A BRIEF DISCUSSION ON INTERDISCIPLINARY RESEARCH OF MECHANICS AND OIL & GAS ENGINEERING

Oil & gas engineering is a large-scale engineering for exploration and development of the Earth’s mineral resources including oil and natural gas. It is also a systematic engineering to involve the multiple disciplines such as mechanics, chemistry, geology, materials, electro-mechanical engineering and so on, and its related scientific research and technical innovations have attracted the significant attentions both domestically and internationally. Especially, there are a lot of the complicated mechanics problems in oil & gas engineering, to which must carry through the innovation research work objectively to provide the related scientific basis for solving technical problems in the engineering. This paper focuses on the interdisciplinary research between mechanics and oil & gas engineering, systematically reviewing the major interdisciplinary research directions and their significances. It highlights the fundamental concepts and engineering applications in four key interdisciplinary areas: seepage mechanics in porous media of oil & gas reservoirs, rock mechanics in drilling and production, downhole tubular mechanics in well engineering for oil & gas and wellbore multiphase flow dynamics. In addition, this paper briefly summarizes several innovative research achievements in these main areas and presents future perspectives and recommendations. These insights are particularly valuable for the safe and efficient exploration and development of complex oil and gas resources, including deep or ultra-deep reservoirs, deepwater environments, and unconventional resources and so on. The interdisciplinary advancements and methodologies discussed here not only promote the resolutions of scientific challenges and key technological progress in oil & gas engineering, but also broaden the scope of mechanics research and its applications. Moreover, the discussions extend beyond the fluid mineral resources such as oil, natural gas, geothermal energy and so on, also providing important references for major engineering projects related to the solid mineral resource exploration and development as well as scientific study on the Earth.