Dear InterPore friends,

It is time to shift focus. InterPore2021 has been evaluated and all the comments and feedback taken
onboard for InterPore2022. And while the northern hemisphere is getting into a summer break mood,
new initiatives are coming up. Our new InterPore president, Michel Quintard, is promoting a task
force to strengthen porous media research across the African continent. As editor-in-chief, I hope
to further promote the scientific exchange within our InterPore community through our Newsletter.

On a personal level, I also have a slight change in focus, as I will continue my career with the
RIVM, the Dutch center of disease control. As a porous media-researcher in times of a pandemic, I
will investigate the effect of coughing and sneezing through face masks while wearing a mask for 1-2
hours. In line with my earlier statement regarding the scientific exchange, when I find something
relevant, I will make sure to let you know!

All the best,

Matthijs de Winter
Editor-in-Chief
InterPore News

Now that this year’s conference has concluded, we are happy to announce InterPore2022 which will take place in
Qingdao, China, from Monday, 30 May through Thursday, 02 June 2022. The perfect
location for our annual meeting has been found at the Shangri-La Hotel Qingdao.

In addition to the convenience of staying on-site at the annual meeting, the Shangri-La offers many
benefits, including:

• Reduced rates for InterPore participants at the luxurious 5-star hotel.

• Convenient transportation – the hotel is about 40 minutes from the Qingdao International
  Airport and can be easily reached by taxi, city shuttle buses, and private chauffeur.

• A central location – the Shangri-La Hotel is located close to public transportation, shopping
  centers and tourist attractions.

• Dining facilities – all meetings and banquets will be held in the hotel meeting space.
  Several restaurants on-site mean not having to leave the conference for meals. Enjoy evening
  entertainment and drinks in the lounge.

• Luxury accommodations and facilities – all guestrooms of the Shangri-La Hotel offer
  spectacular city or sea views. The on-site health club features gym equipment, a 25-meter
  swimming pool, sauna, and steam room.

Hotel conference rates are being finalized and will be published with detailed booking information
soon.

In order to accommodate those who, for various reasons, may be unable to join in the physical
meeting, InterPore2022 will also offer the option to participate and present online.

InterPore2021 survey results

The results from our InterPore2021 survey are in – thank you to everyone who provided
us with feedback! We are busy analyzing your input and making notes of what you liked (there was a
lot!) and where we can stand to make improvements (InterPore2022 will be here before we know it!).

• We were surprised to learn that more than half of our participants this year were attending
  their first InterPore conference! We are thrilled that our society and our connections continue
  to grow each year with new participants.
• While many of you expressed concern that the registration fees were too high (47%), the majority
  of you felt the fees were just right. For those of you who feel the fees are high, we would like
  to remind you that the majority of InterPore’s annual income is generated from the conference
  fees. While the costs of an online conference are lower than that of an in-person conference,
  the fixed costs of the InterPore office staff, operating expenses and the funding of new
  activities which support the InterPore society are paid for largely in part by your
  registration.
• The addition of networking and social events to the online conference was well received –
  especially the SAC Music & Magic event. A big thank you to all of you who organized,
  participated and shared your talent!! Another well-received addition this year was the digital
  posters. While there were some technical issues and a bit of a learning curve, the feedback was
  positive and we have a lot of good ideas to make improvements at future conferences! Again this
  year, the availability and quality of pre-recorded presentations was consistently indicated as
  one of the best parts of the conference. In fact, 78% of our survey respondents indicated they
  would continue watching the pre-recorded presentations after the conference ended.

The various committees involved in the planning and organization of InterPore conferences are
currently preparing for InterPore2022, so we highly value your input and your suggestions and are
taking all of your comments into consideration.

Any additional comments, questions or remarks can be directed to Amy Spang.

Task Force for InterPore in Africa

InterPore’s goal is to advance and disseminate knowledge for understanding, describing, and modelling
natural and industrial porous media systems. Since 2008, its growth has been continuous and many
national chapters have been created. For various reasons, however, InterPore presence in Africa does
not reflect, on the one hand, the importance of the African community working on porous media
applications and, on the other hand, the benefit that a worldwide, thriving community can bring to
all scientists in the fields and therefore colleagues in Africa as well.

InterPore is really determined to fill this gap and to this aim it has been decided to create a Task
Force for the Development of InterPore in Africa linked to the Chapter Committee.

Task Force goals will be:

• establish a database of contacts in African countries, including the African diaspora,
• facilitate the participation of African people to all InterPore events and activities,
• propose to InterPore the organization of specific events,
• promote the creation of national or regional chapters in Africa.

This goal will not be reached without the participation of all. If interested or if you know about
people interested, if you have any suggestions, please manifest yourself by contacting the chair of
the Task Force for the Development of InterPore in Africa.

Michel Quintard, InterPore President
Brahim Amaziane, Chair, Task Force for the
Development of InterPore in Africa
Rachida Bouhlila, Co-Chair, Task Force for the
Development of InterPore in Africa

Linda Abriola as Ombudsperson

Though her term with the InterPore Council has come to an end, we are very pleased that
Linda Abriola will remain in her post as InterPore’s ombudsperson. The InterPore society is
committed to fostering, cultivating and preserving a culture of diversity, equality and
inclusiveness in the field of research and application related to porous media, as stated in the
Diversity, Equality and Inclusiveness amendment of the InterPore bylaws. InterPore is currently
investigating how to make sure that DEI awareness is more prominent in our society.

Please report any mistreatment/misconduct regarding DEI by people affiliated with InterPore to the
ombudsperson via email. Any formal
complaint received by the ombudsperson will be examined, discussed and addressed in the Council.

Research
Spotlight: Upscaling and Automation: Pushing the Boundaries of Multiscale Modeling through
Symbolic Computing

Kyle Pietrzyk, Svyatoslav Korneev, Morad Behandish, Ilenia Battiato Energy Resources
Engineering, Stanford University

Abstract: Rigorous upscaling methods have enabled the systematic
generation of macroscopic differential equations that accurately account for microscopic phenomena
governed by advection-diffusion- reaction (ADR) systems. However, the mathematical derivation of
such equations is tedious, time-consuming, and prone to error. To ease these complications, we
propose a method of automatic upscaling through symbolic computation. The objective of this
framework is to significantly speed up the process of developing models at different scales. We
demonstrate the ability of our software prototype, Symbolica, by reproducing homogenized ADR systems
from earlier studies.

Please find the full Research Spotlight here
(PDF, 0.7 MB).

Call for abstracts:
10th Conference on the Mechanical Behavior of Salt

July 6 – 8, 2022, Utrecht, the Netherlands: 10th Conference on the Mechanical Behavior of Salt
(SaltMech X)

Launched in 1981, the SaltMech
Conference series serves to
exchange research findings and practical experiences regarding the mechanical behavior of rock salt
in the context of safe use in mining, energy storage and waste disposal. Therefore, topics of
interest include, but are not limited to:

Deadline abstract submission: Friday, 06 August 2021
For more information,
please visit their website.

MF-LBM: A new open-source code

MF-LBM is a portable, scalable and high-performance lattice Boltzmann (LB) code for direct numerical
simulation (DNS) of multiphase flow in porous media. The multiphase model used in the code is the
continuum-surface-force-based color-gradient model combined with the geometrical wetting model to
significantly reduce spurious currents near the interfaces. The code is open source and distributed
under the BSD-3 License. The code is available here.

Main features of the code include:

• utilizes multiple levels of parallelism
• extensively optimized for vectorization
• directive-based parallel programing model supporting CPU, GPU, MIC and ARM; the same code can be
  run on desktop machines as well as supercomputers
• advanced LB multiphase model (CSF model + geometrical wetting model) ensuring relatively small
  spurious currents
• overlapped communication and computation
• sample geometry files, pre-processing and post-processing code included; examples include simple
  capillary tubes as well as digital rock images
• several sets of open boundary conditions are provided to simulate drainage, imbibition or
  fractional flow:
• velocity inlet and convective outlet boundary conditions
• pressure inlet and pressure outlet boundary conditions
• body force driven flow with periodic boundary conditions

The code was primarily developed by Dr. Yu Chen (SUSTech, formerly at LANL-Los Alamos National
Laboratory) under the supervision of Prof. Albert Valocchi (University of Illinois at
Urbana-Champaign), Dr. Qinjun Kang (LANL) and Dr. Hari Viswananthan (LANL). Further details are
given in Water Resources Research, 55,
11144–11165.

Laser-excited elastic guided waves reveal the complex mechanics of nanoporous silicon

Marc Thelen, Nicolas Bochud, Manuel Brinker, Claire Prada, Patrick Huber

© DESY/TUHH

Nanoporous solids have already led to new high-performance materials for biosensors, energy storage
and energy harvesting. Their mechanical properties often determine whether they can actually unfold
their technological potential. Conversely, many classical mechanical characterization methods are
very difficult to apply to porous material systems. Here, we present a study on laser-excited
elastic guided waves detected contactlessly and non-destructively in dry and liquid-infused
single-crystalline porous silicon. Our study shows that recent breakthroughs in laser ultrasonics
open up entirely new frontiers for in-situ, non-destructive mechanical characterization of dry and
liquid-functionalized porous materials.

Nature Communications 12, article 3597
(2021)
Corresponding Author: Patrick Huber

InterPore Members, do you want to promote your publication to the community? If so, please submit
your highlight to newsletter@InterPore.org.
Clearly indicate which of the authors is an InterPore member (or the institute with an
Institutional Membership). Note that we will not review the entries nor does
InterPore endorse the published work. Furthermore, we publish on a “submitted first, published
first” basis. The highlighted publication should be no older than 6 months (available
online).

The highlight should be short (max 100 words) and contain an illustration.
Please note that we offer this opportunity exclusively to InterPore members. If you would like
to become a member, please have a look here.

• Postdoctoral
  Researcher, Groundwater and Surface Water Interactions, University of Cincinnati, USA
• Post
  Doctoral Research Associate, INFUSE: Interface with the Future – Underpinning Science to
  Support the Energy Transition, Harwell Science and Innovation Campus, Oxfordshire, UK

If you have a job opening in your institute and would like to promote it internationally, please
send the description and weblink or PDF to newsletter@interpore.org, and we’ll be happy to
add it to the list.