Kimberly-Clark Distinguished Lectureship Award 2025

Lecturer 2025:

Professor Rainer Helmig
Institute for Modelling Hydraulic and Environmental Systems
Department of Hydromechanics and Modelling of Hydrosystems
University of Stuttgart, Stuttgart, Germany

Bio

Prof. Rainer Helmig is the head of the Institute for Modelling Hydraulic and Environmental Systems, Department of Hydromechanics and Modelling of Hydrosystems at the University of Stuttgart, Germany.

Rainer Helmig is widely recognized as a pioneer and visionary in developing numerical modelling concepts in the fields of groundwater hydrology, subsurface energy storage, and coupled processes at the interface between porous media and free-flow compartments.

Over the course of his illustrious career, Rainer Helmig has consistently produced groundbreaking research that has pushed the boundaries of knowledge in the field of porous-media research. His work has been instrumental in solving real-world problems, his methodologies have been adopted widely and have had a transformative impact on the field.

Beyond his research contributions, Rainer Helmig has been a dedicated mentor and educator, nurturing the talents of emerging scientists and engineers in the field.

Lecture Options:

Hosts may select one of two options detailed below:

Lecture Option A:

Porous Media Free-Flow Coupling – From REV to Pore Scale and Back –

Flow and transport processes in domains composed of a porous medium and an adjacent free-flow region appear in a wide range of industrial, bio-medical and environmental applications. Industrial applications range from flow in fuel cells to drying processes; possible bio-medical applications include the interplay of distribution processes in blood vessels and in the surrounding tissue. Applications in environmental systems include infiltration of overland flow during rainfall, groundwater contamination due to infiltrating pollutants and evaporation from soil.

One of the key challenges for coupled free flow and porous-medium flow arises from the fact that the overall effective behaviour depends strongly on interface processes that occur on small spatial scales (pore scale), although the overall system of interest is often too large to resolve these processes explicitly in detail. REV-scale models are usually not able to capture all the relevant physical processes for such coupled systems. For the accurate description of interface phenomena, it is therefore necessary to develop model concepts that combine information gained through pore-scale and REV-scale models. The first part of the lecture includes the following items:

• an explanation of relevant processes of mass, momentum and energy transfer at the interface between a free-flow and a porous-media system;
• a presentation of conceptual models for coupled single-phase free flow and two-phase porous-medium flow with a detailed description of the models in the free flow and in the porous medium for the pore and REV scale;
• comparison studies to show the advantages and disadvantages in relation to classical approaches; the coupling concepts are discussed on the basis of different technical or environmental issues.

In the second part of the lecture, Prof. Rainer Helmig would very much like to discuss the results on the basis of various detailed use cases. These include e.g. aspects of soil evaporation, heat storage in porous media, self-cooling of turbines or the salinization of soils. He would be happy to coordinate the respective focus with the invitees.

Lecture Option B:

From the Brain to Water Uptake of Roots to Fuel Cells: – Porous Media are “Almost” Everywhere –

Porous media are almost everywhere. The understanding of flow, transport and deformation processes in porous media is important for the optimization of fuel cells, energy storage, the prediction of landslides due to heavy rainfall or the spread of tumors in human tissue.

In this lecture, we will first give a brief overview of the importance of porous media. Using selected examples, we will cover the range from environmental to technical and relevant bio-issues.

Then we would like to present selected modelling approaches and analyses using two concrete application examples:

• First, we can use the knowledge of porous media to make better predictions when multiple sclerosis flares. What happens in the porous medium “brain” when the blood-brain barrier no longer functions properly? How can research in the field of porous media positively influence the treatment of multiple sclerosis?
• Secondly, we would like to discuss whether it is possible to improve water management in fuel cells as a drive technology with our knowledge of porous media. What role does the understanding of porous media play in the context of alternative forms of mobility such as fuel cells? Are our “classical models” for water transportation helpful?

Regarding both of the above-mentioned topics, the use of simulations helps because they make the invisible processes in the brain and in the fuel cell visible (we hope).

How to request and host the InterPore Kimberly-Clark Distinguished Lectures

InterPore Foundation accepts applications from member and non-member organizations for hosting the InterPore Kimberly-Clark Distinguished Lecturer. To request the presentation, please download and fill out the application form and return it to Sandra Bartsch with nomination@interpore.org in CC. Lecturer availability will be limited and not all requests can be honored by the lecturer.

Should a physical presentation not be feasible, lecturers will be available to give an online presentation.