Dynamics of Solids and Fluids

This course provides students with an understanding of basic concepts and mathematical solutions of fluid and solid dynamics relevant to earth system with applications to atmosphere, oceans, and the Solid Earth especially relevant to underground geological reservoirs. The course offers the students in-depth skills to investigate how to derive the governing equations of fluid dynamics and solid dynamics, to explain how these are applied and simplified for flow and solid dynamics in the atmosphere, ocean and the underground reservoirs (solid Earth). Students will also carry out exercises as group assignments which can include computer programing that exemplify simple models built on these governing equations.

The course has 2 parts: The Part 1 (Q1, 3EC) all students will learn about the fundamentals relevant to all Earth components, which is offered in Q1. In part 2 of the course (Q2, 3EC) the class will split in two groups, where the students decide whether they want to follow more in-depth contents on either the field of Geo-energy and Geo-resources (GE+GR), or to the field of Climate & Weather and Earth Observation (CW+EO).

The topics covered in the common part (Part 1, Q1, 3EC) are:

• Conservation Laws for mass, momentum and energy

• Dimensional analyses and dimension-less numbers

• Thermodynamics of pure and mixed fluids, and equation of state

• Introduction to solid mechanics of earth systems

The topics covered in the GE+GR track (Q2, 3EC) are:

• Single-phase flow in porous media (Porosity, Permeability, Darcy’s law)

• Heat transfer in porous media (conduction and convection, geothermal energy physical principles)

• Multiscale analyses and modeling (heterogeneities, anisotropic, upscaling)

• Diffusion/dispersion in porous media

• Multiphase flow in porous media (wettability, relative permeability, capillary pressure, stable/unstable multiphase flows)

• Solid Mechanics: Stress and strain tensors, 3D equilibrium equations, kinematic equations and constitutive equations in coordinate-free vector and index notation, Principal stresses, Effective stress, Coulomb stress, and Fault stability

The topics covered in the CW+EO track (Q2, 3EC) are:

• Laminar versus turbulent flows

• Buoyancy and thermal stability (for ocean and atmosphere systems)

• Convection

• Stability analysis

• Primitive equations

• Boussinesq and anelastic approximation

• Geostrophic and ageostrophic balanced flow

• Thermal wind and Hadley circulation

• Baroclinic instability (extratropical storms)

• Ekman flows

• Ice flow