Dear InterPore colleagues,

The great thing about our InterPore In Journals section is it showcases the
diversity
of research being done in porous media research. From the tiniest scales to global
scale. From experimental work to artificial intelligence. And all that comes in
between.

A change of pace this week is the call for action from the International Science
Council. It is an appeal to us as scientists and as fellow humans to stand up for
those in need. Just sending a tweet can make a difference.

Be aware that the InterPore 2022 abstract deadline is coming up. Yes, you‘ve got a
few weeks left, but that includes the Christmas holidays and New Year’s Eve. Save
yourself from stressful holidays and submit the abstract prior to Christmas! I will,
or at least I intend to…

All the best,

Matthijs de Winter
Editor-in-Chief
InterPore
News

Abstract submission is open!

Abstract submission for InterPore2022 is open! Abstracts can be submitted for oral
and poster presentations to be offered in-person or online in 24
minisymposia. The submission deadline is Monday, 03 January 2022.

Submit your abstract today!

Block program

The InterPore2022 block program is available. Please visit the InterPore2022
website for details.

Invited speaker

Dr.
Vahid
Niasar from the University of Manchester will present a talk entitled
Advances
in pore-scale characterization of multiphase flow and transport in
porous materials.

Vahid Niasar is a Reader at the Department of Chemical Engineering and Analytical
Science at the University of Manchester and also director of the Subsurface Energy
Engineering Masters Program. His research
portfolio covers computational and experimental techniques for investigation
of multi-phase flow, reactive transport, non-Newtonian fluid flow and transport, and
electrochemistry in porous materials.

Gala dinner

As can be seen in the block program, InterPore2022 features a gala dinner. The gala
dinner will be held in the enchanting Louvre
Abu Dhabi!.

Mini-symposia Spotlight

In the interdisciplinary spirit from which the InterPore society was born, the
minisymposia
provide a forum where investigators and technicians from
disparate fields can come together and display their commonality of problems,
investigatory techniques and solution strategies.

(MS03) Flow,
transport and mechanics in fractured porous media

• Olav Moyner – SINTEF, Norway
• Hamid Nick – Technical University of Denmark, Denmark
• Holger Steeb – Institut für Mechanik University Stuttgart, Germany
• Hongkyu Yoon – Sandia National Laboratories, USA

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.

(MS04) Swelling and shrinking porous
media

• Daniel Markl – University of Strathclyde, UK
• Chris McMinn – University of Oxford, UK
• Sridhar Ranganathan – Kimberly-Clark, USA

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.

Read more on the minisymposia here.

InterPore
Membership Committee

The Membership Committee has seen a number of changes in members. First of all, we
would like to thank the leaving members for their valuable contributions to
InterPore. And an equally big thank you to the new members who took over the batons.
Good luck!

For those less familiar with the InterPore organization: The
Membership Committee
is committed to initiating and implementing programs that are associated with
membership growth and retention. Our specific activities include recruiting and
engaging new members, assessing satisfaction and improving benefits for current
members, and recommending policy actions to the Executive Committee of InterPore
for improving its membership services.

Interested to get involved? Please reach out to Bo
Guo to share your ideas on how we can better serve our InterPore members.

Call
for Action

The ISC has been monitoring the case of Iranian-Swedish scholar Dr.
Ahmadreza Djalali who was sentenced to death by Iranian authorities in 2017 based on
allegations that he had provided intelligence to Israeli authorities. Djalali has
repeatedly denied these allegations and the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention
called for his immediate release in 2017.

The ISC Committee for Freedom and Responsibility in Science (CFRS) works closely
with
Scholars at Risk (SAR) to monitor and advocate for Dr Djalali. On 9 December, SAR
will recognize Dr. Djalali with their prestigious Courage to Think Award for 2021.

CFRS renews its call for his immediate release – his life depends on our collective
action, and we ask all ISC Members for their support to help Dr. Djalali by calling
for his release:

• Forward the
  call to action to your networks.
• Raise awareness over social media by posting
  this tweet.
• Raise awareness over social media by creating your own tweet using
  #SaveAhmadreza and tagging @ScholarsAtRisk, @ISC, your minister of foreign
  affairs, and other relevant government officials.
• Write to Iranian authorities as an organization or association, issuing a letter
  of appeal (see SAR’s template letter here).
• Write to Iranian authorities as an individual by signing and sending SAR’s online
  letter of appeal.
• Arrange a meeting with members of your government to raise Dr. Djalali’s case
  (see detailed instructions here).
• Arrange a meeting with Iranian officials to call for Dr. Djalali’s release (see
  detailed instructions here).

InterPore is an Affiliated Member of the International
Science Council (ISC). The ISC
is a non-governmental organization with a unique global membership that brings
together 40 international scientific Unions and Associations and over 140 national
and regional scientific organizations including Academies and Research Councils.

Damage
Mechanics Challenge
Workshop

25
June 2022, Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA

The Damage Mechanics Challenge Workshop is held in conjunction with the
56th US Rock Mechanics/Geomechanics Symposium. The purpose of this exercise is to:

1. compare computational approaches on damage evolution for predicting fracture
   behavior of 3D printed model rock;
2. identify the information provided by the different simulation approaches that
   gives insight into the prediction and interpretation of failure in rock;
3. identify model parameters that are currently not measured or cannot be measured
   in the laboratory; and
4. determine whether there are other experimental measurements that are needed or
   better methods of performing measurements to monitor damage evolution.

This challenge exercise is used to determine the state of the art and future
directions to improve the community’s ability to simulate crack formation and
evolution in natural and engineered brittle-ductile materials. More information on
how to participate in the challenge can be found at the website

Probabilistic Nucleation and Crystal Growth in Porous Medium: New Insights from
Calcium Carbonate Precipitation on Primary and Secondary Substrates

Mohammad
Nooraiepour, Mohammad Masoudi, Nima Shokri, and Helge Hellevang

Knowledge of crystal nucleation and growth is paramount in understanding the
geometry
evolution of porous medium during reactive transport processes in geo-environmental
studies. To predict transport properties precisely, it is necessary to delineate
both the amount and location of nucleation and precipitation events in the
spatiotemporal domain. The main objective was to evaluate solid formation under
different boundary conditions when the solid-liquid interface plays a key role. New
observations were made on the effect of primary and secondary substrates and the
role of preferential precipitation locations on the rock surfaces. Our results
highlight the complex dynamics induced by substrate surface properties on the
spatial and temporal solute distribution, transport, and deposition.

ACS
Omega 2021, 6 (42)
(open access)
Corresponding
Authors: Mohammad
Nooraiepour

Nuclear Magnetic
Resonance Cryoporometry Study of Solid–Liquid Equilibria in Interconnected Spherical
Nanocages

Henry
R. N. B. Enninful, Daniel Schneider, Benjamin Rudolph, Andreas Meyer,
Simone Mascotto, and Rustem Valiullin.

A combined experimental and theoretical study of solid–liquid phase equilibria
confined in mesoporous solids composed of spherical cages connected via
smaller-sized cylindrical irregular channels is presented. The experimental data are
analyzed using transition kernels developed for the spherical pores. They accurately
predict the variation of the non-frozen water layer thickness with temperature as
well as the positions of the solid–liquid and liquid–solid transition temperatures.
By analyzing the melting and freezing transitions as well as scanning freezing
transitions in materials with different properties of the interconnecting pore
network achieved by different synthesis conditions, an accurate information on the
textural properties and phase transition processes is obtained.

J.
Phys. Chem. C
2021, 125, 48, 26916–26926
Corresponding
Authors: Henry
R. N. B.
Enninful

Global predictions of primary soil salinization under changing climate in the 21st
century

Amirhossein
Hassani, Adisa Azapagic & Nima Shokri

Soil salinization has become one of the major environmental and socioeconomic issues
globally. Determining how climate change influences the dynamics of
naturally-occurring soil salinization has scarcely been addressed. This paper sets
out to address this long-standing challenge by developing data-driven models capable
of predicting primary (naturally-occurring) soil salinity and its variations in the
world’s drylands. Analysis of the future predictions made here identifies a number
of dryland areas as salinization hotspots. Conversely, we project a decrease in the
soil salinity of other drylands.

Nature
Communications, vol 12, 6663 (2021)
Corresponding
Authors:
Nima
Shokri

InterPore
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• Two
  Lecturer / Senior Lecturer positions, Imperial College Department of Earth
  Science and Engineering, London, 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.