The official kick-off event of the second funding period of the Collaborative Research Center (SFB) 1313 of the University of Stuttgart took place on 19 May 2022. Around 70 members, colleagues and friends came together in the SimTech building at Pfaffenwaldring 5a. Prof. Dr.-Ing. habil. Manfred Bischof, Vice Rector for Research and Early Career Researchers at the University of Stuttgart, gave a short introduction and handed over to SFB 1313 spokesman Prof. Dr.-Ing. Rainer Helmig.
Rainer Helmig gave a an overview about past activities within SFB 1313, the research structure, developments, achievements and results as well as an outlook regarding the second funding period. Porous media can be found almost everywhere. Flow, transport and deformation processes can be found in environmental, technical and biological systems. A few examples are bone stabilization, processes in the fuel cell, environmental problems such as energy storage, the development of medicine on demand etc. Thus, it is important to get a fundamental understanding of these processes taking place in porous media.
Our invited speaker was Prof. Dr. Angelika Humbert, glaciologist and head of the working group on ice sheet modelling at the Alfred Wegener Institute and professor at the University of Bremen. Her talk on “The subglacial hydrological system of Greenland and Antarctica - known unknowns and current modelling approaches” gave an overview of her research. She explained why the nearly inaccessible base of ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica is over vast areas wet and why this condition makes ice sheet dynamics a gravity driven lubricated flow problem that causes at the end the rise of the sea level. A multi-scale problem that isn’t easy to model and simulate and that makes the consequences of the climate change very visible.
After the official part of the SFB 1313 kick-off event all guests met at Campus Guest for a get-together with drinks and finger food. It was great to be able to meet again in presence and to exchange ideas on the spot.
