Drying of saline water from porous media – DRYSALT

This project proposes an in-depth study of the drying of porous media in the presence of saline water. This situation is seen as a perfect test case for the fundamental study of evaporation phenomena with salt crystallization in porous media. The project is structured in three parts. The first aims at the detailed physical characterization of subflorescences (porosity, pore size distribution, etc.). The second proposes the study of the local growth mechanisms of subflorescences by combining experiments on micromodels and numerical simulations. The third is dedicated to the experimental and numerical study of a drying situation with fluid-structure coupling in a granular medium where crystallization leads to a significant displacement of the grains. This work of a fundamental nature is motivated by several applications such as soil evaporation, the injection of CO2 into saline aquifers, the impregnation of porous materials with salt, the degradation of building materials and cultural heritage monuments caused by salt crystallization in the pores and the design of porous evaporators for use in distillation plants.