Marios Ioannidis

Department Chair & Professor

Degrees

  • Dipl. Eng., University of Patras, Greece
  • Marios Ioannidis
    PhD, University of Waterloo

Research interests

Transport processes in porous materials

Natural and man-made porous materials are ubiquitous in science and engineering. Examples include soil and rock, cement and concrete, catalyst supports, electrodes, filters etc. Within porous materials a multitude of transport process may take place, depending on application. These include immiscible or miscible displacement of one fluid by another, solute transport by convection and/or diffusion, flow of electric current, chemical reactions, phase change, etc. These processes take place within a complex network of interconnected pores that can range in size from a few nanometers to several millimetres, so that surface and interfacial forces must be taken into account. To understand the performance of different classes of porous materials in different engineering applications, it is then necessary to understand how macroscopic behavior emerges from processes essentially taking place at the pore scale. The reward for such understanding is improvement of our ability to engineer materials with desired macroscopic properties or to optimize a process for a specific class of porous media.

Research on transport in porous media is carried out independently or in collaboration, as required, and addresses fundamental questions in the following areas:

Characterization and modeling of the porous microstructure

We investigate the microstructure using a broad spectrum of direct and indirect experimental probes (mercury injection porosimetry, scanning electron microscopy of thin-sections, nuclear magnetic resonance relaxometry and imaging etc.). We use this information to develop and validate mathematical modes of the microstructure that can be used to predict the macroscopic capillary and transport properties of porous materials. Two kinds of models are actively investigated: pore networks of simplified geometry and complex 3D replicas of the microstructure synthesized by stochastic methods from limited 2D information. Research is currently underway that focuses on the characterization and modeling of the structure of vuggy carbonate rocks, which are reservoirs for most of the world's remaining hydrocarbon resources.

Mass transfer from (to) distributed sources (sinks) in porous media

Non-Aqueous Phase Liquid (NAPL) contaminants exist in the form of blobs (ganglia) trapped by capillary forces within porous rock and soil. These liquids have low solubility and pose a long-term threat to groundwater quality. Our research seeks to elucidate how pore-scale flow, transport and capillary phenomena affect mass transfer at the macro-scale. Experiments with transparent glass micromodels and pore-network simulations are employed to study the effects of wettability, pore structure and flow velocity on non-equilibrium NAPL dissolution. The enhanced dissolution of chlorinated solvents using aqueous surfactant solutions is also investigated. Research is currently underway on the nucleation and growth of gas bubbles in porous media by convective mass transfer from supersaturated aqueous solutions.

Capillary, wetting and flow properties of gas diffusion layers for PEM fuel cells

Optimal function of Polymer Electrolyte Membrane (PEM) fuel cells depends sensitively on the distribution and flow of product water within a porous Gas Diffusion Layer (GDL) that is an integral part of the cathode. Research is underway to measure and explain the complex capillary, wetting and flow properties of GDL materials, so that predictive modeling of PEM fuel cell performance may be enabled.

Selected references

  • A. Mowla, T. Treeratanaphitak, Budman, H., N.M. Abukhdeir, M.A. & Ioannidis. Meta-Analysis of Empirical Correlations for Volume-averaged Gas Hold-up in Three-Phase Fluidized Beds (2015). submitted to Chemical Engineering Journal.
  • Bizmark, N., Ioannidis, M. A., & Henneke, D. E. (2014). Irreversible adsorption-driven assembly of nanoparticles at fluid interfaces revealed by a dynamic surface tension probe. Langmuir, 30(3), 710-717.
  • Mohebi, A., Fieguth, P., & Ioannidis, M. A. (2009). Statistical fusion of two-scale images of porous media. Advances in water resources, 32(11), 1567-1579.
  • Alexander, S. K., Fieguth, P., Ioannidis, M. A., & Vrscay, E. R. (2009). Hierarchical annealing for synthesis of binary images. Mathematical geosciences, 41(4), 357-378.
  • Gostick, J. T., Ioannidis, M. A., Fowler, M. W., & Pritzker, M. D. (2009). On the role of the microporous layer in PEMFC operation. Electrochemistry Communications, 11(3), 576-579.
  • Gostick, J. T., Ioannidis, M. A., Fowler, M. W., & Pritzker, M. D. (2008). Direct measurement of the capillary pressure characteristics of water–air–gas diffusion layer systems for PEM fuel cells. Electrochemistry Communications, 10(10), 1520-1523.
  • Zhao, W., & Ioannidis, M. A. (2011). Gas exsolution and flow during supersaturated water injection in porous media: I. Pore network modeling. Advances in Water Resources, 34(1), 2-14.
  • Padhy, G.S., Lemaire, C., Amirtharaj, E.S. and Ioannidis, M.A. (2007). "Pore Size Distribution in Multiscale Porous Media as Revealed by DDIF-NMR, Mercury Porosimetry and Statistical Image Analysis", Colloids and Surfaces A: Physicochemical and Engineering Aspects, in press.
  • Clifford, J.S., Ioannidis, M.A. and Legge, R.L. (2007). "Enhanced Aqueous Solubilization of Tetrachloroethylene by a Rhamnolipid Biosurfactant", Journal of Colloid and Interface Science, 305, 361-365.
  • Zhao, W. and Ioannidis, M.A. (2007). "Effect of NAPL Film Stability on the Dissolution of Residual Wetting NAPL in Porous Media: A Pore-Scale Modeling Study", Advances in Water Resources, 30, 171-181.
  • Gostick, J.T., Fowler, M.W., Pritzker, M.D., Ioannidis, M.A. and Behra, L.M. (2006). "In-plane and Through-plane Gas Permeability of Carbon Fiber Electrode Backing Layers", Journal of Power Sources, 162, 228-238..
  • Ioannidis, M.A., Chatzis, I., Lemaire, C. and Perunarkilli, R. (2006). "Unsaturated Hydraulic Conductivity from Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Measurements", Water Resources Research, 42 (7), Art. No. W07201.
  • Gostick, J.T., Fowler, M.W., Ioannidis, M.A., Pritzker, M.D., Volfkovich, Y.M. and Sakars, A. (2006). "Capillary Pressure and Hydrophilic Porosity in Gas Diffusion Layers for Polymer Electrolyte Fuel Cells", Journal of Power Sources, 156, 375-387.
  • Sharmin, R., Ioannidis, M.A. and Legge, R.L. (2006). "Effect of Nonionic Surfactant Partitioning on the Dissolution Kinetics of Residual Perchlorethylene in a Model Porous Medium", Journal of Contaminant Hydrology, 82, 145-164.
  • Radlinski, A.P., Ioannidis, M.A., Hinde, A.L., Hainbuchner, M., Baron, M., Rauch, H., and Kline, S.R. (2004). "Angstrom to Millimeter Characterization of Sedimentary Rock Microstructure", Journal of Colloid and Interface Science, 274, 607-612.
  • Olayinka, S. and Ioannidis, M.A. (2004). "Time-Dependent Diffusion and Surface-Enhanced Relaxation in Stochastic Replicas of Porous Rock", Transport in Porous Media, 54, 273-275.
  • Zhao, W. and Ioannidis, M.A. (2003). "Pore Network Modeling of the Dissolution of a Single-component Wetting NAPL in Porous Media", Water Resources Research, 39(10), 1291.
  • Sahloul, N.A., Ioannidis, M.A. and Chatzis, I. (2002). "Dissolution of Residual Non-Aqueous Phase Liquids in Porous Media: Pore-Scale Mechanisms and Mass-Transfer Rates", Advances in Water Resources, 25, 33-49.
  • Chang, D. and Ioannidis, M.A. (2002). "Magnetization Evolution in Network Models of Porous Rock under Conditions of Drainage and Imbibition", Journal of Colloid and Interface Science, 253, 159-170.
  • Talukdar, S., Torsaeter, O. and Ioannidis, M.A. (2002). "Stochastic Reconstruction of Chalk from 2D Images", Transport in Porous Media, 48, 101-123.
  • Ceballos-Ruano, J.S., Kupka, T., Nicoll, D.W., Benson, J.W., Ioannidis, M.A., Hansson, C. and Pintar, M.M. (2002). "NMR Monitoring of Capillary Transport and Diffusion of Water into White Cement", Journal of Applied Physics, 91, 6588-6594.
  • Liang, Z., Ioannidis, M.A. and Chatzis, I. (2000). "Permeability and Electrical Conductivity from 3D Stochastic Replicas of the Microstructure", Chemical Engineering Science, 55, 5247-5262.
  • Liang, Z., Ioannidis, M.A. and Chatzis, I. (2000). "Geometric and Topological Analysis of Three-Dimensional Porous Media: Pore Space Partitioning Based on Morphological Skeletonization", Journal of Colloid and Interface Science, 221 , 13-24.
  • Bekri, S., Xu, K., Yousefian, F., Adler, P.M., Thovert, J.-F., Muller, J., Iden, K., Psyllos, A., Stubos, A.K. and Ioannidis, M.A. (2000). "Pore Geometry and Transport Properties in North Sea Chalk", Journal of Petroleum Science & Engineering, 25, 107-134.
  • Ioannidis, M.A. and Chatzis, I. (2000), "A Dual-Network Model of Pore Structure for Vuggy Carbonates (PDF)", Proceedings of the International Symposium of the Society of Core Analysts, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, Oct. 18-22.