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The book provides the reader with the knowledge, tools, and methods to understand the phenomenon of hysteresis in porous materials. As many challenges have been met only recently, the book summarizes the research results usually found only scattered in the literature, connecting knowledge from traditionally separated research fields to provide a better understanding of the physical phenomena of coupled elastic-fluid systems. The result is an invaluable self-contained reference book for materials scientists, civil, mechanical and construction engineers concerned with development and maintenance of structures made of porous materials.

Even such seemingly different materials like wood and sandstone share similarities: both are porous and exhibit hysteretic behavior upon water uptake and evaporation, i.e., their properties depend not only on the current state of the materials, but on the history of state changes. Both materials are examples for strongly-coupled elastic-fluid systems which are ruled by the interplay between the moisture content and the mechanical stress field. Porous materials which exhibit hysteresis are becoming increasingly important for carbon sequestration, multifunctional materials design and mechanical control of surface catalysis. The book contains experimental investigations which cover diverse coupled elastic-fluid systems on the micro-meso and on the macro scale. This is complemented by modelling studies to foster the understanding of the experimentally observed phenomena. The book benefits both experimentalists and theoreticians alike and connects knowledge from research areas across traditional discipline boundaries.