Emerging Technologies and Techniques in Porous Media

Book excerpt: Heat and fluid flow in fluid-saturated porous media has become increas ingly more attractive to researchers and thus it has become a very pro ductive field for many researchers and practical engineers in very diverse range of fields. The great interest in the topic stems from its widespread number of different practical applications in modern industries and in many environmental issues, such as nuclear waste management, build ing thermal insulators, geothermal power plants, grain storage, etc. In building sciences and thermal insulation engineering, an appreciable in sulating effect has been derived by placing porous material in the gap between the cavity walls and multishield structures of nuclear reactors between the pressure vessel and the reactor. Geophysical applications include modeling of the spread of pollutants (e. g. radioactive mater ial), water movements in geothermal reservoirs, enhanced recovery of petroleum reservoirs, etc. These, and many other, important practical applications have resulted in a rapid expansion of research in the general area of porous media and thus generated a vast amount of both theor etical and experimental research work. It has attracted the attention of industrialists, engineers and scientists from many varying disciplines, such as applied mathematics, chemical, civil, environmental, mechanical and nuclear engineering, geothermal physics, food science, medicine, etc. This book contains some of the contributions to the NATO Advanced Study Institute on Emerging Technologies and Techniques in Porous Media that was held in Neptun-Olimp, Constanta, Black Sea, Romania on 9-20 June, 2003.