In my group we focus on the effect of heterogeneities that characterize Earth and other planetary bodies over a wide range of scales impact the transfer of energy, chemicals (reactions) and mass and ultimately how it shapes our dynamical environment. Heterogeneities promote disequilibrium which is an essential ingredient for a habitable planet. A general question that we face frequently during our investigations is to what extent and how do small-scale processes influence the dynamics at greater scales. The approach we use to address these topics is to test our hypotheses using a combination of theoretical work, numerical calculations, laboratory experiments (fluid lab) and field data. In that context we study the physics of multiphase systems including:
-) the interaction between gas, melt and crystals in magmatic environments
-) the transport of fluids and chemicals in porous media
-) multiphase flow dynamics (with an emphasis on bubble interactions),
-) the design of new upscaling methods to study natural systems at the continuum scale,
-) the development of new lattice Boltzmann numerical methods to study pore-scale dynamics and feedbacks in complex systems.