Experimental Analysis and Numerical Simulations of Porous Media or Fluid Flowing at Nanoscale

A special issue of Nanomaterials (ISSN 2079-4991). This special issue belongs to the section "Theory and Simulation of Nanostructures".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 20 November 2026 | Viewed by 765

Special Issue Editor


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Guest Editor
State Key Laboratory of Oil and Gas Reservoir Geology and Exploitation, Southwest Petroleum University, Chengdu, China
Interests: unconventional oil/gas reservoirs; transport in porous media; micro- and nanoscale pore structure characterization; CO2 storage and utilization

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Unconventional oil and gas resources—for example, shale gas, tight gas, shale oil, tight oil, and coalbed methane—have garnered substantial interest in recent years. These unconventional reservoirs are typically characterized by low or ultra-low permeability, owing to their pore sizes being microscale or even nanoscale in dimension. The fluid accumulation pattern, microscopic fluid distribution, phase behavior, and flow mechanisms in nanoporous media exhibit fundamental differences compared to those observed in conventional formations. Accurate characterization of nanoporous structure and fluid flow modeling are fundamental for efficient exploitation of these complex unconventional oil and gas resources.

This Special Issue focuses on recent advances and novel insights in the fields of nanoscale porous media characterization and fluid flowing dynamics in unconventional oil or gas reservoirs, including laboratory measurements and modeling, mathematical modeling, analytical and numerical solutions, and field applications. We welcome both original research and review articles.

Potential topics include, but are not limited to, the following:

  • Nanoscale pore structure characterization and modeling;
  • Permeability prediction of porous media with nanoscale pores;
  • Phase behavior in nanoporous media;
  • Gas adsorption behavior in nanoscaled pores;
  • Fluid flow in nanoscale porous media;
  • Application of nanofluids/nanomaterials in enhanced oil/gas recovery techniques;
  • Application of nanofluids/nanomaterials in CCUS.

Dr. Jingjing Guo
Guest Editor

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Keywords

  • unconventional reservoir
  • pore structure characterization
  • fluid transport
  • mathematical modeling
  • experiment
  • confined phase bahavior

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

19 pages, 3003 KB  
Article
A Transient Two−Phase Productivity Forecasting Method in Fractured Nanoporous Shale Gas Reservoirs
by Ruihan Zhang, Siliang He, Qianwen Zhang, Hongsha Xiao and Liehui Zhang
Nanomaterials 2026, 16(4), 264; https://doi.org/10.3390/nano16040264 - 17 Feb 2026
Viewed by 433
Abstract
Hydraulic fracturing is a critical technology for developing shale gas reservoirs, which are typical natural nanoporous media. However, the complex two−phase flow induced by fracturing fluid retention and the strong interference among hydraulic fractures introduce significant uncertainties to productivity forecasting. To address these [...] Read more.
Hydraulic fracturing is a critical technology for developing shale gas reservoirs, which are typical natural nanoporous media. However, the complex two−phase flow induced by fracturing fluid retention and the strong interference among hydraulic fractures introduce significant uncertainties to productivity forecasting. To address these challenges, this study proposes a transient productivity forecasting method to characterize fluid transport in fractured nanoporous media. This method introduces a gas−water two−phase pseudo−pressure function to reconstruct the flow equations, utilizing micro−segment discretization and the principle of superposition to accurately characterize pressure drop interference among fractures, enabling rapid dynamic productivity forecasting under realistic well trajectory conditions. The investigation reveals that while increasing fracture count, half−length, and permeability enhances productivity, these improvements exhibit significant diminishing marginal returns, indicating the existence of optimal economic thresholds for these engineering parameters. Conversely, elevated water saturation, skin factor, and stress sensitivity lead to a decline in productivity. Analysis of flow interference demonstrates that fractures at the wellbore extremities contribute significantly higher production than those in the central section due to reduced interference, while deviations in the wellbore trajectory further exacerbate production heterogeneity. Field application confirms that the proposed method achieves reliable production history matching under realistic well trajectories and accurately captures the typical three−stage production characteristics of shale gas wells, providing a robust basis for Estimated Ultimate Recovery (EUR) assessment and fracturing design optimization. Full article
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