Nonlinear clogging of a rectangular slit by a spherical soft particle

Abstract

The capture of a soft spherical particle by a rectangular slit leads to a non-monotonic pressure-flow rate relation at low Reynolds number. In the presence of the trapped particle the flow-induced deformations focus the streamlines and pressure drop to a small region. This increases the resistance to flow by several orders of magnitude as the driving pressure is increased. As a result two regimes are observed: a flow-dominated regime for small particle deformations, where flow rate increases with pressure, and an elastic-dominated regime in which solid deformations block the flow.

5 pages, 4 figures

References in corpus (4)

• Reexamination of Hagen-Poiseuille flow: shape-dependence of the hydraulic resistance in microchannels
• Microfluidic In Situ Measurement of Poisson's Ratio of Hydrogels
• Intermittent flow and transient congestions of soft spheres passing narrow orifices
• Details of soft particle clogging in two-dimensional hoppers

Cited by in corpus (1)

• Hydraulic resistance of channels obstructed by a dense array of elastic fibers