Roughness-dependent clogging of particle suspensions flowing into a constriction.

Soft Matter

Laboratory for Soft Materials and Interfaces, Department of Materials, ETH Zürich, 8093 Zürich, Switzerland.

Published: August 2021

When concentrated particle suspensions flow into a constricting channel, the suspended particles may either smoothly flow through the constriction or jam and clog the channel. These clogging events are typically detrimental to technological processes, such as in the printing of dense pastes or in filtration, but can also be exploited in micro-separation applications. Many studies have to date focused on important parameters influencing the occurrence of clogs, such as flow velocity, particle concentration, and channel geometry. However, the investigation of the role played by the particle surface properties has surprisingly received little attention so far. Here, we study the effect of surface roughness on the clogging of suspensions of silica particles under pressure-driven flows along a microchannel presenting a constriction. We synthesize micron-sized particles with uniform surface chemistry and tunable roughness and determine the occurrence of clogging events as a function of velocity and volume fraction for a given surface topography. Our results show that there is a clear correlation between surface roughness and flow rate, indicating that rougher particles are more likely to jam at the constriction for slower flows. These findings identify surface roughness as an essential parameter to consider in the formulation of particulate suspensions for applications where clogging plays an important role.

Download full-text PDF

Source
http://dx.doi.org/10.1039/d1sm00738fDOI Listing

Publication Analysis

Top Keywords

surface roughness
12
particle suspensions
8
clogging events
8
surface
6
roughness-dependent clogging
4
particle
4
clogging particle
4
suspensions
4
suspensions flowing
4
constriction
4

Similar Publications

Want AI Summaries of new PubMed Abstracts delivered to your In-box?

Enter search terms and have AI summaries delivered each week - change queries or unsubscribe any time!