Our primary expertise lies in the development of numerical models and implementation of engineering software for well cementing – the process in the construction of a wellbore whereby cement is placed between the casing and the formation. The primary objective of well cementing is to achieve zonal isolation so that the fluids from one formation zone (such as oil or gas) do not migrate to another zone or the surface. Failure to achieve it may lead to many serious problems: gas or oil can flow to the surface causing a blowout, with consequent environmental damage and a possible loss of life. Reservoir fluids may migrate into a subsurface aquifer causing contamination of drinking water, or affecting near-wellbore ecology. Finally, reservoir pressure can be significantly decreased resulting in the loss of productivity.
Whilst the majority of our projects deal with the primary cementing, they have significant application to and commonality with remedial cementing, fracturing and drilling. The fluids and equipment used, well description and risk factors are in many instances common with models that can be readily shared or adopted for these other uses.
Development of a range of urban planning and real estate asset management technologies in collaboration with HCL, which include:
CASS Facilities Planning Tool
CASS was designed in collaboration with the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, and is currently in use by their facilities planning department. It combines an intuitive 3D visualization with sophisticated data management and analysis features, allowing different arrangements of space uses within buildings and changes over time to be modelled and analysed in a single application.
The tool integrates a user access system with a centralized database of land uses, case scenarios and settings with a modified version of the CityCAD CAD package. Once logged in, the user can review, create or modify a scenario for a time-dependent plan for campus facilities. Buildings can be created, modified and demolished at various points in time – with a time slider allowing the user to modify the overall model at different stages. The user can keep track of data and view charts – for example how the quantity of a given space use varies over time.
As well as a rich array of customisable graphs, 3D overlays and shading, the tool generates full HD animations highlighting facility development over time and PDF reports. Side by side comparison of alternative facility development options and sensitivity analysis of key financial parameters provide more in-depth functionality.
Abu Dhabi USDM Online Street Design Tool
We worked with the Abu Dhabi Urban Planning Council (UPC) and Otak International to deliver an online street design tool, now used by engineers and planners to create street designs and analyse them against the background of Abu Dhabi's new street design policies.
The tool provides an intuitive online interface for the planners to design their own street layout or pick from a catalogue of established layouts which can then be modified. The user can then add or edit various elements such as travel lanes, medians, parking, pedestrian areas, transit lanes, stations, trees and street furniture. A collection of 2D plan and cross-section views with optional animation is updated in real time with user input.
The tool performs computations to check compliance of the user-defined road layout with USDM guidelines, highlighting any issues. Street design information and computed parameters can be exported to XML, DXF (CAD drawing), PDF (one-page summary) and CSV (Excel data). The entire UI has full bi-lingual functionality with easy switching between English and Arabic.
We have applied mathematical modelling techniques to a wide variety of systems including:
We work with a wide variety of programming languages including:
In addition, we utilize a number of popular APIs for parallel programming to parallelize existing or new mathematical models. These include:
Finally, we employ several of the popular hardware accelerated 2D and 3D rendering APIs including:
These are used to provide optimized rendering of complex geometries and visualization of computed simulation results. We make extensive use of the latest shader-based techniques for high visual impact, robustness and low end-user system requirements.