On 10 September, Tomislav Vuković successfully defended his PhD thesis, Systematic Testing of the Streaming Potential Method for Wettability Characterization in Porous Media, at the Department of Geosciences, NTNU.
His research investigated whether electrical signals generated when fluids flow through porous materials can be used to measure wettability, an important property controlling how fluids move through rocks and other porous materials.
Vuković developed and tested new measurement methods and built an in-house streaming potential apparatus. His experiments showed that the method has potential, but also revealed important limitations: interactions between the test material and fluids affected pH and conductivity, demonstrating that careful preparation and control of experimental conditions are essential before streaming potential can become a reliable method for wettability characterisation.
His main supervisor was Associate Professor Antje van der Net, with Research Scientist Umer Farooq, SINTEF Industry, and Professor Emeritus Ole Torsæter as co-supervisors.