TY - JOUR
T1 - Transition from clogging to continuous flow in constricted particle suspensions
AU - Souzy, Mathieu
AU - Zuriguel, Iker
AU - Marin, Alvaro
PY - 2020/6/15
Y1 - 2020/6/15
N2 - When suspended particles are pushed by liquid flow through a constricted channel, they might either pass the bottleneck without trouble or encounter a permanent clog that will stop them forever. However, they may also flow intermittently with great sensitivity to the neck-to-particle size ratio D/d. In this Rapid Communication, we experimentally explore the limits of the intermittent regime for a dense suspension through a single bottleneck as a function of this parameter. To this end, we make use of high time- and space-resolution experiments to obtain the distributions of arrest times (T) between successive bursts, which display power-law tails (∝T^{-α}) with characteristic exponents. These exponents compare well with the ones found for as disparate situations as the evacuation of pedestrians from a room, the entry of a flock of sheep into a shed, or the discharge of particles from a silo. Nevertheless, the intrinsic properties of our system (i.e., channel geometry, driving and interaction forces, particle size distribution) seem to introduce a sharp transition from a clogged state (α≤2) to a continuous flow, where clogs do not develop at all. This contrasts with the results obtained in other systems where intermittent flow, with power-law exponents above two, were obtained.
AB - When suspended particles are pushed by liquid flow through a constricted channel, they might either pass the bottleneck without trouble or encounter a permanent clog that will stop them forever. However, they may also flow intermittently with great sensitivity to the neck-to-particle size ratio D/d. In this Rapid Communication, we experimentally explore the limits of the intermittent regime for a dense suspension through a single bottleneck as a function of this parameter. To this end, we make use of high time- and space-resolution experiments to obtain the distributions of arrest times (T) between successive bursts, which display power-law tails (∝T^{-α}) with characteristic exponents. These exponents compare well with the ones found for as disparate situations as the evacuation of pedestrians from a room, the entry of a flock of sheep into a shed, or the discharge of particles from a silo. Nevertheless, the intrinsic properties of our system (i.e., channel geometry, driving and interaction forces, particle size distribution) seem to introduce a sharp transition from a clogged state (α≤2) to a continuous flow, where clogs do not develop at all. This contrasts with the results obtained in other systems where intermittent flow, with power-law exponents above two, were obtained.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85088351898&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1103/PhysRevE.101.060901
DO - 10.1103/PhysRevE.101.060901
M3 - Article
C2 - 32688531
AN - SCOPUS:85088351898
VL - 101
JO - Physical review E: covering statistical, nonlinear, biological, and soft matter physics
JF - Physical review E: covering statistical, nonlinear, biological, and soft matter physics
SN - 2470-0045
IS - 6
M1 - 060901
ER -