Spectral induced polarization (SIP) has the potential for monitoring reactive processes in the subsurface. While strong SIP responses have been measured in response to calcite precipitation, their origin and mechanism remain debated. Here we present a novel geo-electrical millifluidic setup designed to observe microscale reactive transport processe...
Fluid flow through intricate confining geometries often exhibits complex behaviors, certainly in porous materials, e.g. in groundwater flows or the operation of filtration devices and porous catalysts. However, it has remained extremely challenging to measure 3D flow fields in such micrometer-scale geometries. Here, we introduce a new 3D velocimetr...
Published in Biomechanics and Modeling in Mechanobiology
Bone is an extraordinary biological material that continuously adapts its hierarchical microstructure to respond to static and dynamic loads for offering optimal mechanical features, in terms of stiffness and toughness, across different scales, from the sub-microscopic constituents within osteons—where the cyclic activity of osteoblasts, osteoclast...
To macroscopically describe two-phase flows in porous media, we need accurate modeling of the drag forces between the two fluids and the solid phase. In low-permeability porous media, where capillarity is often dominant, momentum exchange is often neglected and the fluid–fluid drag force is treated as part of the drag between fluids and solid in th...
The flow of Dense Non-Aqueous Phase Liquid (DNAPL) in highly permeable porous media is characterized by a complex interplay between surface tension, viscous, gravity, and inertia forces. Gravitational effects in these systems have been particularly studied in the context of displacement instability, but little work has focused on the impact of grav...
Published in Environmental pollution (Barking, Essex : 1987)
Given the complexity of soil components, a detailed understanding of the effects of single factors on phosphorus transport and retention will play a key role in understanding the environmental effects of phosphorus. In this work, quartz sand columns (considering five factors: doping rate, pH, particle size, ionic strength and cation type), combined...
The non-Newtonian rheology of polymer solutions makes it challenging to understand the pore-scale behaviour of polymer solutions in porous media, and therefore, it also presents challenges to upscale their pore-scale properties to the Darcy scale. An analytical and numerical approach are adopted in the thesis to evaluate the effect of non-Newtonian...
Published in Polish Journal of Chemical Technology
In this work, an analytical model describing liquid wicking phenomenon in porous media was constructed, based on the statistical geometry theory and the fractal theory. In the model, a new structure-property relationship, depicted by specific surface, porosity, tortuosity, pore fractal dimension, maximum pore size of the porous media, was introduce...
Published in Electrophoresis
Recent studies have demonstrated the strong influences of fluid rheological properties on insulator-based dielectrophoresis (iDEP) in single-constriction microchannels. However, it is yet to be understood how iDEP in non-Newtonian fluids depends on the geometry of insulating structures. We report in this work an experimental study of fluid rheologi...
The estimation of solid surface energy is generally obtained through the determination of liquid/solid contact angles. Many questions arise in the literature about the appropriate contact angle to use (dynamic, quasi-static or static, measured at a macro or a micro-scale). Theoretically, equilibrium contact angles should be inserted into equations ...
