In August 2017, Mr Chengkai Fan, a postgraduate student from the Institute of Rock and Soil Mechanics (IRSM), participated in three months exchange at Monash University. Studying under the supervision of Prof Ranjith Gamage of the Department of Civil Engineering School, Mr Fan conducted laboratory experiments investigating how pressure and salinity influences the saturation solutions after CO2 was injected into core specimens at different pressure levels. The study aims to better understand CO2 migration mechanism and CO2 sequestration efficiency.
Mr Fan's main research focus is on fiber optic monitoring technology, which is often used to access fluid percolation and rock deformation. His research focuses on how to apply new monitoring technologies and materials (e.g. FBG and LPFG sensors) that are used to measure temperature, strain/stress and liquid levels to see how they can be adopted to monitor CO2 geological storage.
During his three month exchange, he worked with Prof Gamage and other researchers at Monash University on monitoring technologies and measuring methods. He also visited the key laboratory about the core flooding experiments and participated in a CO2CRC members R&D workshop.
With the assistance of Dr Zhejun Pan from CSIRO, Mr Fan completed a paper on monitoring core flooding experiments of saline water saturated sandstone using high-precision fiber Bragg grating (FBG). He will continue his collaboration with researchers from Monash University and CSIRO.
