Biography

Assistant Professor, Westlake University, China, 2020-present.

Post-doc Research Fellow, National Energy Technology Laboratory, U.S., 2017-2020.

Ph.D., Geosystems Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, U.S., 2017.

M.S., Geotechnical Engineering, Tongji University, China, 2012.

B.S., Civil Engineering, Tongji University, China, 2009.

Research

Dr. Liang Lei has been working on various types of porous media, research topics associated with high pressure marine environments, and thermal-hydraulic-chemical-mechanical coupled experiments to explore mass and energy transfer in porous media (single- and multi- phase flow) and phase change (dissolution, precipitation, dissociation, freezing, melting and etc.) at multiple scales. He has several contributions to the field of natural gas hydrate and its hosting sediments, and the results are published in the journals of Geophysical Research Letters, Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth, Marine and Petroleum Geology and etc.

Our research on porous media features temperature, pressure and stress control, pore-scale insights based on micro-CT technique integrated with conventional testing, multi-physics experiments and theoretical analysis. Targeted areas include: (1) particulate material and porous media under abnormal conditions and their interaction with pore constituents; (2) energy, marine, and resource geo-engineering; (3) permafrost and outer space sediments; (4) natural gas hydrates and their hosting sediments; (5) massive energy storage; and (6) multi-phase flow and crystallization in porous media.

Representative Publications

1. Lei, L., Seol, Y.^* (2020). “Pore-scale investigation of methane hydrate-bearing sediments under triaxial condition.” Geophysical Research Letters, 47(5), e2019GL086448. https://doi.org/10.1029/2019GL086448.

2. Lei, L., Seol, Y.^*, Choi, J. H., Kneafsey, T. J. (2019). “Pore habit of methane hydrate and its evolution in sediment matrix – Laboratory visualization with phase-contrast micro-CT.” Marine and Petroleum Geology, 104, 451-467. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marpetgeo.2019.04.004.

3. Lei, L., Seol, Y.^*, Myshakin, E. (2019). “Methane hydrate film thickening in porous media.” Geophysical Research Letters, 46(20), 11091-11099. https://doi.org/10.1029/2019GL084450.

4. Lei, L., Liu, Z., Seol, Y.^*, Boswell, R., Dai, S. (2019). “An investigation of hydrate formation in unsaturated sediments using X-ray computed tomography.” Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth, 124(4), 3335-3349. https://doi.org/10.1029/2018JB016125.

5. Lei, L.^*, Santamarina, J. C. (2019). “Physical properties of fine-grained sediments with segregated hydrate lenses.” Marine and Petroleum Geology, 109, 899-911. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marpetgeo.2019.08.053.

6. Lei, L., Seol, Y.^* (2019) “High-saturation gas hydrate reservoirs - A pore scale investigation of their formation from free gas and dissociation in sediments.” Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth, 124(12), 12430-12444.https://doi.org/10.1029/2019JB018243.

7. Seol, Y., Lei, L.^*, Choi, J., Jarvis, K., Hill, D. (2019) “Integration of triaxial testing and pore-scale visualization of methane hydrate bearing sediments.” Review of Scientific Instruments, 90(12), 124504. https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5125445.

8. Liu, Z., Kim, J., Lei, L., Ning, F.^*, Dai, S.^* (2019). “Tetrahydrofuran hydrate in clayey sediments—Laboratory formation, morphology, and wave characterization.” Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth, 124(4), 3307-3319. https://doi.org/10.1029/2018JB017156.

9. Lei, L., Seol, Y.^*, Jarvis, K. (2018). “Pore-scale visualization of methane hydrate-bearing sediments with micro-CT.” Geophysical Research Letters, 45(11), 5417-5426. https://doi.org/10.1029/2018GL078507.

10. Lei, L.^*, Santamarina, J. C. (2018). “Laboratory strategies for hydrate formation in fine-grained sediments.” Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth, 123(4), 2583-2596. https://doi.org/10.1002/2017JB014624.

Google Scholar:https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=5AGtDYQAAAAJ