Research Spotlight at Plymouth, UK

The Environmental and Fluid Modelling Group at the University of Plymouth, UK, is interested in the behaviour of pore fluids in a wide range of systems, including filters, paper coatings and soil.

IFPA current interest is dual porous systems in which the two levels of porosity (macro- and micro-) are explicitly coupled rather than simply acting hierarchically or independently. An example of a situation where this is required is in the modelling of soil to explain the production of nitrous oxide, the 4th most important greenhouse gas, monitored under the Kyoto agreement. The bacteria that produce the nitrous oxide reside in micro-porous ‘hot-spots’, whereas the transport of water and gases occurs predominantly through the macro-porosity. The explicit coupling allows the understanding and hence prediction of the precise conditions under which nitrous oxide will be produced. The work is part of the £1.1m U.K. Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) programme for Understanding Soil Quality and Resilience [grant numbers BBE001793 and BB/E001580], in collaboration with Rothamsted Research and North Wyke Research. The work will be presented in the plenary session of Biohydrology 2 , Bratislava, September 21-24, 2009.

For more detail visit our website www.pore-cor.com and/or contact pmatthews@plymouth.ac.uk

Our group works on generalizations of the classical theory for multiphase flow through porous media by including equations of motion for residual saturations. The generalized theory contains the traditional theory as a special case, but describes hysteresis as well as simultaneous drainage and imbibition processes. A second focus of our work are multiscale models for carbonate rocks containing several decades of pore sizes and pore structure detail.

For more detail contact: R. Hilfer, ICP, Univ. Stuttgart, 70569 Stuttgart, Germany)

http://www.ica1.uni-stuttgart.de/~hilfer/publikationen/index.en.php

The Environmental Hydrogeology Group at the Department of Earth Sciences, Utrecht University carries theoretical, computational, and experimental research on fundamental theories of multiphase flow and transport in porous media. In particular, advanced theories of two-phase flow including fluid-fluid interfacial areas are studied using pore-network models, micromodel experiments, and column experiments. Also, upscaling of reactive transport, colloid transport, and density-dependent flow in porous media. Applications include research on fuel cells and infusion of therapeutic drugs into brain tissues.