Andreas Hennig joined PoreLab on January 2nd, 2024, as PhD candidate. His position is financed by PoreLab under the WP4 (Nanoporous media and gels). His supervisor is Professor Erika Eiser, PI for the WP4, and his co-supervisor is Associate Professor Raffaela Cabriolu, associated member at PoreLab.
Andreas holds a Master of science in applied physics and mathematics from NTNU from June 2023. His specialization project was on pore-network modelling of two-phase flow with a yield stress rheology, and his MSc thesis was a continuation of this project. He performed the thesis of his master on statistical properties of a single-phase Bingham fluid in porous media at PoreLab with Professor Alex Hansen as supervisor. He spent 4 months in France during the spring 2023 at the University Paris-Saclay with Hansen’s collaborators, Laurent Talon and Alberto Rosso. His research stay at Paris-Saclay was financed by the PoreLab INTPART project on non-Newtonian fluids in porous media.
Andreas summarizes his PhD project as follow:
My PhD project is aimed at understanding flow of particles dispersed in a fluid, through porous media. Dispersions can both be gravitationally driven (like sand particles in water) or colloidal, like aerosols, emulsions, polymers, foams and gels. Their complex dynamics and flow properties through porous media are not well understood, and are hard to model due to the non-Newtonian behavior.
I will mainly look at this problem by doing experiments and simulations. I will implement a new, promising technique called Differential Dynamic Microscopy to do local diffusion measurements, with potential in studying gelation processes, DNA-functionalised colloids and microrheology measurements. An advantage is the possibility to make these measurements below the diffraction limit, enabling studies on nanoscale systems with a fairly simple experimental setup.
These are systems with surprising applications, both in research and in technology. Quick clays are examples of nanoporous materials whose behavior is hard to predict with our current understanding. Another application is the ion transport in the porous cathode material in the li-ion batteries we find in our everyday technological devices. Finally, understanding their importance in biological systems offer the opportunity to mimic the filtration mechanisms in porous membranes, which can be used in drug delivery systems and other medical devices.