1. Classification and characterization of porous media

Porous media are very diverse in nature, as illustrated by a few examples in figure 1 , both in terms of the chemical composition of the materials that make them up, and in terms of the geometric structure delimiting the pore space. They are used in a wide range of applications. Without seeking to be exhaustive, the following examples illustrate this diversity:

• natural porous media of geological origin, such as sands, reservoir rocks, argillites encountered in waste storage or as hydrocarbon reservoirs, and fractured media;

• biological media: wood, plant and animal tissues, biofilms ;

• manufactured porous media: chemical engineering materials (catalytic beds, structured materials), civil engineering...