Yves Méheust, PhD HdR
Associate Professor (Maître de Conférence Hors Classe) of Quantitative Hydrogeology
See also my references in the addressbook of "Université Rennes 1"
I have been an Associate Prof. of Quantitative Hydrogeology at UR1 since september 2006.
You can read more about my background here.
I am currently in charge of research team TERA ("Fluids, Transport and Reactivity"), after having been for two years in charge of team DIMENV ("Dynamics, Imaging and Modeling of Environmental Systems") and for 4 years in charge of the Hydrology group within DIMENV. See here the presentation (pdf) of the team's activity for the period 2016-2020, which I prepared and gave at the occasion of the HCÉRES audit of Géosciences Rennes in March 2021.
I have also been in charge for some years of the Analog Lab for Experiments in Hydrology, which in 2022 was included into the new OSU platform IMAGEO for experimental imaging of hydro-bio-geophysical systems. See here the presentation (pdf) of the lab's activity for the period 2016-2020, which I prepared and gave for the aforementioned audit (it is also available as a video on youtube here).
My scientific interests include the couplings between flow (including two-phase flow and the flow of non-Newtonian fluids), solute mixing and transport (including reactive), and biological activity, in porous and fractured media,
as well as the physics of clay minerals (swelling, water diffusion, complex fluids made of clay suspensions). Applicative contexts include soil remediation and underground storage of CO2.
I combine laboratory experiments (table-top setups and synchrotron experiments), numerical simulations and theoretical analyses (when possible). My research page will tell you a bit more.
My publications are listed here.
Over the years I have taught various aspects of transfers in the subsurface, and of catchment hydrology (including hydrological risks).
Between September 2008 and August 2012 I was responsible for the environmental course of the Master program
"Systèmes Complexes Naturels et Industriels" of Université Rennes 1.
See here to know more about my teaching.
Last updated on March 28th 2022.
Professional experience:
Academic background:
Language skills:
Last updated on Nov. 24th 2021.
Research topics over the years:
- Coupling between flows and heat transport in fractured media (2019- )
- Convective dissolution of CO$_2$ in deep saline aquifers (2017- )
- Link between electrical transport and (reactive) solute transport by subsurface flows (2014- )
- Lubrication-based electro-hydrodynamics in rough fractures (2016- )
- Flow of non-Newtonian fluids (foams, emulsions, polymer solutions) in porous and fractured media (2011- )
- (Reactive) transport and mixing of solutes in the unsaturated zone (2011-)
- Physical properties of smectite clays: hydration, clay-based complex fluids (2002- )
- Free surface flow of thixotropic clayey soils; application to liquefaction and landslides (20018-2010 and 2018- )
- Impact of fracture wall roughness on single phase and two-pahse flows in fractured media (1998-2001 and 2009-)
Current funded projects of which I am PI of Co-PI:
- MSCA (EU) project ExpeCO2SolTrap (Supervisor): dissolution trapping of CO$_2$
- CNRS MITI CO2seqVel (2021-2022): pore scale velocity during convective dissolution
- ANR IMAGE (Co-PI): induced-polarization-monitored biodegradation of a NAPL
- ANR 2PhlowFrac (PI): two-phase flow in rough fractures and application to the residual trapping of CO$_2$ in fractured aquifers
- Bienvenüe (EU-Région Bretagne) COsmerysh (Supervisor): joint CO$_2$ storage and methane recovery in shales
Current projects in which I am participating:
- ANR INFLOW (PI Khalil Hanna, École Nationale Supérieure de Chimie de Rennes): coupling of pore scale reactant transport and heterogeneous reactions in porous media.
- Distributed optical measurements of temperature transport in porous media (PI Maria Klepikova, Géosciences Rennes)
Past funded projects:
- Supervisor of MSCA (EU) project UnsatPoreMix (2019-2021): solute mixing in insaturated porous media
- Supervisor of MSCA (EU) project GeoElectricMixing (2017-2019): coupling between solute transport and electrical transport
- Co-PI of ANR project CO2-3D (2017-2022): Solubility trapping of CO2 in deep aquifers
- PI of Région-Bretagne project CO2seq3D (2018-2019): Rayleigh-Darcy instability in porous media
- ITN (EU) ENIGMA (2017-2021, PIs Philippe Davy et Tanguy Le Borgne): innovative methods for imaging process dynamics in subsurface hydrosystems
- ERC Consolidator (EU) ReactiveFronts (2016-2020, PI Tanguy Le Borgne)
- ANR Subsurface Mixing and Reactions (2014-2017, PI Tanguy Le Borgne)
Experimental techniques/tools:
- Table-top 3D flow and transport experiments in permeable media
- Millifluidics and microfluidics to study mixing and (reactive) transport of solutes by flow
- Wide and small angle X-ray scattering (in particular at synchrotrons)
- Rheometry
- Image analysis (flow images, diffractograms)
Numerical simulations:
Simulations of simple (single-phase or two-phase) fluid flow and solute transport configurations, by finite differences (own codes), finite volume (OpenFOAM) or finite elements (Freefem++), in 2D or 3D.
Last updated on May 11th 2022.
Supervision of young researchers (current):
- PhD students:
- Main supervisor of Amin Rezaei (2012-2025, co-supervisor Insa Neuweiler, Univ. Hannover): residual trapping of CO$_2$ in fracture media.
- Co-supervisor of Rahul Krishna (2021-2025, main supervisor Insa Neuweiler, Univ. Hannover): residual trapping of CO$_2$ in fracture media.
- Co-supervisor of Alessandro Lenci (2019-2022, main supervisor Vittorio de Federico, Univ. Bologna): polymer flow in geological fractures.
- Postdoctoral fellows:
- Manab Mukherjee: joint CO$_2$ storage and methane recovery in shales.
- Shabina Ashraf: dissolution trapping of CO$_2$.
- Oshri Borgman: solute mixing in unsaturate porous media and by two-phase flow.
Past supervisions:
- PhD students:
- Co-supervisor of Antoine Hubert (2019-2022, main supervisor Tanguy Le Borgne): shear-thinning flow in geological fractures.
Antoine is now research engineer in a company that makes apparatus for in-vitro medical diagnostics. - Main supervisor of Régis Turuban (2012-2017, co-supervisor Tanguy Le Borgne): Numerical and experimental studies of mixing in two-dimensionanl and three-dimensional porous media.
Régis is now a postdoc at ISSA in Trieste (Italy) - Supervision of the experimental work of Pietro de Anna (2010-2012), supervisors Philippe Davy et Tanguy Le Borgne): solute mixing in porous media.
Pietro is now Associate Professor at ISTE, Univ. Lausanne (Switzerland). - Co-supervisor of Jérémy Bouquain (2008-2012, main supervisor Philippe Davy): impact of gravitational and inertial effects on solute transport.
Jérémy is now a high school teacher. - Co-supervisor of Laure Michel (2006-2009, mais supervisor Jean de Bremond d'Ars): solute transport by fracture flow and interaction with the matrix.
Laure is now an hydrogeological engineer in a private company. - Co-supervisor of Davi de Miranda Fonseca (2003-2008, main supervisor Jon Otto Fossum): phase separation and orientational ordering of clay particles in saline aqueous suspensions.
Davi is now a research engineer, in charge of an academic research laboratory at NTNU Trondheim (Norway). - Co-supervisor of Kanak Pal Singh Parmar (2002-2006, main supervisor Jon Otto Fossum): electrorheological structures of nano-layered silicates.
Kanak is now an Associate Professor at UPES (India). - Postdoctoral fellows:
- Jayabrata Dhar (2018-2020): dissolution trapping of CO$_2$.
Jayabrata is now an assistant professor at BITS Pilani, Hyperabad (India). - Uddipta Ghosh (2016-2018): link between reactive transport and electrical transport in porous media.
Uddipta is now an assistant professor at IIT Gandhinagar (India). - Joris Heyman (2016-2018, main supervisor Tanguy Le Borgne): chaotic advection in 3D porous media.
Joris is now a CNRS research scientist in our team. - Baudouin Géraud (2016-2017), solute mixing in porous media.
Baudouin is now a Principal Physicist at Cambridge Consultants (UK). - Aditya Bandopadhyay (2015-2016, main supervisor Tanguy Le Borgne), reactive mixing in porous media.
Aditya is now an assistant professor at IIT Kharagpur. - Joaquin Jimenez (2010-2014, co-supervision with Tanguy Le Borgne), solute transport and mixing in unsaturated porous media.
Joaquin is now a research scientist/group leader at EAWAG and lecturer at ETH Zürich (Switzerland). - Baudouin Géraud (2013-2014, main supervisor Isabelle Cantat, IPR UR1), foam flow in porous media.
Baudouin is now a Principal Physicist at Cambridge Consultants (UK). -
Siân Jones (2012-2013, main supervisor Isabelle Cantat), IPR UR1)foam flow in porous media.
Siân is now a researcher at DTU (Danmark).
Collaborations:
- Current:
- At Geosciences Rennes: Tanguy Le Borgne, Maria Klepikova, Joris Heyman.
- In other French institutions: Patrice Meunier (IRPHE, Univ. Aix-Marseille), Hervé Tabuteau (Institut de Physique de Rennes - IPR), Damien Jougnot (METIS, Sorbonne Univ.), Sylvie Collin (METIS, Sorbonne Univ.).
- Abroad: Vittorio di Federico (Univ. Bologna, Italy), Insa Neuweiler (Leibniz Universität Hannover, Germany, François Nadal (Univ. Loughborrow, UK),Jon Otto Fossum (NTNU, Trondheim, Norway), Marco Dentz (UPC, Barcelona, Spain), Daniel Bonn (University of Amsterdam), Alex Hansen (NTNU, Trondheim), Joaquín Jiménez-Martínez (ETH Zürich, Switerland), Daniel Lester (CISCO Melbourne, Australia), Knut Jørgen Måløy (UiO, Oslo, Norway).
- Past:
- At Geosciences Rennes: Philippe Davy, Jean-Raynald de Dreuzy, Jean de Bremond d'Ars.
- In other French institutions: Isabelle Cantat (Institut de Physique de Rennes - IPR), Benjamin Dollet (IPR), Bloen Metzger (IUSTI, Univ. Aix-Marseille), Henri Lhuissier (IUSTI, Univ. Aix-Marseille), Renaud Toussaint (IPG Strasbourg), Jean Schmittbuhl (IPG Strasbourg).
- Abroad: Pietro de Anna (then MIT, USA), Nima Shokri (Univ. Manchester, UK), Diogo Bolder (Notre Dame, USA), Niklas Linde (Univ. Lausanne, Switzerland), Marcio Carvalho (PUC-Rio, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil), Sidnei Paciornik (PUC-Rio, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil), Kenneth Knudsen (IFE, Kjaeller, Norway), Grunde Løvoll (UiO, Oslo, Norway), Ivan Lunati (Univ. Lausanne, Switzerland), Zhibing Yang (MIT, USA), Lirong Zhong (PNNL, Richland, USA), Bjørnar Sandnes (Univ. Swansea, UK), Geraldo José da Silva (UnB, Brasilia, Brazil).
Last updated on May 11th 2022.
Lectures:
Like most academics in France, I teach about 192 hours (in the class room or on the field) a year.
Most of my lectures are given in the first (M1) or second (M2) year of M.Sc., that is, the 4th or 5th year of university.
The M.Sc. programs of Université Rennes 1 in which I teach have been Hydro3 and
Systèmes Complexes Naturels et Industriels.
- Fluid Mechanics for hydrologeologists (M1)
- Hydrogeological modeling (M2)
- Catchment Hydrology field trip (M1)
- Practicals of hydrogeological modeling (M1)
- Basic Fluid Mechanics (M1)
- Environmental risks (for physics students, M1)
- Statistics applied to the prediction of environmental risks (M1))
- Flow and transport in heterogeneous media: at the fracture scale (M2)
- Solute transport in geological fractures (M2)
- Two-phase flows in porous media (M2)
- Hydrological risks (M1)
- Hydrogeology field trip (M1)
- Geological materials (M1 in Material Science)
- Dynamics of the Atmosphere (L3)
- Practicals of Geodynamics (L3, at École Normale Supérieure)
- Mathematics for Geologists (L1 and L2, at Univ. Paris-Sud Orsay)
- Polymer dynamics (M1, at NTNU Trondheim)
Responsabilities:
Since 2016 I have been responsible for the sub-program MTH (Modeling of Hydrological Transfers) of the Hydro3 M. Sc. program.
Between September 2008 and August 2012 I was responsible for the environmental course of the Systèmes Complexes Naturels et Industriels M. Sc. program at Université Rennes 1, which I helped set up with colleagues at the Institute of Physics of Rennes and ECOBIO institute.
Last updated on May 10th 2022.
See the full list of my publication below.
If you want to see a searchable list of my publications (by year, type of publication or keyword), click
here.