| We study the physics of flow through porous materials in two different ways: by directly visualizing flow through a model three-dimensional (3D) porous medium, and by investigating the deformability of fluid-filled microcapsules having porous shells.;In the first part of this thesis, we develop an experimental approach to directly visualize fluid flow through a 3D porous medium. We use this to investigate drainage, the displacement of a wetting fluid from a porous medium by a non-wetting fluid, as well as secondary imbibition, the subsequent displacement of the non-wetting fluid by the wetting fluid. We characterize the intricate morphologies of the non-wetting fluid ganglia left trapped within the pore space, and show how the ganglia configurations vary with the wetting fluid flow rate. We then visualize the spatial fluctuations in the fluid flow, both for single- and multi-phase flow. We use our measurements to quantify the strong variability in the flow velocities, as well as the pore-scale correlations in the flow. Finally, we use our experimental approach to study the simultaneous flow of both a wetting and a non-wetting fluid through a porous medium, and elucidate the flow instabilities that arise for sufficiently large flow rates.;In the second part of this thesis, we study the mechanical properties of porous spherical microcapsules. We first introduce emulsions, and describe how their rheology depends on the microscopic interactions between the drops comprising them. We then study the formation and buckling of one class of microcapsule -- nanoparticle-coated emulsion drops. We also use double emulsions, drops within drops, as templates to form another class of microcapsule -- drops coated with thin, porous, polymer shells. We investigate how, under sufficient osmotic pressure, these microcapsules buckle, and show how the inhomogeneity in the shell structure can guide the folding pathway taken by a microcapsule as it buckles. Finally, we study the expansion and rupture of microcapsules under the influence of electrostatic forces. For both buckling and expansion, we show that the deformation dynamics can be understood by coupling shell theory with Darcy's law for flow through the porous microcapsule shell. |
