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Geosciences & Engineering

Southwest Research Institute provides a center of excellence in geosciences and engineering for commercial and government programs here and abroad, particularly for the groundwater, nuclear energy and petroleum industries. Using a wide array of technologies, we deploy multidisciplinary teams, integrating laboratory, field and numerical analyses to solve real-world problems (geosciences-engineering.swri.org).

In 2007, we initiated the joint industry Carbonate Fault Project, funded by major oil companies, to characterize faulting in carbonate strata exposed in the Canyon Lake Gorge, Comal County, Texas. We are coupling detailed field characterization of the site geology with laboratory analyses and computer modeling to better understand faulting processes in carbonate rocks (cfp.swri.org).

We have transferred our expertise in nuclear waste management to building programs in groundwater management and studying how next-generation nuclear plant technology could fuel a hydrogen-based economy. For more than 20 years, we have worked for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission advancing the state of the art in long-term nuclear waste management. This relationship has resulted in SwRI becoming the go-to source for technical assistance on a wide array of NRC programs (cnwra-sa.swri.org).

As host of the federally funded Center for Nuclear Waste Regulatory Analyses, we continue developing the technologies NRC needs to evaluate a potential high-level waste repository at Yucca Mountain, Nevada. We have made significant advances developing sophisticated software used to model complex system performance for pre-closure analyses, the 100 to 300 years that the potential repository would be open and accepting waste, and post-closure analyses, up to one million years after the repository is sealed. Risk insights obtained using these codes are critical with respect to preparing to review a Yucca Mountain license application.

SwRI helped an international oil company understand complex faulting in an oil reservoir offshore of Newfoundland. We analyzed faults mapped by three-dimensional seismic reflection imaging, using SwRI’s 3DStress® software and studying analogous faulted rocks exposed in outcrop (3dstress.swri.org).

In 2007, we concluded a multiyear upgrade to the Total-system Performance Assessment code for Yucca Mountain (TPA Version 5.1). As understanding of the potential nuclear waste repository evolves, we have improved models of interactions between protective drip shields and the waste packages as well as the understanding of fluvial ash transport after a potential volcanic event. TPA Version 5.1 also more effectively models how moisture and chemical conditions affect waste package corrosion and extends models of climate variations to one million years. Improvements to the Pre-Closure Safety Analysis software include incorporating the most current design, operating experience and human factors information.

This year, SwRI conducted advanced petroleum exploration and production analysis activities in fields across North America and in the Middle East (geoscience.swri.org). Our expertise in correlating the relationship between geophysical data and geological structures has led to the development of a structural geology training course we offer through an international geosciences training company.

SwRI geoscientist investigating wrinkle ridges on Mars refined the understanding of fold formation. Scientists believe lateral shortening of layers and ranges of smaller scale fault and fracture networks formed these surface features on the Red Planet (planetarygeosciences.swri.org).

We began a multiyear, joint oil industry project to advance the technical understanding of faulting in carbonate strata, aimed at improving oil field production (cfp.swri.org). Through an agreement with the Guadalupe-Blanco River Authority, we will use geologic structures exposed along the Canyon Lake Spillway as a field laboratory and training site.

Groundwater supply and quality are growing global concerns, and SwRI is expanding its water resource program beyond karst aquifers to include surface water and other aquifer types (karst.swri.org). In 2007, SwRI studied the Texas Coastal Plain aquifer system as well as surface and groundwater in Mexico. We also investigated water-related environmental issues in Wyoming.

Rock falls could cause creep deformation damage to titanium alloy drip shields designed to protect nuclear waste packages in a potential underground repository. CNWRA® scientists are conducting creep tests and transmission electron microscopy analyses to evaluate creep deformation for different stresses and temperatures.

We continue to expand research programs in planetary geology, completing a NASA project on Mars wrinkle ridges and receiving two new grants to study normal faulting and fault-induced pit crater chain formation on Mars. SwRI scientists are also investigating faults on Ganymede and pit chain formation on Eros through physical analog modeling and numerical simulations (planetarygeosciences.swri.org).

Visit geosciences-engineering.swri.org for more information or contact Vice President Dr. Wesley C. Patrick at (210) 522-5158 or wpatrick@swri.org

2007 Annual Report SwRI Home