Flows in porous media is a research area focused on the theoretical, computational, and experimental characterization of fluid motion through heterogeneous porous structures, governed primarily by Darcy’s law and its extensions to multiphase, non-Newtonian, and reactive systems. It integrates continuum mechanics, transport theory, and pore-scale physics to describe pressure-driven and capillarity-driven flows, dispersion, and phase interactions in materials such as soils, rocks, biological tissues, and engineered porous media. Core topics include upscaling from pore to continuum scales, effective permeability and porosity, coupling with heat and mass transport, and numerical simulation for applications in hydrogeology, petroleum engineering, carbon sequestration, and environmental remediation.
A solution to a tricky groundwater riddle from Australia: Researchers at TU Wien have developed numerical models to simulate the movement of fluids in porous materials.
Soft Matter
Nov 4, 2025
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25
Dr. Seunghak Lee, Jaeshik Chung, and Sang Hyun Kim of the Water Resources Cycle Research Center at the Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST) observed how oil and water interact in porous media under various conditions ...
Earth Sciences
Sep 4, 2025
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32
When water drains from the bottom of a vertical tube, it is followed by a thin film of liquid that can adopt complex and beautiful shapes. KAUST researchers have now studied exactly how these "fluted films" form and break ...
Soft Matter
Aug 20, 2025
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44
Looking at life today, it is difficult to imagine how complex biological processes and structures could have developed from simple building blocks. All cellular processes and reactions appear to be closely interdependent ...
Cell & Microbiology
Jun 26, 2025
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41
Even the best products won't meet expectations if they are packed poorly—packaging matters. The same goes for drug delivery. Osaka Metropolitan University researchers have uncovered the critical role played by solvents in ...
Bio & Medicine
Jun 13, 2025
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39
Natural and engineered systems have a whole world of chemistry inside their tiny pores—known as nanopores—that changes depending on the chemical functional groups inside.
Nanomaterials
May 12, 2025
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24
A study led by Prof. Chen Hongsong from the Institute of Subtropical Agriculture of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) has unveiled the mechanistic influence of soil thickness (as a representative litho-structural factor) ...
Earth Sciences
Mar 13, 2025
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19
Everyone knows it from their childhood days in the sandpit: sand is filtered using a sieve. Larger stones get stuck, while fine sand can fall through the sieve. The same principle is used when making coffee: water and aromatic ...
Nanomaterials
Sep 25, 2024
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54
When water gets inside nanopores with sizes below 10 nanometers, new physics emerge: new phases of ice were observed and ultrafast proton transport was measured. Confined water also plays a role in biology, where aquaporins ...
Nanophysics
Jul 25, 2024
0
138
The natural vein structure found within leaves—which has inspired the structural design of porous materials that can maximize mass transfer—could unlock improvements in energy storage, catalysis, and sensing thanks to a new ...
Nanophysics
May 7, 2024
0
157
