TY - JOUR
T1 - Dispersive transport dynamics in porous media emerge from local correlations
AU - Meigel, Felix J.
AU - Darwent, Thomas
AU - Bastin, Leonie
AU - Goehring, Lucas
AU - Alim, Karen
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2022, The Author(s).
PY - 2022/12
Y1 - 2022/12
N2 - Understanding and controlling transport through complex media is central for a plethora of processes ranging from technical to biological applications. Yet, the effect of micro-scale manipulations on macroscopic transport dynamics still poses conceptual conundrums. Here, we demonstrate the predictive power of a conceptual shift in describing complex media by local micro-scale correlations instead of an assembly of uncorrelated minimal units. Specifically, we show that the non-linear dependency between microscopic morphological properties and macroscopic transport characteristics in porous media is captured by transport statistics on the level of pore junctions instead of single pores. Probing experimentally and numerically transport through two-dimensional porous media while gradually increasing flow heterogeneity, we find a non-monotonic change in transport efficiency. Using analytic arguments, we built physical intuition on how this non-monotonic dependency emerges from junction statistics. The shift in paradigm presented here broadly affects our understanding of transport within the diversity of complex media.
AB - Understanding and controlling transport through complex media is central for a plethora of processes ranging from technical to biological applications. Yet, the effect of micro-scale manipulations on macroscopic transport dynamics still poses conceptual conundrums. Here, we demonstrate the predictive power of a conceptual shift in describing complex media by local micro-scale correlations instead of an assembly of uncorrelated minimal units. Specifically, we show that the non-linear dependency between microscopic morphological properties and macroscopic transport characteristics in porous media is captured by transport statistics on the level of pore junctions instead of single pores. Probing experimentally and numerically transport through two-dimensional porous media while gradually increasing flow heterogeneity, we find a non-monotonic change in transport efficiency. Using analytic arguments, we built physical intuition on how this non-monotonic dependency emerges from junction statistics. The shift in paradigm presented here broadly affects our understanding of transport within the diversity of complex media.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85139361528&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1038/s41467-022-33485-5
DO - 10.1038/s41467-022-33485-5
M3 - Article
C2 - 36202817
AN - SCOPUS:85139361528
SN - 2041-1723
VL - 13
JO - Nature Communications
JF - Nature Communications
IS - 1
M1 - 5885
ER -