold noodle products. This study concludes that combinations of carbon dioxide, ethanol or limonene vapours are effective to inhibit microbial growth in RTE food at ambient temperature, and the outcome may be due to the hurdle effect. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Experimental and modeling approaches of MR behaviors under large step strains

Rheological properties of MR fluids under large step strain shear are presented in this paper. The experiments were carried out using a rheometer with parallel-plate geometry. Under the large step strain shear, MR fluids behave as nonlinear viscoelastic properties, where the stress relaxation modulus, G(t, γ), shows a decreasing trend with step strain. The experimental results indicate that G(t, γ) obeys time-strain separability. Thus, a mathematical form based on finite exponential serials is proposed to predict MR behavior. In this model, G(t, γ) is represented as the product of a linear stress relaxation, G(t), and the damping function, h(γ), i.e. G(t, γ)=G(t) h(γ). G(t) is simply represented as a three-parameter exponential serial and h(γ) has a sigmoidal form with two parameters. The parameters are identified by adopting an efficient optimization method proposed by Stango et al. The comparison between the experimental results and the model-predicted values indicates that this mathematical model can accurately predict MR behavior.     

Parallel algorithm for numerical self-consistent field theory simulations of block copolymer structure

An efficient algorithm is presented for numerically evaluating a self-consistent field theoretic (SCFT) model of block copolymer structure. This algorithm is implemented on a distributed memory parallel cluster in order to solve the SCFT equations on large computational grids. Simulation results are presented for a two-component molten mixture of a symmetric ABA triblock copolymer with an A homopolymer. These results illustrate a case in which simulating a large system is required to resolve features with a wide range of length scales.     

Impact on the photothermal emission from single wall nanotubes by some alkali halide salts

We demonstrate that alkali-halide salts, particularly potassium bromide, can reduce the photothermal emission (PTE) from single walled carbon nanotubes (SWNT). PTE is a prominent spectral feature in Raman spectroscopy when a near infrared laser is used to analyze a dark colored sample. We subsequently show that trapping salts inside SWNT and coating SWNT with the salt has a more pronounced impact on not only reducing PTE, but also enhancing the intensity of the Raman spectral features. The effect, which we have called nanotube enhanced Raman spectroscopy (NERS), has differences and similarities to the widely studied surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS).