The official Porous Media Lab inauguration took place in 24 November 2022 with over 50 guests from the University of Stuttgart. The inaugural ceremony was opened by our SFB 1313 principal investigator Prof. Dr.-Ing. Holger Steeb and the rector of the University of Stuttgart, Prof. Dr.-Ing Wolfram Ressel. After the official part, the team of Holger Steeb offere guided lab tours in the PML, showing the experimental set-ups and explaining the use of them.
History and Context
The PML was already established in 2015 when Prof. Holger Steeb was joining the University of Stuttgart. The idea at that time was to install a shared laboratory facility for Porous Media Research at the University of Stuttgart. The PML should be a novel facility for researchers who are interested in the characterization of the coupled electro-thermo-hydro-chemo-mechanical properties of various kinds of porous materials on various scales. Since 2015, a lot has evolved and the idea of the PML was adopted, further developed and step-by-step embedded in various larger-scale cooperative research activities at University of Stuttgart. Nowadays, the PML is quite established and a well established fundamental experimental platform in the Collaborative Research Centre SFB 1313 "Interface-Driven Multi-Field Processes in Porous Media – Flow, Transport and Deformation" and in the Cluster of Excellence EXC 2075 "Data-Integrated Simulation Science", as well as in various "smaller" projects funded by the German Science Foundation (DFG).
The PML is very well embedded into the infrastructure of the University of Stuttgart. The already explained experimental data obtained from microfluidic investigations or XRCT characterization within the PML are stored and published via DaRUS, the official data repository of the University of Stuttgart, which offers a secure location for research data and codes, and allows for the exchange of data within a research group, for sharing with selected partners or for publishing. Nowadays, the PML is one of the research facilities at the University of Stuttgart being most active in DaRUS.
PML – National and International Shared Lab
The PML is not a "virtual lab" – it is a physical lab, where scientist actively work and share their expertise in all fields related to porous media research. Running the PML as a real "shared lab" is one of the basic ideas of the PML -- in addition to the "core" researchers of the group of Holger Steeb. Scientists from further groups at the University of Stuttgart but also from other national or international universities visit the PML for a couple of days, weeks or months and use the state-of-the-art characterization tools.
The PML is not a service platform where expensive "out-the-shelf-instruments" are ran by Technicians. It's a lab where researchers carefully design experimental set-ups and, often in combination with the core team, perform their investigations themselves. This is the spirit of the PML! New experimental set-ups and ideas are continuously developed by researchers! Thus, the PML is always under development.
