Following the feedback of several participants at previous conferences, the Programme Committee has now introduced invited mini-symposia in order to enhance the scientific coherency of the event. We believe that combining open and invited MS proposals will lead to significant improvements in the conference programme.
Here you can find all invited topics:
MS #1: Porous Media for a Green World: Energy & Environment
Organizers:
Michael Celia, Princeton University, USA
Curtis Oldenburg, Lawrence Berkeley National Lab, USA
Rainer Helmig, Stuttgart University, Germany
Hadi Hajibeygi, Delft University of Technology, Netherlands
MS #2: Porous Media for a Green World: Water & Agriculture
Organizers:
Nima Shokri, The University of Manchester, UK
Amilcare Porporato, Princeton University, USA
Diogo Bolster, University of Notre Dame, USA
MS #3: Flow, transport and mechanics in fractured porous media
Organizers:
Inga Berre, University of Bergen, Norway
Holger Steeb, Stuttgart University, Germany
Stefano Berrone, Polytechnic University of Milan, Italy
MS #4: Swelling and shrinking porous media
Organizers:
Sujit Datta, Princeton University, USA
Chris MacMinn, Oxford University, UK
MS #5: Biochemical processes and biofilms in porous media
Organizers:
Al Cunningham, Montana State University, USA
Leon Van Paassen, University of Arizona, USA
Robin Gerlach, Montana State University, USA
Adie Phillips, Montana State University, USA
Anozie Ebigbo, ETH Zurich, Switzerland
MS #6: Physics of multi-phase flow in diverse porous media
Organizers:
Linda Abriola, Tufts University, USA
Steffen Berg, Shell Global Solutions International B.V.
Steven Bryant, University of Calgary, Canada
Yaniv Edery, Harvard University, USA (now at Technion, Israel)
David A. Weitz, Harvard University, USA
MS #7: Mathematical and numerical methods for multi-scale multi-physics, nonlinear coupled processes
Organizers:
Yalchin Efendiev, Texas A&M, USA
Sorin Pop, Hasselt University, Belgium
MS #8: Mixing, dispersion and reaction processes across scales in heterogeneous and fractured media
Organizers:
Marco Dentz, Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), Spain
Branko Bijeljic, Imperial College London, UK
Organizers:
Martin Blunt, Imperial College London, UK
Stephane Zaleski, UPMC Paris 6, France
James McClure, Virginia Tech, USA
MS #10: Advances in imaging porous media: techniques, software and case studies
Organizers:
Veerle Cnudde, Ghent University, Belgium
Dorthe Wildenschild, Oregon State University, USA
Melanie Britton, University of Birmingham, UK
MS #11: Microfluidics in porous systems
Organizers:
Pietro Deanna, University of Lausanne, Switzerland
Vahid Niasar, University of Manchester, UK
MS #12: Advances in mathematical modeling and numerical simulation of poromechanics
Oragnizers:
Florin Radu, University of Bergen, Norway
Boris Gurevich, Curtin University, Australia
Francisco Gaspar, Zaragoza University, Spain
Joshua White, Lawrence Livermore National Lab., USA
MS #13: Fluids in Nanoporous Media
Organizer:
Gennady Gor, New Jersey Institute of Technology, USA
Patrick Huber, Technical University of Hamburg, Germany
Detailed descriptions:
MS #1 Porous Media for a Green World: Energy & Climate
Michael Celia, Princeton University, USA
Curtis Oldenburg, Lawrence Berkeley National Lab, USA
Rainer Helmig, Stuttgart University, Germany
Hadi Hajibeygi, Delft University of Technology, Netherlands
Abstract: Porous media science and engineering has played an important historical role in the development of the current global energy system through the production of oil, natural gas, and coal. Unfortunately, combustion of the produced fuels has led to the current climate and carbon problem, prompting the urgent need to transition to a low carbon future. While renewables such as wind and solar will play a major role in the energy transition, creative uses of natural and engineered porous media will also be a critical part of any viable low carbon energy system. Because fossil fuels will form a significant part of the foreseeable future energy mix, CO2 capture and subsequent subsurface storage must play a major role in both direct carbon-capture-and-storage (CCS) projects and in negative emissions scenarios like Bio-Energy with CCS, or BECCS. In addition to large-scale carbon storage, more creative uses of porous media also need to be developed, including creative subsurface energy storage schemes to deal with intermittency of renewables, and novel capture technologies in engineered systems as well as naturally reactive rocks. In all of these activities, safety and risk assessments are very important, so that societal concerns such as induced-seismicity and surface subsidence (and uplift) are managed properly. In this session, we invite contributions on all aspects of utilisation of porous media for energy and climate-driven activities. This can include improved methods for oil and gas production, all aspects of CCS systems including storage in reactive rock systems as well as negative emissions involving BECCS, and new methods for subsurface energy storage including those that complement traditional wind and solar. We especially invite collaborative efforts involving scientists, engineers and technology developers to contribute to our mini-symposium.
MS #2 Porous Media for a Green World: Water & Agriculture
Nima Shokri, The University of Manchester, UK
Amilcare Porporato, Princeton University, USA
Diogo Bolster, University of Notre Dame, USA
Abstract: Sustainable use of soil and water resources is crucial to preserve healthy terrestrial ecosystems and maintaining food security. Many of the scientific and technical challenges related to these issues hinge on understanding, controlling and optimizing processes that involve the multiscale (in both space and time) dynamics of water and nutrients in the soil-plant system, arguably the porous medium ‘par excellence’. With this theme in mind, this mini-symposium aims to bring together contributions on the physics, chemistry and biology of porous media with emphasis on applications to the ecohydrology and biogeochemistry of agroecosystems. Fundamental research on these interdisciplinary topics will provide guidance and novel solutions to improve human actions on agroecosystems and reduce their potential negative impacts. The long-lasting environmental repercussion of water and soil management in agroecosystems and the elements of irreversibility on the microscale structure of soils in relation to soil degradation and salinization, groundwater dynamics, carbon and nutrient retention, which in turn affect plant status and productivity and ultimately ecosystems conditions and human welfare, are of particular interest. We welcome contributions toward optimal land-use management for sustainable use of terrestrial ecology and quantitative analysis of the effectiveness of applied human strategies on ecosystem management for food and water supply security.
MS #3 Flow, transport and mechanics in fractured porous media
Inga Berre, University of Bergen, Norway
Holger Steeb, Stuttgart University, Germany
Stefano Berrone, Polytechnic University of Milan, Italy
Abstract: In modeling of flow, (multiphase) transport and mechanics in fractured porous media, challenges are related to the fractured structure’s impact on the processes and/or the processes’ impact on the fractured structure. Fractures may, for example, totally dominate flow-processes, and, vice versa, flow processes may alter the fractured structure of the medium, causing fractures to deform, slip and/or propagate. This mini-symposia invites presentations on advances within mathematical and numerical modeling and experimental work related to flow, transport, chemical and mechanical processes in fractured porous media.
MS #4 Swelling and shrinking porous media
Sujit Datta, Princeton University, USA
Chris MacMinn, Oxford University, UK
Abstract: Many porous media, from soils and clays to gels and tissues, will swell or shrink in response to thermal, mechanical, or chemical stimuli. The coupling between flow and deformation during swelling/shrinking can give rise to a variety of complex phenomena, including changes in mechanical or transport properties, changes in size or shape, and the formation of fracture or wrinkle patterns. The goal of this mini-symposium will be to highlight new experiments that provide direct visualization and characterization of these phenomena, as well as new theories that harness the output of these tools to better model flow and transport during swelling/shrinking. Particular emphasis will be given to studies that provide a direct comparison between theoretical predictions and experimental results.
MS #5 Biochemical processes and biofilms in porous media
Al Cunningham, Montana State University, USA
Leon Van Paassen, University of Arizona, USA
Robin Gerlach, Montana State University, USA
Adie Phillips, Montana State University, USA
Anozie Ebigbo, ETH Zurich, Switzerland
Abstract: Biochemical processes, including microbially driven mineral precipitation and biofilm accumulation and activity, can impact reactive mass transport and material properties of porous media. We invite contributors to present and discuss results from microbial, enzymatic and temperature driven experimental and simulation modeling studies, at various scales of observation, which highlight recent advances in this overall theme area. For example, microbially induced carbonate precipitation (MICP) is being applied for permeability modification, e.g. improving well-bore cement integrity and fracture sealing, in the deep subsurface along with improving soil strength and stiffness in the shallow subsurface. Improved understanding of basic biofilm process including cell attachment, growth, detachment and cell transport is needed for applications such as controlling soil clogging and improving bioremediation of organics, metals and radionuclides. Other relevant topics include engineered biogenic gas production and its effects on porous materials along with further understanding of the formation, retention, transport, and performance of biochemical reaction products and by-products in both shallow and deep subsurface applications. Case studies are encouraged along with studies which combine experimentation and simulation model development.
MS #6 Physics of multi-phase flow in diverse porous media
Linda Abriola, Tufts University, USA
Steffen Berg, Shell Global Solutions International B.V.
Steven Bryant, University of Calgary, Canada
Yaniv Edery, Harvard University, USA (now at Technion, Israel)
David A. Weitz, Harvard University, USA
Abstract: The investigation of multiphase flow in porous media is relevant to many different disciplines and types of porous media, ranging from subsurface application areas, encompassing soil physics, contaminant hydrology, and petroleum engineering, to material science applications, such as membranes and fuel cells. From a practical perspective, it is often desirable to establish relationships between microstructural and surface properties of the porous medium, fluid properties, and Darcy scale effective properties. However, much past research has focused on description of multiphase flow behavior at the Darcy scale, with purely phenomenological links to microscopic details and porous medium/fluid properties. Thanks to progress in imaging and numerical modelling in the past decade, our understanding of the displacement physics at the pore and meso-scale has tremendously improved. The purpose of this mini-symposium is to explore recent insights into multiphase displacement physics through experiment, modelling, and theory, with applications to a range of disciplines and materials. Examples of potential topics of interest include:
• characterization of flow regimes and associated characteristic length and time scales, ranging from pore to Darcy scale
• phenomenological and thermodynamic frameworks for upscaling from the pore to Darcy scales
• applications to flexible materials
• applications to spatially heterogeneous wettability conditions
• applications involving complex / non-Newtonian fluids
• investigation of pore-scale and upscaling of dynamic capillary effects
MS #7 Mathematical and numerical methods for multi-scale multi-physics, nonlinear coupled processes
Yalchin Efendiev, Texas A&M, USA
Sorin Pop, Hasselt University, Belgium
Abstract: Various applications of societal and technological relevance involve flow, (multi-phase) transport, deformation or reaction in natural (e.g. geological) or synthetic porous media. These applications are broad: from energy and environment to biosystems and high-tech materials. In many of these situations, experiments (or field observations) are either extremely costly (or even impossible) or they are required to be complemented with models and simulations. In this context, mathematical and numerical simulation methods are key tools for understanding processes as named above. When designing efficient simulation methods, at least two major challenges appear. The first is related to the fact that the mathematical models are coupled systems of highly nonlinear equations, and the second is due to the high complexity associated with porous media, e.g., highly heterogeneous properties with scale separation (often for fabricated porous materials) and without scale separation (often with natural real-world porous media). The dynamic coupling of processes taking place at different scales (from micro to macro) also motivates the needs to account for all such multiscale aspects in the development of accurate mathematical and numerical methods. In this mini-symposium, we invite contributions related to the development of “advanced mathematical models and related analyses” and “advanced numerical methods” including “advanced discretization methods” and “multiscale multilevel model order reduction techniques (multiscale methods, homogenization and upscaling, etc.)”, and “advanced nonlinear and linear solution strategies” for multi-scale, multi-component and multi-physics processes in porous media.
MS #8 Mixing, dispersion and reaction processes across scales in heterogeneous and fractured media
Marco Dentz, Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), Spain
Branko Bijeljic, Imperial College London, UK
Abstract: An in-depth understanding of solute mixing and reactive transport is key in engineered and natural porous media with applications ranging from the design of porous reactors to diffusion in human tissue to geothermal heat production and groundwater management. Spatial heterogeneity in pore and Darcy scale medium and flow properties leads to scale effects in system parameters (e.g., hydraulic conductivity, dispersion coefficients, chemical rate constants) and emerging large scale processes (e.g., anomalous diffusion, memory reactions, mechanical mixing) due to the interaction of small scale processes, segregation and mass transfer across heterogeneity-induced interfaces. Recent advances in experimental and theoretical approaches have shed new light into the pore and Darcy-scale mechanisms that govern these processes and their large scale quantification. This session addresses a diverse group of researchers investigating Eulerian and Lagrangian flow properties, solute and particle transport, and mixing and reaction phenomena under spatial heterogeneity in fluids at rest and under single, multiphase and variable density flows on the pore and Darcy scales. It aims to bring together experimental observations from the lab to the field scale with theory and numerical simulations to advance our understanding of heterogeneity-induced mixing, transport and chemical reaction dynamics over a large range of spatial and temporal scales.
MS #9 Pore-scale modelling
Martin Blunt, Imperial College London, UK
Stephane Zaleski, UPMC Paris 6, France
James McClure, Virginia Tech, USA
Abstract: We invite contributions on all aspects of pore-scale modelling with an emphasis on new numerical developments, validation against experiment, new physical insights, incorporation of advanced physical and chemical models, and upscaling to the continuum scale. We will consider work on different methods, including – but not limited to – pore-network modelling and direct simulation methods, such as finite volume, finite element, phase field, level set and lattice Boltzmann approaches, as well as hybrid methods.
MS #10 Advances in imaging porous media: techniques, software and case studies
Veerle Cnudde, Ghent University, Belgium
Dorthe Wildenschild, Oregon State University, USA
Melanie Britton, University of Birmingham, UK
Abstract: For many years, 3D imaging techniques have been applied for material characterization. The last decade, several advanced imaging techniques have been developing at a high speed both on the hardware and the software side. Because of this development and their added value, they are intensively used to study porous media for their characterization as well as to study the various processes occurring inside porous media. For this mini-symposium we invite contributions that focus on advancements in 3D imaging techniques or 3D analysis software to study porous media as well as contributions that integrate these new developments in experiments and real case-studies.
MS #11 Microfluidics in porous systems
Pietro Deanna, University of Lausanne, Switzerland
Vahid Niasar, University of Manchester, UK
Porous media research spans a very wide range of physical length scales: from micrometer up to the km scale. However, to address the large scale applications mostly the Darcy scale theories are used which are heavily based on the (upscaled) constitutive relations. Validity of the continuum-scale theories (e.g. Darcy's law for two-phase flow) have been seriously challenged in the recent two decades through microscale experimental and computational research. Despite several studies have been done, the impact of small, pore scale, processes on the larger scale, where system is continuous (Darcy and field scale), is still challenging and current models must be improved. Microfluidics systems greatly improve our current understanding of small scale processes taking place within tiny fluid volumes, like drops (e.g. picoliter or nanoliter), moving within well-defined geometries with controlled properties (like size, wettability, shape). Recently, such technology has been also applied for the investigation of more complex media characterized by the presence of obstacles mimicking porous materials. This mini-symposium aims to gather researchers with interest in the use of microfluidics devices for the investigation of pore-scale processes that take place at the scale of individual pores in permeable media in order to highlight our understanding of their impact on the larger size phenomena such as solutes mixing, reactive transport, electrokinetic effects and charged systems, colloids transport and filtration, microorganisms growth or mineral aggregates formation.
MS #12 Advances in mathematical modeling and numerical simulation of poromechanics
Florin Radu, University of Bergen, Norway
Boris Gurevich, Curtin University, Australia
Francisco Gaspar, Zaragoza University, Spain
Joshua White, Lawrence Livermore National Lab., USA
Abstract: In the past decade, the numerical simulation of coupled mechanical deformation and fluid flow in porous media, shortly poromechanics, has become of increasing importance in several branches of technology and natural sciences. Among typical societal relevant applications of poromechanics we mention geothermal energy extraction, CO2 storage, hydraulic fracturing or cancer research. In this mini-symposium we will address recent developments in numerical solvers for poromechanics, e.g. iterative and monolithic schemes, multigrid, efficient preconditioners and (stable / multiscale / mass conservative) discretization methods. In the same time new trends in the mathematical modeling of poromechanics will be discussed. Especially, non-linear or non-stationary extensions of Biot equations, multiphase and/or reactive flow in deformable porous media, thermo-poroelasticity and the inclusion of fractures will be of interest.
MS #13 Fluids in Nanoporous Media
Gennady Gor, New Jersey Institute of Technology, USA
Patrick Huber, Technical University of Hamburg, Germany
Abstract: Many porous media have characteristic pore sizes in the nanometer range. These media include natural materials (clays, coal, and shale), concrete, as well as synthetic materials used for separation, purification, and energy storage. In most natural or technological processes, the pores in these materials contain fluids: water in clays and concrete, hydrocarbons in coal and shale, etc. In nanopore-confined fluid, tight spatial confinement and solid-fluid interactions may significantly alter the fluid's physical properties, causing, for example, the molecular structuring of the fluid, shifts of the freezing or evaporation points and the appearance of the disjoining pressure. These pore-scale effects necessarily lead to a change in the parameters of continuum models for fluid transport in nanoporous media and poromechanics; moreover, they often require introducing new physics in the governing equations. The objective of this minisymposium is to provide a forum for the discussion of all possible aspects of fluid phases confined in nanoporous materials: fundamental and applied, theoretical and experimental. This year's mini-symposium will have a special focus on adsorption-induced deformation phenomena.
