Dr Yukie Tanino

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), S.M. (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 soil, groundwater, 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 supervises/co-supervises postgraduate research students and research staff with colleagues in the School of Engineering, the School of Biological Sciences, and the Department of Chemistry.  She also teaches fluid mechanics to 3rd year undergraduate students and enhanced oil recovery to students on the MSc and MEng programmes in Petroleum Engineering.

CV [pdf]

Research Overview

• Multi-phase flow in porous media.
  • https://www.findaphd.com/phds/project/impact-of-grain-roughness-on-porous-media-flows-under-conditions-relevant-to-the-subsurface/?p167126
• Microplastics and polymers in the subsurface.
• Buoyancy-driven flows.
• Instability and turbulence in stratified shear flows under confinement.
• Turbulence and mass transport in random cylinder arrays.
• Techniques used include:
  • corefloods
  • microfluidics
  • X-ray microtomography
  • scanning electron microscopy
  • neutron and X-ray imaging
  • pore-network simulation
  • Darcy-scale simulation (history matching)
  • ADV, LDV, PIV
  • LIF, PLIF

Current Research

FATE, TRANSPORT, AND IMPACT OF MICROPLASTICS IN THE ENVIRONMENT

• 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].
• On the factors that determine plastic transport in rivers.  RA: Tamunoipriala Longjohn [with Daniel Valero Huerta, Mark Stewart]

IMPACT OF GRAIN ROUGHNESS ON POROUS MEDIA FLOW

• Impact of grain roughness on gas-water-oil flow in hydrophilic porous media.  Student: Ameer Hameed [with Mehmet Kartal, Yingfang Zhou, Dubravka Pokrajac]
• Impact of grain roughness on liquid permeability in packed columns of glass spheres. Student: Kazeem Odunlami [MSc by Research, Oct 2023 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 Research, Feb. 2020].

POROUS MEDIA FLOW UNDER MIXED-WET CONDITIONS

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

FRACTURED GEOLOGICAL MEDIA

• Flow properties of temporary plugging layers.  Visiting researcher: Feng Zhao [with Amer Syed, Dubravka Pokrajac]
• Combining multiscale digital rock technology with AI to identify potential hydrocarbon recovery.  Student: Ciprian-Teodor Panaitescu [with Kejian Wu, Andy Starkey, Mehmet Kartal]
• 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, University of Aberdeen (UoA)
• Cecile Gubry-Rangin, School of Biological Sciences, UoA
• Nasrollah Sepehrnia, School of Biosciences, University of Nottingham
• Mehmet Kartal, School of Engineering, UoA
• Kejian Wu, School of Engineering, UoA
• Andy Starkey, School of Engineering, UoA
• Yingfang Zhou, School of Engineering, UoA
• Dubravka Pokrajac, School of Engineering, UoA
• Feng Zhao, Southwest Petroleum University (China)
• Jacob LaManna, NIST (US)
• David L Jacobson, NIST (US)
• Daniel S Hussey, NIST (US)
• Amer Syed, School of Engineering, UoA
• Andy Welch, School of Medicine & Dentistry, UoA
• 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:

• Aubin Group (Oct - Dec 2022 £10383)
• University of Aberdeen EU Brexit Mitigation Fund "On the factors that determine plastic transport in rivers" (co-I with M Stewart; 2022, £3263)
• 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)

• The Higher Committee for Education Development in Iraq (A Hameed 2024 - 2027, £90650)
• China Scholarship Council (F Zhao 2023 - 24)
• 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 Petroleum Engineering and MSc Oil & Gas Innovation
• Co-lecturer, Flow Assurance (EG55F8/G8, 2013-2016) for MSc Subsea Engineering and MSc Oil & Gas Engineering
• Guest lecturer, Subsea Production Systems (EG50F9/G9, 2015) for MSc Subsea Engineering
• Guest lecturer, Chemistry at Interfaces and Enhanced Oil Recovery (CM5037, 2014) for MSc 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

• Discipline Co-contributor, BEng Civil Engineering Group Design Project (EG4578, spring 2024 - )
• Co-lecturer, Fluid Mechanics (EG3018, EM3018, EM3019)
• Co-lecturer, Environmental Engineering (EA4527, spring 2019 - Aug 2021; EA4027 Sept 2021 - Aug 2023)
• Co-lecturer, Geotechnics 2 (EG40JE, EA40JE, fall 2013 - Dec 2017)
• Enhanced Oil Recovery (EG50HI, EG55HI, EG552C)
• Thesis supervisor, BEng/MEng in Civil, Chemical, Mechanical, and Petroleum Engineering (EG4013/4014)