Electrokinetic characterization of conducting two-phase flows in model porous media

We would like to construct a numerical two-phase model of an oil-water system containing salt in various concentrations in a model porous environment based on the electrokinetic lattice-Boltzmann approach. We want to characterize the flow and emergent structures that develop in various (liquid) morphologies in porous geometries. Possible changes are the interfacial tension between the two fluids as well as the wetting properties of the solid interfaces through charges or surface modifications.  Electrokinetic and flow data is obtained from experiments of heterogeneous/complex porous structures data and will be provided by Holger Steeb’s group. The physical and image-based data will be used for parameterization and cross-validation of our model. For comparisons H. Steeb can also provide SPH data on selected geometries and different characteristic Ca/Re numbers. We will investigate if the flow characteristics can be classified by using morphological measures, so-called Minkowski functionals or we will use feature extractions from machine-learning algorithms. For the long run we intend to investigate if machine-leaning based algorithms can help to speed up the LB algorithm.