Challenges (and some solutions) of modelling subsurface flow.

Subsurface flow phenomena play a key role in tackling the most pressing global challenge; supplying humanity with affordable energy, water and food, whilst mitigating climate change.
Migration of fluids in the subsurface has long been critical to humanity: groundwater sources, water management for agriculture and hot springs. In the late 19th Century, hydrocarbon migration was added to the agenda and today, CO2, hydrogen and convected heat come into focus.
Despite its importance, a robust, predictive and all-encompassing theory for multiphase flow phenomena has not yet been developed. Harvesting and managing subsurface resources however, require simulation tools based on such a theory. Models and simulation tools must be tailored to the specific challenges of harvesting and managing subsurface resources, revisiting foundations and identifying shortcuts and simplifications. This intellectually intriguing challenge requires collaboration across many disciplines including physics, mathematics, chemistry, geology and a whole range of engineering disciplines.
Professor Florian Doster’s Inaugural Lecture addresses these challenges in the context of CO2 storage - a technology paramount for decarbonising the energy sector and industry.
Florian Doster is a professor specialising in Multi-Scale, Multi-Phase Flow Modelling in the School of Energy, Geoscience, Infrastructure and Society at Heriot-Watt University and Programme Director for Subsurface Energy Systems. His current research areas include the study of multi-physics multi-phase flow phenomena in porous media and their appropriate physical and mathematical description across length and time scales.