Are you inspired by (analogies between) the physics of soft-matter systems and the phenomenology of (induced) seismicity?

Are you fascinated by the complex physics of stabilized emulsions?

Are you passionate about programming and high-performance computing?

Are you eager to collaborate with geophysics colleagues and to analyse field data?

We are looking for two motivated PhD candidates that will advance the fundamental understanding on the physics of dense stabilized emulsions to develop quantitative analogues for (induced) seismicity.

Injecting or extracting fluids into the shallow subsurface carries the risk of induced seismicity. An explicit multi-physics system to model fluid-migration induced seismicity is currently not within reach due to the complexity of the phenomena involved. In this project your will contribute to build a digital twin for induced seismicity based on a numerical model of soft-glass dynamics.

You will build on some preparatory works [1-6], showing as a proof-of-concept that a soft-glass, forced below yield stress, follows stick-slip dynamics and closely mimics the empirical laws observed for tectonic seismicity (Gutenberg-Richter law, Omori's law, interevent time distribution). The model needs to be tuned to a specific field situation where induced seismicity is occurring. This is the central part of this project. Once tuned, the digital twin will replicate what is happening in the field. Further, once tuned, different fluid migration scenarios can be tested to explore, for example, which protocols may produce induced seismicity with the steepest possible Gutenberg-Richter slope.

Deeper understanding of seismicity may have an important societal impact. It can provide stakeholders with a tool to control induced seismicity due to fluid movement in the near subsurface and it may support the possibility to forecast seismic hazard.

The two PhD projects will focus on :

• Modelling the statistics of induced seismicity.
• Modelling the spatial distribution of seismicity.

Benzi, R., Kumar, P., Toschi, F., & Trampert, J. (2016). Earthquake statistics and plastic events in soft-glassy materials. Geophysical Supplements to the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 207(3), 1667-1674.

Kumar, P., Korkolis, E., Benzi, R., Denisov, D., Niemeijer, A., Schall, P., Toschi, F., Trampert, J. (2020). On interevent time distributions of avalanche dynamics. Scientific reports, 10(1), 626.

Kumar, P., Benzi, R., Trampert, J., & Toschi, F. (2020). A multi-component lattice Boltzmann approach to study the causality of plastic events. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A, 378(2175), 20190403.

Trampert, J., Benzi, R., & Toschi, F. (2022). Implications of the statistics of seismicity recorded within the Groningen gas field. Netherlands Journal of Geosciences, 101, e9.

Kumar, P., Benzi, R., Trampert, J., & Toschi, F. (2023). Direct observations of causal links in plastic events and relevance to earthquake seismology. Physical Review Research, 5(3), 033211.

Kumar, P. P. (2021). Statistical studies on a soft-glass for applications in seismology. [Phd Thesis] Eindhoven University of Technology

Specifications

Eindhoven University of Technology (TU / e)

Requirements

Conditions of employment