Our research aims to understand how transport through disordered, typically porous materials (e.g. paper) is determined by their 3D microstructure. To this end, we combine simulations of transport through the microstructure with a detailed analysis of the structure itself. Such a statistical analysis gives us information on how much the structure varies in the material and how strongly different transport properties correlate in the material. Of particular interest are cases in which the microstructure of the material changes during transportation. Possible projects for bachelor students that support this research relate to topics such as (i) identifying the location of phases (e.g. solids and air) in 3D micro-CT images using deep learning, (ii) analyzing solid or air-filled regions in porous materials using pore network analysis, (iii) predicting transport in progressively changing microstructures using pore network modeling or physically informed neural networks.



karin.zojer[at]tugraz.at, robert.schennach[at]tugraz.at,
a.serebrennikova[at]tugraz.at