Martin Ferer, Ph.D.

Contact

Professor
West Virginia University
Department of Physics
White Hall 309
PO Box 6315
Morgantown, WV 26506-6315

Phone: 304-293-5099
E-mail: mferer@mail.wvu.edu

Research

Fractal characteristics have now been observed for a number of seemingly disparate growth phenomena: the advance of a fluid/fluid interface during fluid flow, a variety of schemes for material deposition, the development and growth of cracks during a fracturing process, to name a few. As the field of fractal growth phenomena matures, the emphasis is shifting from cataloguing the unstable growth phenomena that obey a fractal geometry towards understanding what features of this growth phenomena cause the fractal character and to what extent the fractal behavior affects the behavior of equilibrium growth.

Our research on two-phase flow in porous media has demonstrated how the fractal behavior affects the viscosity dependence of uniform/compact flow. Specifically, there is a crossover from fractal to compact advance of the fluid/fluid interface when the ratio of the viscosities between the two fluids is decreased from infinity (i.e. increasing from zero viscosity injected fluid). Not only have we determined the time scale on which this fractal to compact crossover occurs; we have also determined how it depends upon the fluid viscosities. This time scale influences the behavior of the flow in the uniform/compact flow regime by determining the viscosity-ratio dependence of the usual density and current flow descriptors.

Currently, we are studying the fractal to compact crossover for flow in three-dimensional porous media, thereby extending the previous work in two-dimensional layers. We are also studying the effect of capillary pressure on the crossover. In addition, we have studied models of the fracture of materials to determine what features of the systems affect the fractal character of the fracture.

Selected Publications

Two-Phase Flow in Porous Media: Predicting Its Dependence on Capillary Number and Viscosity Ratio, M. Ferer, Shelley L. Anna, Paul Tortora, J. R. Kadambi, M. Oliver, Grant S. Bromhal, and Duane Smith, Transport in Porous Media, 86, 273-289 (2011) DOI 10.1007/s11242-010-9619-3.
Characterizing the Correlations of Failure Events: a 2-d block and springs model, by M. Ferer and Duane H. Smith; Strain a Wiley-Blackwell, DOI: 10.1111/j.1475-1305.2010.00758.x, available online.
Miscible Viscous Fingering in Three Dimensions: fractal-to-compact crossover and Interfacial Roughness, by M. Ferer, Grant S. Bromhal, and Duane H. Smith, Phys.Rev.E 80, 011602 (2009).
A Pore-Level Model of Drainage with Stable Viscosity Ratios: Crossover from Fractal Capillary Fingering to Compact Flow, by M. Ferer, Grant S. Bromhal, and Duane H. Smith, Physical Review E, 76, 046304 (7 pages), 2007.
Patchy Cleaning of Rigid Gas Filters-Transient Regeneration Phenomena: Comparison of Modeling to Experiment, Achim Dittler, M. Ferer, Pulkit-Mathur, P. Djuranovic, Gerhard Kasper, and Duane Smith, Powder Technology, 124, 55-66 (2002)

Education

Ph.D., Univ. of Il. at Champaign-Urbana, 1972 B.S., University of Detroit, 1966

WiSE Women

The WiSE Giving Circle brings together West Virginia University alumnae and friends who want to impact the field of science by encouraging and mentoring young women in their pursuit of professional careers within the STEM disciplines – science, technology, engineering, and math.

Life and Death of Comets

With more awareness of comets and asteroids coming close to the Earth and even entering our atmosphere, it is crucial that we understand the life and death of these celestial bodies. Harvard-Smithsonian Professor John Raymond describes the way Sun-grazing comets come to an end. In particular, he gives us an account of the death of the Lovejoy comet that took place in December 2011 and how it was used to better understand the Sun’s corona.

New Research Award to Fund Doctoral Students

Mohindar Seehra, Ph.D. has created the Dr. Mohindar S. Seehra Research Award. The goal of this annual award will be to recognize a doctoral student who is advancing research in physics in the Eberly College of Arts and Sciences by publishing his/her research in high-quality peer-reviewed physics journals. All physics doctoral candidates are eligible for consideration for the award.