Katharina Heck: AQUA Study Prize Winner 2021

Katharina Heck, SFB 1313 post-doctoral researcher and manager, is one of the three winners of the AQUA study prize 2021, awarded by the AQUA Foundation. She received the prize for her outstanding dissertation, entitled "Modelling and analysis of multicomponent transport at the interface between free- and porous-medium flow - influenced by radiation and roughness", during the award ceremony of the Faculty 2 of the University of Stuttgart on 2 July 2021. The dissertation was supervised by the SFB 1313 members Rainer Helmig, Joachim Groß, and Insa Neuweiler.

Congratulations!

Dissertation Abstract

Quantifying evaporation rates and the emission of greenhouse gases from soil plays an important role in predicting changing climate conditions worldwide. Natural and anthropogenic sources of carbon dioxide and methane in soil, e.g. landfills, lead to the migration of these gaseous components in the subsurface and into the atmosphere. The complexity of predicting emissions of these greenhouse gases from the soil into the atmosphere is high, as not only processes in the porous medium influence the transport, but also the ambient atmospheric conditions like wind velocities or solar radiation have a substantial influence on the exchange processes. In order to analyse the governing processes and add to the fundamental understanding of coupled porous-medium free-flow processes, this work uses and further develops a numerical model that is able to describe mass, momentum, and energy transfer between a porous medium and an adjacent free flow. Multicomponent diffusion is described by the Maxwell-Stefan formulation and the effects of the presence of multiple components on the exchange process between the soil and atmosphere is analysed. Dominating transport processes are investigated with the help of various set-ups, including non-planar surfaces and different soil types. The influence of a diurnal cycle of solar radiation on evaporation, surface temperatures and the emission of greenhouse gases is discussed and a comparison of modelled evaporation rates with experimental data is analysed.

About the AQUA Study Prize

The non-profit foundation AQUA was founded in 2000 by Professor Helmut and Gisa Kobus at the University of Stuttgart with the aim of promoting and supporting academic education in water-related subjects at the Faculty of Civil and Environmental Engineering (Faculty 2) of the University of Stuttgart. AQUA study prizes are awarded annually for student and doctoral projects.