| Time: | July 16, 2026 |
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Dr. Hannelore Derluyn, researcher at the Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS, France), will give the SFB 1313 Anneliese Niethammer Lecture of the summer semester 2026. Her talk will be on "Salt crystallization in porous media: Insights from X-ray and Neutron Imaging under Controlled Experimental Conditions".
Speaker: : Dr. Hannelore Derluyn, CNRS researcher & Professor by Special Appointment, University of Amsterdam (The Netherlands)
Title: "Salt crystallization in porous media: Insights from X-ray and Neutron Imaging under Controlled Experimental Conditions"
Date: Thursday, 16 July 2026
Time: 4:00 pm CET
Place: MML, Pfaffenwaldring 61, 70569 Stuttgart, Campus Vaihingen of the University of Stuttgart. If you are interested in participating in the lecture online, please contact samaneh.vahiddastjerdi@mechbau.uni-stuttgart.de
Abstract
Salt crystallization damages a wide range of building materials, from brick masonry and natural stones to decorative architectural elements such as ceramic tiles. Salts infiltrate these materials as saline solutions, originating from sources such as coastal salt spray or rising damp. Surface crystallization (efflorescence) harms aesthetics, whereas in-pore crystallization (subflorescence), generates stresses that may crack the material. Hereby new fluid pathways are created while simultaneously decreasing the integrity of the material, paving the way for an intensification of the deterioration process during successive precipitation-dissolution cycles. Climate change leads to an increase of these cycles, amplifying the threat of salt weathering to our natural and built environment.
Understanding the coupling between transport, salt precipitation, and crack initiation/propagation in porous media remains a critical research challenge. While interdisciplinary efforts have advanced our understanding of salt-driven dynamics across scales, from single pores to entire buildings, significant gaps persist. Most studies focus on single materials or macroscopic behavior, with limited attention to multilayered systems or the meso-scale interactions that govern transport, precipitation, and fracture kinetics. Experiments in which these processes can be studied simultaneously are thus essential to advance our insights in these coupled phenomena.
To that extent, non-destructive X-ray and neutron micro-computed tomography have proven to be very powerful techniques. I will illustrate their potential by discussing crystallization-induced fracturing in a heterogeneously layered sandstone, demonstrating how the heterogeneous layers play a critical role in the initiation and propagation of damage when exposing the sandstone to an accelerated salt weathering protocol with sodium sulphate. Subsequently, I’ll present a study on a limestone plug with contrasting wettability zones (hydrophobic and hydrophilic). The stone consists of a heterogeneous, multimodal pore structure, with pore sizes ranging from nanometers to micrometers. Initially saturated with brine, the plug is subjected to drying and subsequent deliquescence. The interplay between the multimodal pore structure, drying-rewetting, precipitation-dissolution, and fracture dynamics is analysed based on 4D X-ray imaging while employing an advanced image analysis workflow integrating digital volume correlation and deep-learning segmentation. In a third study, we examined drying and salt accumulation kinetics in a model porous medium of consolidated glass beads with a hydrophobic and a hydrophilic part, elucidating the formation of efflorescence and subflorescence for both sodium chloride and sodium sulphate. I’ll conclude the talk with an assessment of the damaging effects of these salts on Dutch antique ceramic tiles and on Khondalite rock, a heritage stone from India, demonstrating the value of X-ray micro-tomography as a non-destructive technique for conservation science.
About Hannelore Derluyn
Hannelore Derluyn started her academic career as a research assistant at KU Leuven (Belgium), and obtained her PhD degree from ETH Zurich (Switzerland) in 2012 on the topic of salt transport and crystallization in porous media, combining poromechanical modeling with neutron and X-ray imaging experiments. Subsequently, she was a postdoctoral fellow of the Research Foundation Flanders (FWO) at Ghent University (Belgium), where she specialized in dynamic X-ray micro-tomography. In 2016, she was appointed as a CNRS researcher and joined the research group Mechanics and Physics of Porous Media at the Laboratory of Complex Fluids and their Reservoirs of the University of Pau & Pays de l’Adour (France). Her experimental work is being developed in strong collaboration with the Centre for X-ray Imaging in Pau. Since 2025, she combines her CNRS position with a Chair on Structure and Dynamics of Porous Media as Professor by Special Appointment at the University of Amsterdam (The Netherlands).
In 2013, she was awarded the ETH Silver Medal for her PhD thesis and in 2020 the CNRS Bronze Medal for her early-career work. She was the principal investigator of the ERC Starting Grant PRD-Trigger (2020-2026). She is the editor, together with Dr. Marc Prat, of a book on Salt Crystallization in Porous Media. She served for 6 years as expert panel member of FWO’s panel on Science, Technology and Sociotechnical Analysis of the Built Environment and was a steering committee member of the France National Interpore Chapter. She is currently a board member of the Interpore Foundation, and an editorial board member of the Journal of Building Physics.
About the SFB 1313 Anneliese Niethammer Lecture Series
Anneliese Niethammer was the first female professor of the University of Stuttgart in 1947. The lecture series, dedicated to Anneliese Niethammer, is organised by the Collaborative Research Center (SFB) 1313 and takes place once a semester. Renowned international female researchers speak on relevant topics of current research in the research area of porous media.
[Picture: Frédérique Plas]
[Picture: SFB 1313]