Events

Speaker:  Dr. Chadi El Mohtar, Associate Professor of Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering, The University of Texas at Austin

Title of Seminar: “Rheology and Internal Stability of Suspensions: A Link Between Geotechnical and Petroleum Engineering”

Abstract: Grouts, slurries, drilling fluids, drilling mud: different names we use to refer to suspensions often used in drilling operations in geotechnical and petroleum engineering applications. While the applications can vary from vertical and horizontal well drilling to soil boring and tunneling and ground improvements techniques, the success of any of these operations depends on the rheological and filtration (or internal stability) of the used suspensions and selecting the appropriate mix design. This presentation will present some of the work being done on testing the rheology and internal stability of grouts in the Civil Engineering department and how some of this work translates to drilling operations and understanding filter cake formation in wellbores.

Biography:   Prof. El Mohtar is an Associate Professor in the Department of Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering at The University of Texas at Austin. He earned his Bachelor’s degree from Beirut Arab University in 2001, Master’s degree from Michigan State University in 2003 and his PhD from Purdue University in 2008, all in Civil Engineering. After finishing his Ph.D., Prof. El Mohtar worked for 3 months as a postdoctoral fellow at Purdue University before joining the Geotechnical Engineering group in Fall 2008. As a teacher, Prof. El Mohtar combines state-of-the-art field applications with academics so that students are prepared for the workplace. He has developed physical and computer models to simulate soil behavior so students can better visualize the various geotechnical phenomena.

As a geotechnical scholar researching pore fluid engineering geotechnics, he has developed a research program focused on auto-adaptive solutions for mitigating geo-challenges to existing and future infrastructures. His research involves engineering pore fluids and soils for resilient response to adverse and unforeseen loading conditions, with minimal compromise to the performance under normal working loads. Particularly, Prof. El Mohtar’s work has focused on advancing the fundamental understanding of viscous flow within porous media through relating rheological properties of fluids and suspensions to the mechanical and hydraulic characteristics of geomaterials. Over the course of his research career, Prof. El Mohtar has expanded his work on pore fluid-soil micro-mechanics from ground improvement contexts to include mobilization of non-aqueous fluids within porous media in geo-environmental and petroleum engineering applications. As such, his research integrates the areas of rheology, deep-bed filtration, geotechnical, geo-environmental and petroleum engineering to better understand the progressive temporal and space variations during and post flow of complex fluids in porous media.

Prof. El Mohtar has served as principal investigator/Co-principal investigator on externally funded projects in excess of $2.0M. He has supervised over 40 graduate and undergraduate students during his tenure at UT. He is the author/co-author of more than 45 referred papers and reports. He serves on multiple national and international committees such as a vice Chair of ASCE’s Grouting committee and secretary of ASTM D 18.09 committee. He is the host of the 37th Grouting Fundamentals and Current Practice in Grouting and the Co-Chair of the ASCE Grouting-2017 conference in Hawaii. Prof. El Mohtar has received multiple awards including the NSF CAREER Award, ASCE Casagrande Professional Development Award, among others.