New Jersey Institute of Technology
Department of Mathematical Sciences

Capstone Laboratory

Stochastic Modeling of Porous Media Flow


Supported by NSF grant No. DMS - 1615719 and by the NJIT provost fellowship

Instructor: Lou Kondic

Lab Assistant: Binan Gu



This project focuses on the modeling of filtration mechanism via stochastic Monte-Carlo type of simulations. Here, filtration process is modeled via random walkers which stick to the membrane walls if their random motion brings them to the vicinity of the membrane walls. Random walks continue until clogging of the pore. The particular aspect of the problem that the project focused on was the influence of the pore shape on throughput (how many particles managed to pass through a pore) and on time of clogging. Figure shows an example of the simulations. The students have found out that a large number of simulations is needed to reduce statistical effects and have therefore put together scripts that allowed them to carry out thousands of simulations of clogging progress. The outcome was then compared to the continuum model results that had been developed previously. This project continued as a summer research project for one of the participating students, Catherine Sousa. The project was supported by NSF grant No. DMS - 1615719 and by the NJIT provost fellowship.

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