Education
2014.08 – 2018.03 Ph.D. University of Texas at Austin, Department of Petroleum and Geosystems Engineering
2012.08 – 2014.07 M.S. Tsinghua University, Department of Chemical Engineering
2008.08 – 2012.07 B.S. Tsinghua University, Department of Chemical Engineering

Professional Experience
2020.01 –                 Assistant Professor            College of Engineering, Peking University
2018.03 – 2019.12      Postdoctoral Associate        Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
2017.05 – 2017.08      Research Scientist Intern    Center of Technology Innovation, Baker Hughes, a GE company
2016.05 – 2016.08      Research Scientist Intern    Landmark, Halliburton 

Research Area

• Transport in Porous Media and Granular Media
• Subsurface Energy Recovery
• Flows and Interfacial Phenomena in Nano- and Micro- Scale
• CO₂ Geological Sequestration  

Research Interests
We study physics of fluids in porous media, including the flow of emulsion & foam, evolution and dissolution of residual fluids, fluid phase changes, and fluid-fluid displacements. We aim at solving fundamental questions raised from subsurface energy recovery, CO₂ sequestration, and groundwater hydrology.
 
Based on advanced microfluidic experimental platforms, we visualized and model the flows in pore-scale. We are specifically interested in following topics in porous media:
 
(1)  Physical processes that are dominant by capillary forces, such as bubble/droplet trapping and mobilization, emulsion flow, foam flow, capillary fingering, and ripening of residual fluids.
(2)  Fluid systems with strong interfacial mass transfer or phase changes, such as water - CO₂, crude oil – solvent, ultra-low interfacial tension systems, and hydrates.  
(3)  Experimental and mathematical approaches that upscale pore-scale physics to Darcy-scale, and finally to applications in field. 

Selected Publications
Note：correspondence author(s) are marked by “*”  
(1)  Ke Xu*, Yashar Mehmani*, Luoran Shang, Qingrong Xiong. “Gravity‐Induced Bubble Ripening in Porous Media and Its Impact on Capillary Trapping Stability”, Geophysical Research Letters, 2019, 46(23): 13804
(2)  Jingping Liu*, Zhiwen Dai, Ke Xu*, Yuping Yang, Keaihe Lv, Xianbin Huang, Jinsheng Sun. “Water-Based Drilling Fluid Containing Bentonite / Poly (sodium 4-styrenesulfonate) Composite for Ultra-High Temperature Ultra-Deep Drilling and Its Field Performance”, SPE Journal, accepted, SPE-199362-PA.
(3)  Yujing Du, Ke Xu*, Peixi Zhu, Matthew Balhoff*. “Microfluidic Investigation of Low Salinity Effects during Oil Recover: a No-Clay and Time-Dependent Mechanism”, SPE Journal, 2019, 24(06): 2841-2858.
(4)  Ke Xu, Devesh Agrawal*, Qusai Darugar. “Hydrophilic Nanoparticle-Based Enhanced Oil Recovery: Microfluidic Investigations on Mechanisms”, Energy&Fuels, 2018, 32(11): 11243.
(5)  Ke Xu*, Roger Bonnecaze, Matthew Balhoff*. “Egalitarianism among Bubbles in Porous Media: an Ostwald Ripening Derived Anti-Coarsening Phenomenon”, Physical Review Letters, 2017, 119(26): 264502.
(6)  Ke Xu, Tianbo Liang, Peixi Zhu, Pengpeng Qi, Jun Lu, Chun Huh, Matthew Balhoff*. “A 2.5-D Glass Micromodel for Investigation of Multi-Phase Flow in Porous Media”, Lab on a Chip, 2017, 17(4): 640.
(7)  Ke Xu, Peixi Zhu, Colon Tatiana, Matthew Balhoff*, Chun Huh. “A Microfluidic Investigation of the Synergistic Effect of Nanoparticles and Surfactants in Macro-Emulsion Based EOR“, SPE Journal, 2017, 22 (02): 459.
(8)  Ke Xu, Peixi Zhu, Matthew Balhoff*, Chun Huh. “Microfluidic Investigation of Nanoparticles’ Role in Mobilizing Trapped Oil Droplets in Porous Media“, Langmuir, 2015, 31(51): 13673.
(9)  Ke Xu, Chris P. Tostado, Jian-Hong Xu*, Yang-Cheng Lu, Guang-Sheng Luo. “Direct Measurement of the Differential Pressure during Drop Formation in a Co-Flow Microfluidic Device“, Lab on a Chip, 2014, 14: 1357.

Selected Conference Presentations

• “Wettability Controls Bubble Dissolution in Confined Geometry” Porous Media: Structure, Flow, and Dynamics Workshop, SPWLA , Boston, USA, 2019
• “Phase change in disordered media: intermolecular forces control simultaneous evaporation and condensation” APS March Meeting 2019, Boston, USA, 2019
• “Evaporation-Induced Instability during Dry Gas Injection into Water-Saturated Porous Media” 71st Annual Meeting of the APS Division of Fluid Dynamics, Atlanta, USA, 2018
• “Is Ostwald Ripening Important in CO2 Geological Sequestration? A Micromodel Study of Bubble Repining Dynamics” InterPore 10th Annual Meeting and Jubilee, New Orleans, USA, 2018
• “A Microfluidic Investigation of the Synergistic Effect of Nanoparticles and Surfactants in Macro-Emulsion Based EOR.” SPE Improved Oil Recovery Conference, Tulsa, USA, 2016.