Images of events and abstract concepts have played a major role in the formulation and communication of ideas since the beginning of written history or perhaps even earlier if one takes into consideration the petroglyphs featuring artistic representations of the natural world. The invention of photography in the 19th century and the more recent advances in optical techniques have catalyzed an enormous wealth of insights in every field of science and engineering by extending our senses far beyond what we are capable of actually perceiving.
The field of porous media has also benefited enormously from the developments in visualization techniques. Indeed, improvements in these techniques has led to better morphological characterization of porous media and enhanced understanding of the different physical processes, such as mass transport, capillarity, swelling, and fracturing, that can occur at the pore level. These observations, in turn, have led to better usage practices for existing porous materials as well as to the design of new products that have porous materials.
However, to date, there is no book compilation or album that has a primary focus on visualization in porous media. Therefore, this album is aimed at providing a collection of state-of-the-art visualization of the different science and engineering aspects of porous media to serve as a reference for future research and education. This collection of scientific works will cover experimental and computational visualizations, including high resolution pore morphology, visualization of new porous materials, and visualization of the different transport processes that occur in porous materials as well as in other aspects. In addition, historical images that have played a pivotal role in the understanding of porous media phenomena.
This book is intended to be used as reference for researchers as well as to teach the fundamental aspects of porous media. The audience of this atlas will be scientists, engineers, teachers, and students in the porous media community. To serve a larger audience, the book will be published in two languages, English and Spanish.
