If you are interested in any of the research topics given in this website, please do not hesitate to contact me. Those with CGPA below 3.0 OR/AND from different discipline of engineering study, need not apply. Please kindly send me your CV before application.
UTP Postgraduate Application: https://www.utp.edu.my/Pages/Admission/Postgraduate/International-Applicants/Entry-Requirement.aspx
PhD/MSc by Research in Multiphase Flow Assurance
CFD Simulation of MLNG Acid Gas Thermal Oxidizer to Avoid Hot Gas Entering into Ring Manifold
Student: Master by Research
Collaborator: HC Foo/GS Rao MLNG Bintulu
Synopsis: To dispose off acid gas from acid gas removal unit to the atmosphere within environmentally acceptable level, the acid gas is burned in a Acid Gas Thermal Oxidizer in mixture with fuel gas at 1000oC to decompose H2S and aromatics e.g. benzene, toluene and Xylene. Your responsibility in this project is to simulate the hot gas flow inside the combustion chamber for the improvements to avoid hot gases entering into ring manifold, which is not designed for high temperature.
CFD Evaluation of Thermal Mixing in between Impacting and Colliding T-junction in MLNG Tiga Regenerative Gas Heater
Student: Master by Research
Collaborator: HC Foo/GS Rao MLNG Bintulu
Synopsis: Cold gas around 21oC is circulated and mixed in stream of hot gas at 360oC in a mixing T-junction of diameter 12", to be used for generative gas heater. In the recent setting, there is a design change from using an intersecting mixing T-junction to impacting mixing T-junction. It is understood that the mixing of the hot and cold stream creates a fluctuating thermal flux but the way by which the thermal behavior of the flow before and after the change in design is not well understood. Your objective in this project is to quantify the thermal behavior of the Tee-joint in different mode of flow. In this project, you are required to (a) perform in-depth literature review of contemporary thermal mixing behavior in T-junction; (b) perform a 3D thermal analyses of temperature mixing in the T-junction by ways of impacting Tee and intersecting Tee, and validate your results; (c) quantify the thermal fluctuation behavior and the resulting mixed stream between these two mode of flow pattern.
Computational Analyses of Thermal Fatigue Stress of Impacting Mixing T-Junction in MLNG Tiga Regenerative Gas Heater
Student: Master by Research
Collaborator: HC Foo/GS Rao MLNG Bintulu
Terms: current
Synopsis: Cold gas around 21oC is circulated in stream of hot gas at 360oC in a mixing T-junction, with diameter of 12", to be used for generative gas heater. The mixing of the hot and cold stream creates a flactuating thermal flux, which, in turn, cause the expansion and contraction of the pipe leading to thermal fatigue of the Tee-joint. The magnitude of the thermal stress cycle may be small and unsubstantial, the long term thermal fatigue of the mixing T-junction is not very well understood by MLNG staff. Your objective in this project is to quantify the thermal fatigue behavior of the Tee-joint. In this project, you are required to (a) perform in-depth literature review of contemporary thermal fatigue behavior in T-junction; (b) perform a 3D thermal analyses of temperature mixing in the pipes and quantify the thermal load using rainfall method; (c) based on the rainfall method, produced a preliminary loading-unloading thermal cyclic stress/strain profile; (d) transfer the thermal variation into thermal stress and estimate the fatigue cycle of the design.
Computational Analyses of Thermal Fatigue Stress of Colliding Mixing T-Junction in MLNG Tiga Regenerative Gas Heater
Student: Master by Research
Collaborator: HC Foo/GS Rao MLNG Bintulu
Synopsis: Cold gas around 21oC is circulated in stream of hot gas at 360oC in a mixing T-junction, with diameter of 12", to be used for generative gas heater. The mixing of the hot and cold stream creates a flactuating thermal flux, which, in turn, cause the expansion and contraction of the pipe leading to thermal fatigue of the Tee-joint. The magnitude of the thermal stress cycle may be small and unsubstantial, the long term thermal fatigue of the mixing T-junction is not very well understood by MLNG staff. Your objective in this project is to quantify the thermal fatigue behavior of the Tee-joint. In this project, you are required to (a) perform in-depth literature review of contemporary thermal fatigue behavior in T-junction; (b) perform a 3D thermal analyses of temperature mixing in the pipes and quantify the thermal load using rainfall method; (c) based on the rainfall method, produced a preliminary loading-unloading thermal cyclic stress/strain profile; (d) transfer the thermal variation into thermal stress and estimate the fatigue cycle of the design.
Numerical Simulation of SHELL Slug Catcher
Position: Master by Research
Synopsis: Your responsibilities in this project are (1) to perform in-depth review of past and contemporary literature on different slug catcher models and identify the research gap; (2) to identify key parameters and variables in which their changes bring along substantial variation to the flow pattern and conditions; (3) to sieve through the literature and select a few comparative benchmarks where either experimental or simulation data is available for validation and term of reference; (4) to build 3D CFD model of slug catcher model; (5) to perform simulation experiments by using the Design of Experiment tool and capture the data for response surface analyses. You are required to use FOAM (preferable) or ANSYS to complete the task.
CFD Evaluation of Two-Phase Slug Flow Variation in Contracting/Expanding Pipe Section
Position: Master by Research
Synopsis: Your responsibilities in this project are (1) to perform in-depth review of past and contemporary literature on flow behavior in different contracting and expanding pipe models and identify the research gap; (2) to identify key parameters and variables in which their changes bring along substantial variation to the flow pattern and conditions; (3) to sieve through the literature and select a few comparative benchmarks where either experimental or simulation data is available for validation and term of reference; (4) to build 3D CFD model of contracting and expanding pipe section; (5) to perform numerical simulation experiments by using the Design of Experiment tool and capture the data for response surface analyses.You are required to use FOAM (preferable) or ANSYS to complete the task.
Experimental and Numerical Investigation of Two Phase Flow in h-junction and its Liquid Take-off
Position: Master by Research
Synopsis: A newly design h-shaped junction is used to minimize the liquid carryover in main pipe for two-phase flow distribution. Your responsibilities in this project are (1) to perform in-depth review of past and contemporary literature on liquid carryover models and identify the research gap; (2) to identify a range of water and air superficial velocities in which their changes bring along substantial variation to the liquid carryover and flow conditions; (3) to conduct the physical experiments and numerical simulation by using the Design of Experiment tool and capture the data for response surface analyses; (4) to capture and record the experiments and liquid carryover fluid dynamic behavior on photo and video as research IP and album.
Prediction of Sand Deposition in Two-phase Separator
Position: Master by Research
Synopsis: Sand particles escaping the sand screen will be deposit inside the two-phase separator in the production facilities due to its own weight under the action of gravity. A major problem with sand deposition in separator is that it is influenced by so many intertwined parameters from the production of sand itself to the volumetric flow rate of the carrier fluid and finally the separator choice. Your responsibilities in this project are (1) to perform in-depth review of past and contemporary literature on sand deposition models and identify the research gap; (2) to identify a few key parameters and variables in which their changes bring along substantial variation to the sand deposition and flow conditions; (3) to sieve through the literature and select a few comparative benchmarks where either experimental or simulation data is available for validation and term of reference; (4) to build 3D CFD models of sand deposition in two-phase separator and to simulate the sand deposition phenomenon; (5) to perform numerical simulation experiments by using the Design of Experiment tool and capture the data for response surface analyses.
Ex-situ CO2 Mineralization with Seawater/Produced Water for Offshore Platform
Position: Master by Research/PhD
Synopsis: Ex-situ CO2 mineralization is a process whereby CO2 rich stream of gas reacts chemically with cations Ca or Mg rich alkaline solution to form chemically stable solid called carbonates.The process is a variant to Solvay process. Your objective in this research is to study the feasibility of applying this process in offshore production scenario. Your task in this project are (1) in-depth literature review of contemporary ex-situ CO2 mineralisation process; (2) numerically model the reaction and precipitation process; (3) fabrication of a small prototype for proof of concept; and (4) possibility of up-scaling the prototype.
Interested candidate please contact Dr William Pao directly for reading materials.
Numerical and Experimental Investigation of Downhole Separation
Position: Master/PhD by Research
Collaborator: PETRONAS Research Fund
Synopsis: Downhole separation is an emerging technology in the industry where it allows undesirable by-product to be injected into suitable zone downhole while the useful fossil fuel is bought to the surface. There are two types of separation; either liquid-liquid where oil is separated from water and gas-liquid where natural gas is separated from produced water. In some instance, there is gas-gas separation where CO2 is removed from natural gas downhole. There are two main mechanism for separation, namely gravity or cyclone separation. The main reason for deployment of downhole technology is to dispose off the by-product in-situ rather than bringing it up to the surface facilities to be processed. Thus, tremendous cost saving can be achieved especially in the brownfield where there is a lot of produced water. The objective of this research is to numerically and experimentally investigate the fundamental physics of downhole separation with the ultimate intention to develop in-house local technology for deployment, in compliance with PETRONAS agenda. Your task in this project, depending on if you are doing MSc or PhD are enumerated as follows: (1) in-depth literature review of contemporary downhole separation technology and technical know-how; identifying technical gap in-between where you could make a contribution. You are required to write and submit a Review Paper for possible publication on this task. (2) Once you identified the technical gap, you are to build 3D model of downhole separation system. With appropriate CFD software, simulation the multiphase separation process downhole. Normally, in early stage of research, no experimental prototype or equipment will be conducted/build until theoretical proof of concept is achieved. (3) Parameterize the model and try to identify optimum operating window for separation.
This project prefer to take MSc by Research students to kick start the program. Experiment will only be considered once theoretical and numerical feasibility is established and proof of concept is firmly in place. Ask for reading materials if you are interested in this project.
CFD Simulation of Erosion Reduction in Pipe Bend using Wire Mesh
Position: Master/PhD by Research
Collaborator: INTECSEA Singapore
Synopsis: Sand production is an inevitable by-product of oil and gas production. Sand erosion to oil and gas transportation pipeline is a severe issue that has long troubled the industry. The objective of this research is to investigate the possibility of using wire-mesh embedded on the inner surface of pipe to reduce erosion. Your tasks in this project are enumerated as follows. (1) in-depth literature review of sand particles erosion effect on typical steel materials in oil/gas pipeline for either single or two-phase flow, focusing on juncture/joints/deadleg. In the literature review, you are required to identify the technical gap between contemporary state-of-the-art technology deployed and the fundamental in-situ physics of sand transport. You are required to write and submit a Review Paper for possible publication on this topic. (2) Select two to three benchmark models and parameters from literature as your base model and validate it with your methodology. (3) Build a 3D model of pipe bend with wire-mesh embedded on the inner surface, and numerically investigate the erosion behavior, first for single phase flow, then for two-phase flow. You may need to use Solid Work and FLUENT/CFX to accomplish this task.
Coupling of CFD Flow Regime and Liquid Carryover in Small Diameter T-junction
Position: Master by Research
Supervisor: Dr. William Pao
Collaborator: GTS PETRONAS
Synopsis: T-junction is a common appendage feature in offshore platform to tap gas directly from the production header for use in downstream equipment and fuel gas. However, excessive liquid carryover happens frequently, resulting in complete halt of production activity. One of the major postulate is that the current T-junction design did not take into account the fundamental of multiphase flow regime. Literature review showed that even though there are many reported studies on T-junction as phase separator, outcomes and conclusions are mixed when coupling the two-phase separation with the associated flow regime. Furthermore, all except one reported data is based on small diameter pipe, i.e. less than 5 cm. This project aims to (a) to quantify the geometric effects on liquid carryover in T-junction and (b) to quantify the relative weights and influences of flow parameters; under the influence of flow regime. To achieve this overarching objectives, your tasks in this project are (1) in-depth literature review of two-phase flow in T-junction and flow regime and identify the technical gap between the contemporary state-of-the-art technology and in-situ literature analyses. You are required to write and submit a Review Paper for possible publication on this topic. (2) Select two to three benchmark models and parameters from literature as your base model. You will need to identify the operating windows and range of your selected parameters for base model. (3) Formulate mathematically the three-dimensional two-phase flow simulation in T-junction using FLUENT Eulerian-Eulerian multiphase model together with VOF method. You will be required to implement phase to phase interaction and flow regime transitional flow using FLUENT UDF. Validate your results against the benchmark models. Numerically simulate and investigate the base case model you have selected. (4) Design and perform two-phase down-scaled flow loop experiments (using air/water) and using video capturing equipment and velocimetric analyzer to map the velocities variation in the T-junction. (5) Based on your investigation, propose a guideline and rule-of-thumb design for T-junction.
Erosion due to Submicron Particles and Transport in Multiphase Phase Gas and Liquid Pipeline
Position: GA and Master by Research
Supervisor: Dr. William Pao
Collaborator: Worley Parson Ltd Singapore
Synopsis: In the past, it is always thought that only large sand particles are responsible for the erosion of inner wall in mild steel oil/gas pipeline. However, despite the use of fine sand screen, erosion of pipeline are still detected, particular at joints, T-junction and deadleg. The effect of this erosion creates micro- or even nano-pores and defects inside the inner wall of pipeline. These pores become a hotbed for subsequent corrosion to take place chemically due to enlarged surface area. Currently, there is very little understanding of the fine erosion in pipe. The objective of this project is to investigate and correlate the fine diameters and flow/erosion parameters in two-phase flow (either oil-water or natural gas-water) in pipeline. Your tasks in this project are enumerated as follows. (1) in-depth literature review of sand particles erosion effect on mild steel in oil/gas pipeline for either single or two-phase flow, focusing on juncture/joints/deadleg. In the literature review, you are required to identify the technical gap between contemporary state-of-the-art technology deployed and the fundamental in-situ physics of fine transport. You are required to write and submit a Review Paper for possible publication on this topic. (2) Select two to three benchmark models and parameters from literature as your base model. (3) Formulate mathematically the 'micro-fine erosion model' and implement them in FLUENT UDF. Numerically simulate and investigate the erosion behavior. (4) Design and construct a test rig to experiment the fine erosion on mild steel and process the specimen on standard SEM, XRF techniques. (5) Design/use Matlab image processing algorithm to analyse the failure images and build a fundamental erosion model based on weight/weight or volume/volume of fine aqueous solution.