Clogging transition induced by self filtration in a slit pore

Abstract

Particles that flow through porous environments like soils, inside a filter or within our arteries, often lead to pore clogging. Even though tremendous efforts have been made in analysing this to circumvent this issue, the clog formation and its dynamics remain poorly understood. Coupling two experimental techniques, we elucidate the clogging mechanism at the particle scale of a slit pore with its height slightly larger than the particle diameter. We identify all the particle deposition modes during the clog formation and accurately predict the corresponding deposition rate. We show how the geometrical features of the pores and the competition between deposition modes can profoundly change the clog morphology. We find that the direct capture of particles by the pore wall is rather limited. The clog formation is more closely related to the short range hydrodynamic interaction between flowing particles and those which are already immobilized within the pore. Finally we demonstrate that all the clogging regimes can be gathered on a single phase diagram based on the flow conditions and the filter design.