About

Peter K. Kang is an Associate Professor and Gibson Chair of Hydrogeology in the Department of Earth & Environmental Sciences at the University of Minnesota. His research focuses on the physics of flow and reactive transport in porous and fractured media. His group combines theory, high-performance numerical simulations, machine learning, and visual laboratory experiments to understand how coupled processes control mixing and reactive transport across spatial scales from pore to field scale. Based on this understanding, he develops predictive models for groundwater, subsurface energy, and environmental applications. Kang's professional background includes a PhD from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (2014), with postdoctoral and research positions at MIT and the Korea Institute of Science and Technology. His teaching includes courses such as Fluid Earth Dynamics, General Hydrogeology, Field Hydrogeology Field Camp, and Fractured Rock Hydrogeology. He has received numerous awards, including the NSF CAREER Award, McKnight Presidential Fellow, and the George Taylor Career Development Award. His work has been published in leading scientific journals, and he is actively involved in professional societies such as the American Geophysical Union and the Minnesota Ground Water Association.

Research topics

• Computer Science
• Mathematics
• Physics
• Mechanics
• Mathematical analysis
• Chemistry
• Geology
• Geometry
• Geotechnical engineering
• Materials science

Selected publications

• Density–Inertia Coupling Drives Solute Trapping at Vertical Fracture Intersections

  Geophysical Research Letters · 2026-02-15

  articleOpen accessSenior authorCorresponding

  Abstract Density‐driven flow and fluid inertia jointly shape solute transport in fracture networks, with implications for hydrogeology and subsurface engineering. While their individual effects are well recognized, their coupled impact remains underexplored. We integrate pore‐to‐network‐scale dye visualization experiments and numerical simulations to investigate solute trapping at fracture intersections. At the network scale, 3D flume experiments show localized tracer retention caused by density‐induced convection and inertia‐driven vortices. Millifluidic experiments and simulations reveal that density contrast, flow imbalance, and fluid inertia govern these dynamics. Maximum trapping occurs when bottom fracture flow is ∼10% greater than the top, maximizing mass entry while minimizing loss. This imbalance promotes vortex‐driven retention and extended solute residence, leading to breakthrough curve tailing. Simulations in smooth and rough‐walled fractures confirm that roughness alters trapping locations but not the underlying mechanisms. These findings highlight the central role of coupled pore‐scale processes in controlling network‐scale transport and subsurface reactivity.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Flow-rate control of carbonate precipitation and permeability evolution in fractured basalt: Implications to geologic carbon mineralization

  2026-03-05

  article

  Carbon mineralization in basaltic formations stores CO2 as solid carbonates, but precipitation-induced clogging can degrade injectivity and storage capacity of the reservoir. This study examines how flow rate controls abiotic calcite precipitation patterns and permeability evolution in fractured basalt. A supersaturated solution was circulated at two flow rates (1 and 5 mL/min), and X-ray CT imaging quantified precipitation and porosity changes, revealing distinct precipitation patterns. Low flow caused localized clogging near the inlet, reducing permeability by two orders of magnitude with only 2.8% pore-volume calcite. High flow distributed precipitation along the fracture surfaces, yielding 7.6% pore-volume calcite and a four-order-of-magnitude permeability reduction, but with weaker sensitivity of permeability changes to porosity loss. Fracture-surface passivation occurred at both flow rates, diminishing growth of precipitation in the matrix. We demonstrate that the transport regime (Damköhler number) controls the formation of a localized barrier, with implications for injection strategies to limit near-well clogging.

  PublisherDOI

• Physics-informed neural networks with domain decomposition for inferring velocity fields from concentration fields

  AI Thermal Fluids · 2026-04-14

  article
  PublisherDOI

• Structural barriers to complete homogenization and wormholing in dissolving porous and fractured rocks

  International Journal of Rock Mechanics and Mining Sciences · 2026-01-31

  articleOpen access
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Structural barriers to complete homogenization and wormholing in dissolving porous and fractured rocks

  arXiv (Cornell University) · 2026-02-06

  preprintOpen access

  Dissolution in porous media and fractured rocks alters both the chemical composition of the fluid and the physical properties of the solid. Depending on system conditions, reactive flow may enlarge pores uniformly, widen pre-existing channels, or trigger instabilities that form wormholes. The resulting pattern reflects feedbacks among advection, diffusion, surface reaction, and the initial heterogeneity of the medium. Porous and fractured media can exhibit distinct characteristics -- for example, the presence of large fractures can significantly alter the network topology and overall connectivity of the system. We quantify these differences with three network models -- a regular pore network, a disordered pore network, and a discrete fracture network -- evaluated with a unified metric: the flow focusing profile. This metric effectively captures evolution of flow paths across all systems: it reveals a focusing front that propagates from the inlet in the wormholing regime, a system-wide decrease in focusing during uniform dissolution, and the progressive enlargement of pre-existing flow paths in the channeling regime. The metric shows that uniform dissolution cannot eliminate heterogeneity resulting from the network topology. This structural heterogeneity -- rather than just pore-diameter or fracture-aperture variance -- sets a fundamental limit on flow homogenization and must be accounted for when upscaling dissolution kinetics from pore or fracture scale to the reservoir level.

  PublisherDOI

• Characteristic time and length scales for subsurface mineralisation

  Géotechnique Letters · 2025-12-09

  articleSenior author

  Reactive flows in porous rocks may precipitate mineral products in the pore space. The aim of this study is to identify the time and length scales for such subsurface mineralisation processes. We introduce a first-order model describing the fate and transport of a reactive charge in a one-dimensional domain. In this model, the ability to deliver and mineralise the charge is controlled by the clogging of the pore space with the mineral product. Under the assumption that full clogging of the pores first occurs at the domain entrance, we determine a time scale for a mineralisation operation. We then show that, at this time scale, the maximum storage of minerals in the domain is approached when the reaction rate balances the transport rate (Damköhler number = 1). From this, we are able to explicitly identify a characteristic length scale for a mineralisation processes. Together, our findings provide useful starting points for understanding and optimising subsurface mineralisation operations.

  PublisherDOI

• Deconvoluting Dye Fluorescence for Multi-Dye-Based Quantitative Water Tracing

  Abstracts with programs - Geological Society of America · 2025-01-01

  articleSenior author
  PublisherDOI

• Density-inertia coupling drives solute trapping at vertical fracture intersections

  2025-09-29

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  Density-driven flow and fluid inertia jointly shape solute transport in fracture networks, with implications for hydrogeology and subsurface engineering. While their individual effects are well recognized, their coupled impact remains underexplored. We integrate pore-to-network-scale dye visualization experiments and numerical simulations to investigate solute trapping at fracture intersections. At the network scale, 3D flume experiments show localized tracer retention caused by density-induced convection and inertia-driven vortices. Millifluidic experiments and simulations reveal that density contrast, flow imbalance, and fluid inertia govern these dynamics. Maximum trapping occurs when bottom fracture flow is ~10% greater than the top, maximizing mass entry while minimizing loss. This imbalance promotes vortex-driven retention and extended solute residence, leading to breakthrough curve tailing. Numerical simulations in smooth and rough-walled fractures confirm that roughness alters trapping locations but not the underlying mechanisms. These findings highlight the central role of coupled pore-scale processes in controlling network-scale transport and subsurface reactivity.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Author response for "Mechanistic Understanding of Carbon Mineralization in Fracture Systems Using Microfluidics"

  2025-07-03

  peer-review
  PublisherDOI

• Experimental and Numerical Investigation on the Impact of Emergent Vegetation on the Hyporheic Exchange

  Water Resources Research · 2025-10-01

  articleOpen access

  Abstract Hyporheic exchange leads to the transfer of gases, solutes, and fine particles across the sediment‐water interface, playing a critical role in biogeochemical cycles and pollutant transport in aquatic environments. While in‐channel vegetation has been recognized to enhance hyporheic exchange, the mechanisms remain poorly understood. Here, we investigated how an emergent vegetation canopy impacts hyporheic exchange using refractive index‐matched flume experiments and coupled numerical simulations. Our results show that at the same mean surface flow velocity, vegetation increases the hyporheic exchange velocity by four times compared to the non‐vegetated channel. However, the hyporheic exchange velocity does not increase further with increasing vegetation density. In addition, our results show that the hyporheic exchange velocity scales with the square root of sediment permeability. Our findings provide a predictive framework for hyporheic exchange in vegetated channels with varying vegetation densities and sediment permeabilities and could guide the future design of environmental management and restoration projects using vegetation.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

Recent grants

• CAREER: Predicting Transport, Mixing, and Reaction in Three-dimensional Heterogeneous Fractured Media Across Scales

  NSF · $635k · 2021–2027

Frequent coauthors

• Marco Dentz

  Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas

  62 shared

• Rubén Juanes

  Massachusetts Institute of Technology

  41 shared

• Seunghak Lee

  Korea University of Science and Technology

  38 shared

• Tanguy Le Borgne

  Université de Rennes

  34 shared

• Seonkyoo Yoon

  University of Minnesota

  28 shared

• Vaughan R. Voller

  19 shared

• Étienne Bresciani

  Centro de Recursos Educativos Avanzados

  19 shared

• Raghwendra N. Shandilya

  Korea University of Science and Technology

  16 shared

Education

• PhD, Civil and Environmental Engineering

  Massachusetts Institute of Technology

  2014

• MS, Civil and Environmental Engineering

  Massachusetts Institute of Technology

  2010

• BA, Civil, Urban and Geosystem Engineering

  Seoul National University

  2008

Awards & honors

• McKnight Presidential Fellow, University of Minnesota, 2023
• George Taylor Career Development Award, University of Minnes…
• Chin-Fu Tsang Coupled Processes Award, CouFrac, 2022
• NSF CAREER Award, National Science Foundation, 2021
• McKnight Land-Grant Professorship, University of Minnesota,…