Capillary driven flow through Bio-inspired Hierarchical Anisotropic Porous Structures (BioCap-Flow)
Capillary-driven flow is a fundamental mechanism governing liquid transport in natural and engineered porous materials, with applications ranging from biological systems to advanced manufacturing. However, the complex, hierarchical, and anisotropic pore networks found in bio-based materials and fibre-reinforced composites remain poorly understood. This project aims to investigate the relationship between multiscale pore architecture and capillary flow by combining advanced imaging techniques, microfluidic experiments, and computational modelling. The knowledge generated will support the design of sustainable porous materials with tailored fluid transport properties, contributing to next-generation bio-inspired materials and manufacturing technologies.
Natural porous materials, such as wood, and engineered fibrous structures exhibit interconnected pore networks spanning multiple length scales, making liquid transport difficult to predict. Understanding how pore geometry influences capillary flow is essential for improving processes such as composite manufacturing, filtration, and the development of bio-inspired materials.
The project uses spruce wood and fibre-reinforced fabrics as representative model systems and combines X-ray microtomography, synchrotron imaging, micro-particle image velocimetry (μPIV), and numerical modelling to characterize liquid transport across different scales. By linking pore architecture with flow behaviour, the project will provide new insights into capillary transport and support the development of advanced porous materials with optimized fluid transport properties.
Image: Spruce wood scanned with existing x-ray microtomography (XMT) at LTU by co-applicant Forsberg. Red arrows point at tracheids and interconnecting pores can also be spotted
a) Sliced 3D-image with field of view 1 mm and resolution 1.0 mm
b) Top view.
c) Side view
Funding:
This project is supported by the Swedish Research Council (grant numbers 2024-04195, 2022-03946 and 2018-07152), Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation (WISE-AP01-PD24), MAX IV Laboratory (grant 2024-1271), VINNOVA (grant 2018-04969), Swedish Research Council Formas (grant 2019-02496), and Luleå University of Technology.
Publications:
T. Staffan Lundström, J. Gunnar I. Hellström, Anna-Lena Ljung, Fredrik Forsberg, Henrik Lycksam, Mehrdad Mashkour, Mandeep Singh, Kristiina Oksman, Johannes A. J. Huber. Capillary-Driven Flow Through Biological Porous Media: X-ray Microtomography and Computational Fluid Dynamics. Transport in Porous Media. October 2025. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11242-025-02238-5
