Fluids in Porous Media

Dear Colleagues,

Porous materials come in a wide variety of different forms and pervade our everyday lives. For example, buildings are constructed using cement- and clay-based materials, or wood. Household products such as toothpaste (silica), washing powder (zeolites) and diapers (hydrogels), noise and heat insulators, and filtration systems also rely on porous materials. The characterisation of rock is essential for hydrocarbon recovery viability assessment, and clays may be useful as potential radioactive waste storage sites. Polymer systems have applications in fuel cells, and protein systems and tissue have applications in medicine, pharmacy research and biomedical engineering.

For each of these systems, it is vital to understand the properties of the fluid contained within the porous media. This is intrinsic to the understanding of their properties and hence to the development of new and improved products. Hence, much highly-significant research is being undertaken in a wide variety of porous systems. For example, cement production is the third largest contributor to CO₂ emissions worldwide, and understanding the nanoscale behaviour of water within cement products is pivotal to designing new products with a lower carbon footprint and improved durability.

Nonetheless, porous media are notoriously complex and obtaining reliable data on pore structure and the fluid contained in the pores is a significant challenge. Experimental techniques such as nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) imaging are valuable, and NMR relaxometry experiments can yield information on the nanoscale behaviour of fluids. Small-angle X-ray scattering and quasi-elastic or small-angle neutron scattering have made important contributions to this field of research as have more conventional measurements used to estimate porosity, tortuosity and permeability.

Many of these experimental techniques are used in tandem with theoretical or computational modelling to infer the dynamics and nano-microstructure of a fluid and its confining matrix. Computer simulations are used at the atomic scale through ab initio quantum mechanical calculations, at the nanoscale through molecular dynamics, at the nano-to-micro scales through Monte Carlo methods,  at the macro-scale through Lattice-Boltzmann, and through conventional continuum-mechanics flow modelling at larger scales.

This Special Issue aims to cover recent progress and trends in the understanding of the behaviour of fluids in porous media. This may focus on experimental techniques, advances in understanding the specific porous materials, theoretical developments and applications of computer simulations.

Submissions on, but not limited, to the topics listed below are welcome. Types of contributions to this Special Issue may include full research articles, short communications, and reviews focusing on the properties of fluid in porous media.

Dr. David Faux
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

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