Biography

Dr Yukie Tanino is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Engineering at University of Aberdeen.  Prior to joining the University in 2012, she was a postdoctoral research associate in the Department of Earth Science and Engineering at Imperial College London (2009-2012) and in Laboratoire Fluides, Automatique et Systèmes Thermiques in France (2008-2009).  Dr Tanino holds a B.S. (Environmental Engineering Science), M.S. (Civil and Environmental Engineering), and PhD (Environmental Fluid Mechanics) from Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Dr Tanino’s research interests are in the fluid dynamics of, and mass transport in, obstructed flows such as those found in geological reservoirs, flood plains, and subsea wells. At Aberdeen Dr Tanino leads the Subsurface Flow and Transport Laboratory located in the School of Engineering, and currently supervises/co-supervises 5 postgraduate research students with colleagues in the School of Engineering, the School of Biological Sciences, and the Department of Chemistry. She also teaches fluid mechanics (porous media flow) to 3rd year undergraduate students, environmental engineering to 4th year students, enhanced oil recovery to students on the MSc and MEng programmes in Petroleum Engineering.

Research Overview

• Multi-phase flow in porous media.
• Buoyancy-driven flows.
• Instability and turbulence in stratified shear flows under confinement.
• Turbulence and mass transport in random cylinder arrays.
• Techniques used include:
  • ADV, LDV, PIV
  • LIF, PLIF
  • corefloods
  • microfluidics
  • X-ray microtomography
  • scanning electron microscopy
  • neutron and X-ray imaging
  • pore-network simulation
  • Darcy-scale simulation (history matching)
  •  

Current Research

IMPACT OF GRAIN ROUGHNESS ON POROUS MEDIA FLOW

• Impact of grain roughness on the pore-scale distribution of oil/water/gas in porous media. Student: Kazeem Odunlami [with Dubravka Pokrajac and Prashant Jadhawar]
• Impact of grain roughness on the pore scale distribution of immiscible fluids in porous media. Student: Anelechi Ibekwe [PhD, Mar. 2020, with Dubravka Pokrajac].
• Impact of grain roughness and unfavorable viscosity ratios on waterflood oil recovery: a microfluidic study. Student: Olalekan Ajayi [MSc by Reseach, Feb. 2020].

FATE AND TRANSPORT OF MICROORGANISMS AND MICROPLASTICS IN SOILS

• Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions experienced researcher: Nasrollah Sepehrnia [with Paul Hallett, Cecile Gubry-Rangin]
• Complex DNA-based tracers to investigate the transport of microbes in soil. RA: Xanat Zacarias Hernandez; Angus Meng [with Nasrollah Sepehrnia (PI), Paul Hallett, Cecile Gubry-Rangin].

POROUS MEDIA FLOW UNDER MIXED-WET CONDITIONS

• Impact of wettability on two-phase flow in oil/water/carbonate rock systems.  Student: Magali Christensen [PhD, Oct. 2018].
• Thermally-driven inversions in reservoir wettability and its impact on oil recovery.  Student: Mohammad Sarlak [with Alan McCue].

FRACTURED GEOLOGICAL MEDIA

• Student: Ciprian-Teodor Panaitescu [with Kejian Wu, Andy Starkey]
• A pore-scale investigation of spontaneous imbibition under mixed-wet conditions. Student: Xanat Zacarias Hernandez .
• Characterisation of propagation of fractures in rocks using X-ray and neutron imaging. Student: Girvani Manoharan [PhD, Aug. 2020, with Amer Syed and Andy Welch].

Collaborations

• Paul Hallett, School of Biological Sciences, Aberdeen
• Cecile Gubry-Rangin, School of Biological Sciences, Aberdeen
• Nasrollah Sepehrnia, School of Biological Sciences, Aberdeen
• Kejian Wu, School of Engineering, Aberdeen
• Andy Starkey, School of Engineering, Aberdeen
• Jacob LaManna, NIST (US)
• David L Jacobson, NIST (US)
• Daniel S Hussey, NIST (US)
• Amer Syed, School of Engineering, Aberdeen
• Andy Welch, School of Medicine & Dentistry, Aberdeen
• Jean-Pierre Hulin, Laboratoire FAST (France)
• Frederic Moisy, Laboratoire FAST (France)
• Martin J Blunt, Imperial College London
• Heidi M Nepf, MIT (US)

Funding and Grants

Our research is supported by:

• BBSRC Mitigation Fund "Complex DNA-based tracers to investigate the transport of microbes in soil" (with Nasrollah Sepehrnia (PI), Paul Hallett, Cecile Gubry-Rangin; 2022, £49.8k)
• Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellowship for Nasrollah Sepehrnia "TRAMPAS" (with P Hallett, C Gubry-Rangin; 2021-2023, €225k)
• China National Offshore Oil Corporation (with Kejian Wu (PI), Andy Starkey)
• Royal Society International Exchanges Cost Share 2018 China (with Amer Syed (PI); Mar 2019 - Mar 2021, £11066)
• UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council Overseas Travel Grant (2016 - Feb. 2018, £20.6k)
• UK Natural Environment Research Council IODP Phase 2 (with Stephen Bowden (PI); Dec. 2016 - Sept. 2017, £35.4k)
• COREX (UK) Ltd. (2015-2020, £41.4k)
• Royal Society Research Grant (2014-2015, £15k)
• The Carnegie Trust for the Universities of Scotland Research Grant (2014-2015, £2.5k)
• University of Aberdeen Chevron Fund (2014)
• University of Aberdeen Principal's Interdisciplinary Fund (2014)
• University of Aberdeen Principal's Excellence Fund (2014)
• Development Trust (2012, £125k)

• Petroleum Technology Development Fund PhD studentship (K Odunlami 2019 - 2022)
• Mexican National Council for Science and Technology PhD studentship (X. Zacarias Hernandez 2016-2019, £64.1k)
• Energy Technology Partnership Postgraduate and Early Career Researchers Exchanges (PECRE) grant
• G. Manoharan 2018 £3k “Insights into mechanics of brittle fracture in rocks under triaxial conditions using combined neutron and X-ray imaging”
• Society of Petrophysicists and Well Log Analysts (SPWLA) Foundation grant
• K. Odunlami US$3k (2021-22)
• O. Olofinnika US$3k (2020-21)
• X. Zacarias Hernandez US$2.5k (2017-18), US$2k (2018-19)
• G. Manoharan US$3.5k (2017-18)
• O. Ajayi, 2016 US$1.5k
• A. Ibekwe, 2016 US$2.5k
• M. Walter, 2016
• M. Christensen, 2014 US$2k
• B. Akamairo, 2013
• Aberdeen Formation Evaluation Society (AFES) bursary/grant
• M. Sarlak 2021 (£1k)
• K. Odunlami 2020 (£1k)
• X. Zacarias Hernandez 2018 (£1k), 2019 (£1k), 2020 (£1k)
• O. Ajayi 2018 £1k
• G. Manoharan 2017 (£500), 2018 (£1k), 2019 (£1k)
• A. Ibekwe 2017 £500
• M. Christensen 2013 (£2k), 2014 (£2k), 2015 (£1.5k)
• B. Akamairo, 2015
• University of Aberdeen PhD studentship
• M. K. Habeeb Mohamed 2016-2019
• O. Ajayi 2015-2018
• College of Physical Sciences PhD studentship (M. Christensen 2013-2016)

Teaching Responsibilities

Postgraduate

• Enhanced Oil Recovery (EG552C/2G/Q1, EG502E/2N/1Y/1M) for MSc in Petroleum Engineering and MSc Oil & Gas Innovation
• Co-lecturer, Flow Assurance (EG55F8/G8, 2013-2016) for MSc in Subsea Engineering and Oil & Gas Engineering
• Guest lecturer, Subsea Production Systems (EG50F9/G9, 2015) for MSc in Subsea Engineering
• Guest lecturer, Chemistry at Interfaces and Enhanced Oil Recovery (CM5037, 2014) for MSc in Oil & Gas Chemistry
• Coordinator, MSc Individual Projects in Renewable Energy (Engineering) (EG5909, - Nov. 2016)
• Thesis supervisor, MSc in Oil & Gas Engineering (EG5908) and Petroleum Engineering (EG5911)

Undergraduate

• Enhanced Oil Recovery (EG50HI, EG55HI)
• Co-lecturer, Environmental Engineering (EA4527, spring 2019 -)
• Co-lecturer, Fluid Mechanics (EG3018, EM3018, EM3019)
• Co-lecturer, Geotechnics 2 (EG40JE, EA40JE, fall 2013 - Dec 2017)
• Thesis supervisor, BEng/MEng in Civil, Chemical, and Petroleum Engineering (EG4013/4014)