Electrokinetic flow and transport in porous media

Electrokinetic flow in porous media is an old topic in the literature starting early 19th century. Two major observed electrokinetic flow phenomena in porous media are electro-osmosis and electrophoresis. These electrokinetic phenomena have direct applications in water treatment, soil remediation, oil recovery, etc. Although these phenomena have been studied for a long time, there are still ambiguities and complexities in theoretical foundations describing these phenomena in natural/industrial porous media.

The objective of this study is to investigate the fundamentals of electrokinetic flow under single-phase and two-phase conditions using macro-scale and column-scale experiment. The applicant will also develop novel pore-scale computational methods to investigate effect of chemical compositions, pH and water composition on electrokinetic flow in porous media. The project will cover image analysis of natural porous media, development of pore-scale numerical codes, and laboratorial experiments for validation objectives. The applicant ideally should have a 1st or 2:1 degree (or equivalent) in physics, chemistry or chemical engineering with strong mathematical background. The applicant should be familiar with programming in FORTRAN, C or C++.

Successful candidates will be enrolled in the 3-year Ph.D. program of the School of Chemical Engineering and Analytical Science. Starting date is negotiable.

The successful PhD candidate will be a member of the IMPRES (Integrated Multiscale Porous media Research) team, which has been recently established. IMPRES team focused on diverse problems of porous media applications across different scales through advanced computational and experimental methods. The state-of-the-art micromodel lab, access to DIAMOND X-ray synchrotron and microCT imaging facilities are some of the available experimental facilities.