Dear InterPore colleagues,

It is hard to watch the news these days. All the horrible stories unfolding. We can’t ignore it, yet it shouldn’t stop us from our work as a scientific community. We are colleagues from across the world and demonstrate that it is possible to have a shared vision, a shared passion, and that we can talk about it and respectfully disagree with each other on something like numerical resolutions and experimental error margins.

So, let’s try to add a little more respect for one another to the parts of the world we find ourselves in.

All the best,

Matthijs de Winter
Editor-in-Chief
InterPore News

Abstract Submission is Open!

Submit your abstract to one of our 24 Minisymposia by the 02 January deadline. Hear why Martin Blunt, Chair in Flow in Porous Media at Imperial College London, thinks you should join us in Qingdao.

Registration fees

Registration fees for InterPore2024 have been published. For in-person registrations, we’re pleased to be able to offer not only the twice daily coffee breaks with afternoon beer & refreshments, but also a welcome dinner and daily lunch during the conference. Online registrations this year will again include access to live streaming, as well as recordings for on-demand viewing of ALL lectures AND parallel sessions.

Invited speaker

In anticipation of InterPore2024, we’re introducing the invited speakers in today’s and forthcoming Newsletters. This week: Jan Nordbotten.

Jan Nordbotten, University of Bergen, Norway
Title: Validating computational models for carbon storage

Professor Jan Martin Nordbotten is a mathematician with a strong interest for interdisciplinary collaborations and has established interdisciplinary collaborations in biology (theoretical evolution), ecology (water-plant dynamics), geosciences (multiphase subsurface flows, deformation), biomedicine (image processing, fluid dynamics) and computer science (image rendering).

As is common for subsurface applications, the planning and operation of geological carbon storage relies heavily on computational models. The FluidFlower validation and forecasting study was specifically designed to provide validation data for carbon storage. Moreover, by conducting a multi-institutional and multidisciplinary double-blind study, they were able to… read more

Call for bids for InterPore2026

InterPore2026 is planned to be held in a European country in the week starting 18 May 2026.

We would like to invite all potentially interested venues to send a short bid to Oleg Iliev with a copy to Karolin Weber by 15 December 2023.

To view the requirements for the short bid, please see this document (pdf, 290 KB).

Kimberly-Clark Distinguished Lectureship

Prof. Ruben Juanes, from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA, is the Kimberly-Clark Distinguished Lecturer of 2024.

As the winner of this year’s distinguished award, Prof. Ruben Juanes will be giving one of his two lectures at selected institutions. Hosts may select one of two options:

• Option A: Fluids, Fingers, Fractures and Fractals: Patterns in Porous Media
• Option B: Man-made Earthquakes and the Energy Transition

If your university/institution is interested in hosting Prof. Juanes, please download and fill out the application form and send it to Sandra Bartsch.

After receiving the application, we will keep you informed on any decisions made by Prof. Juanes and InterPore officials. For more information, we can also visit our website.

Prof. Juanes and InterPore look forward to hearing from you!

Call for nominations for the Kimberly-Clark Distinguished Lecturer 2025

The InterPore Foundation is now accepting nominations for this prestigious award for 2025. For more information on the nomination procedure, visit our website.

Upcoming meeting in Norway

9 November 2023, Olso, Norway

InterPore Norway 2023 will be held in Oslo on the 9th of November. The workshop will be hosted by PoreLab and the University of Oslo and will take place in the Oslo Science Park (Forskningsparken) Conference Centre at the Faros Room.

There are no registration fees, but we have a limited capacity at the venue. If you would like to participate in the InterPore Norway 2023 workshop, please fill out this form.

The preliminary program is available (pdf, 958 KB) and consists of presentations from invited speakers from 9:00 to 17:00. Lunch will be served.

The mission of InterPore Norway, the Norwegian Chapter of InterPore, is to create a platform for scientists and engineers involved in porous media studies in Norway or with connection to Norway. InterPore Norway focuses on interdisciplinary fundamental and applied studies of porous media in connection with national and international technological demands. It aims to advance and disseminate knowledge for the understanding, description, and modelling of natural and engineered porous media systems.

Japan Chapter Kick-off

The Kick-Off Meeting of the Japan InterPore Chapter was held on October 14, 2023 at Kobe city, concurrently with the National Thermal Engineering Conference 2023. Prof. M. Quintard was invited to deliver a lecture entitled “Heat transfer in porous media with heterogeneous and homogeneous sources: An overview of model typology” to 30 members of the newly established chapter.

Visit the Japan Chapter page to learn more.

New Academy course: register now!

Register today to secure your spot in “PORE 1-1 Fundamentals of porous media structure and characterization.”

This first installation of the InterPore Academy Study Plan in Porous Media will help you to build foundational and specialized knowledge needed to quantitatively study porous media in a variety of different applications, meet lecturers across different institutions and continents, and connect with our vibrant and diverse PM community.

Join lecturers Ryan Armstrong (UNSW Sydney, Australia), Martin J. Blunt (Imperial College, UK), Maša Prodanović (University of Texas Austin, USA), and Catherine Spurin (Stanford University, USA) as they explore imaging of porous media and image processing, quantification of pore-scale images, single phase transport, and multiphase flow.

Dates: The course will take place on Mondays from 13 November through 4 December 2023. The dates are as follows:

Monday, 13 November 2023 (13:00-16:00 AEST)
Monday, 20 November 2023 (13:00-16:00 PST)
Monday, 27 November 2023 (9:00-12:00 CST)
Monday, 4 December 2023 (17:00-20:00 GMT)

Please note, these renowned experts will be joining from across the globe. Therefore, lecture times vary weekly to accommodate time zone changes.

Recordings will be made available for all participants.

Click here to register!

Recording of Webinar with Inga Berre

Many thanks to all those who joined last week’s webinar with Inga Berre (University of Bergen) on “Modeling of flow and deformation in fractured formations”.

It was a lively presentation, with over 150 participants dialing in.

For those who missed out, you can view a recording of the session here.

Visit our InterPore Academy page for more details on this and other upcoming events!

Call for 2024 InterPore Medal for Porous Media Research Nominations

The InterPore Medal for Porous Media Research is given is given to scientists with an established career, in recognition of excellent research in general porous media, with emphasis on research conducted over the past 10 years. We welcome nominations of senior scientists who have an excellent research record that has contributed to the theoretical, experimental and/or modelling advances in understanding of problems involving natural and/or industrial porous media.

The awardee will receive a personalized engraved medal, a grant of 1,000 € towards participation at InterPore2024 and an InterPore Rosette. Details on the requirements and nomination process can be found on our website.

Nomination deadline is 01 November 2023. Please nominate a worthy recipient!

Groundwater Week

5-7 December 2023, Las Vegas, Nevada (USA)

Join the National Ground Water Association in celebrating 75 years of excellence during Groundwater Week 2023. This annual event provides a unique opportunity for professionals from all sectors of the groundwater industry to come together to exchange knowledge, share ideas, and learn about the latest advancements in science and technology.

Characteristics of fluid–fluid displacement in model mixed-wet porous media: patterns, pressures and scalings

Ashkan Irannezhad, Bauyrzhan K. Primkulov, Ruben Juanes, Benzhong Zhao

We study fluid–fluid displacement in simple mixed-wet porous micromodels consisting of distinct water-wet and oil-wet regions, whose fractions are varied systematically. We find that the impact of mixed-wettability depends on the complex interplay between wettability fraction and the intrinsic contact angle. For example, the fractal dimension of the displacement pattern is a monotonically increasing function of wettability fraction in flow cells with strongly water-wet clusters, but it becomes non-monotonic in flow cells with weakly water-wet clusters. Additionally, mixed-wettability also manifests itself in the injection pressure signature, which exhibits fluctuations especially at low wettability fraction.

Journal of Fluid Mechanics, 967, A27 (2023)
Corresponding Author: Benzhong Zhao

Proton exchange membranes for polymer electrolyte fuel cells: An analysis of perfluorosulfonic acid and aromatic hydrocarbon ionomers

Pablo A. García-Salaberri

Ionomers can be classified into two main groups: (i) perfluorosulfonic acid (PFSA) polymers, and (ii) aromatic hydrocarbon (HC) polymers. In this work, an analysis of key characteristics of both PEM types is presented, including water uptake, proton conductivity, water transport properties, thermal conductivity, permeability, mechanical properties and chemical and thermal stability, among others. Comparatively, PFSA-based PEMs are undoubtedly the commercial standard due to its proven high proton conductivity and good chemical stability, even though reinforced aromatic HC-based PEMs have also started to be commercialized recently. In the last decades, a growing trend is identified toward the development of hybrid and composite ultra-thin PEMs (5–20 μm in thickness) with tailored properties.

Sustainable Materials and Technologies, Volume 38, December 2023, e00727
Corresponding Author: Pablo A. García-Salaberri

InterPore Members can promote their publications to the community via the InterPore InJournals Section of the Newsletter. If you wish to do so, please submit your publication 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.

PhD

• PhD on studying complex mechanical soil properties with CT and DEM, Geotechnics lab of the Civil Department at UGhent, Belgium

Multiple positions

• 2 Post-docs and 3 PhD research positions, Center for Understanding Subsurface Signals and Permeability, University of California-Irvine, USA

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. It is also possible to post the position on the InterPore website. Log in through MyInterPore and click “Submit A Job Opening.”