Flow of colloidal suspensions through small orifices

Controlling colloidal flow through a microfluidic Y-junction

Microscopic particles flowing through narrow channels may accumulate near bifurcation points provoking flow reduction, clogging and ultimately chip breakage in a microfluidic device. Here we show that the full flow behavior of colloidal particles through a microfluidic Y-junction can be controlled by tuning the pair interactions and the degree of confinement. By combining experiments with numerical simulations, we investigate the dynamic states emerging when magnetizable colloids flow through a symmetric Y-junction such that a single particle can pass through both gates with the same probability. We show that clogging, induced by the inevitable presence of a stagnation point, can be avoided by repulsive interactions. Moreover we tune the pair interactions to steer branching into the two channels: attractive particles are flowing through the same gate, while repulsive colloids alternate between the two gates. Even details of the particle assembly such as buckling at the exit gate are tunable by the interactions and the channel geometry.

Clogging transition and anomalous transport in driven suspensions in a disordered medium

We study computationally the dynamics of forced, Brownian particles through a disordered system. As the concentration of mobile particles and/or fixed obstacles increase, we characterize the different regimes of flow and address how clogging develops. We show that clogging is preceded by a wide region of anomalous transport, characterized by a power law decay of intermittent bursts. We analyze the velocity distribution of the moving particles and show that this abnormal flow region is characterized by a coexistence between mobile and arrested particles, and their relative populations change smoothly as clogging is approached. The comparison of the regimes of anomalous transport and clogging with the corresponding scenarios of particles pushed through a single bottleneck show qualitatively the same trends highlighting the generality of the transport regimes leading to clogging.

Clogging of noncohesive suspensions through constrictions using an efficient discrete particle solver with unresolved fluid flow

When objects are forced to flow through constrictions their transport can be frustrated temporarily or permanently due to the formation of arches in the region of the bottleneck. While such systems have been intensively studied in the case of solid particles in a gas phase being forced by gravitational forces, the case of solid particles suspended in a liquid phase, forced by the liquid itself, has received much less attention. In this case, the influence of the liquid flow on the transport efficiency is not well understood yet, leading to several apparently trivial but yet unanswered questions, e.g., would an increase of the liquid flow improve the transport of particles or worsen it? Although some experimental data are already available, they lack enough detail to give a complete answer to such a question. Numerical models would be needed to scrutinize the system deeper. In this paper, we study this system making use of an advanced discrete particle solver (mercurydpm) and an approximated numerical model for the liquid drag and compare the results with experimental data.

Ultrasound Manipulation and Extrusion of Active Nanorods

Synthetic self-propelled nano and microparticles have a growing appeal for targeted drug delivery, collective functionality, and manipulation at the nanoscale. However, it is challenging to control their positions and orientations under confinement, e.g., in microchannels, nozzles, and microcapillaries. This study reports on the synergistic effect of acoustic and flow-induced focusing in microfluidic nozzles. In a microchannel with a nozzle, the balance between the acoustophoretic forces and the fluid drag due to streaming flows generated by the acoustic field controls the microparticle's dynamics. This study manipulates the positions and orientations of dispersed particles and dense clusters inside the channel at a fixed frequency by tuning the acoustic intensity. The main findings are: first, this study successfully manipulates the positions and orientations of individual particles and dense clusters inside the channel at a fixed frequency by tuning the acoustic intensity. Second, when an external flow is applied, the acoustic field separates and selectively extrudes shape-anisotropic passive particles and self-propelled active nanorods. Finally, the observed phenomena are explained by multiphysics finite-element modeling. The results shed light on the control and extrusion of active particles in confined geometries and enable applications for acoustic cargo (e.g., drug) delivery, particle injection, and additive manufacturing via printed self-propelled active particles.

Effect of Colloidal Interactions and Hydrodynamic Stress on Particle Deposition in a Single Micropore

Clogging is ubiquitous. It happens in a wide range of material processing and causes severe performance degradation or process breakdown. In this study, we investigate clogging dynamics in a single micropore by controlling the surface property of the particle and processing condition. Microfluidic observation is conducted to investigate particle deposition in a contraction microchannel where polystyrene suspension is injected as a feed solution. The particle deposition area is quantified using the images taken using a CCD camera in both upstream and downstream of the microchannel. Pressure drop across the microchannel is also measured. When the particle interaction is repulsive, the deposition occurs mostly in downstream, while an opposite tendency is identified when the particle interaction is attractive. More complex deposition characteristics are found as the flow rate is changed. Particle flux density and the ratio of lift force to colloidal force are introduced to explain the clogging dynamics. This study provides a useful insight to alleviate clogging issues by controlling the colloidal interaction and hydrodynamic stress.

Collisional regime during the discharge of a two-dimensional silo

The present work reports an investigation into the collisional dynamics of particles in the vicinity of the outlet of a two-dimensional silo using molecular dynamics simulations. Most studies on this granular system focus in the bulk of the medium. In this region, contacts are permanent or long-lived, so continuous approximations are able to yield results for velocity distributions or mass flow. Close to the exit, however, the density of the medium decreases and contacts are instantaneous. Thus, the collisional nature of the dynamics becomes significant, warranting a dedicated investigation as carried out in this work. More interesting, the vicinity of the outlet is the region where the arches that block the flow for small apertures are formed. It is found that the transition from the clogging regime (at small apertures) to the continuous flow regime is smooth in collisional variables. Furthermore, the dynamics of particles as reflected by the distributions of the velocities is as well unaffected. This result implies that there is no critical outlet size that separates both regimes, as had been proposed in the literature. Instead, the results achieved support the alternative picture in which a clog is possible for any outlet size.

Weak clogging in constricted channel flow

We investigate simple models of a monodisperse system of soft, frictionless disks flowing through a two-dimensional microchannel in the presence of a single or a double constriction using Brownian dynamics simulation. After a transient time, a stationary state is observed with an increase in particle density before the constriction and a depletion after it. For a constriction width to particle diameter ratio of less than 3, the mean particle velocity is reduced compared to the unimpeded flow and it falls to zero for ratios of less than 1. At low temperatures, the particle mean velocity may vary nonmonotonically with the constriction width. The associated intermittent behavior is due to the formation of small arches of particles with a finite lifetime. The distribution of the interparticle exit times rises rapidly at short times followed by an exponential decay with a large characteristic time, while the cascade size distribution displays prominent peaks for specific cluster sizes. Although the dependence of the mean velocity on the separation of two constrictions is not simple, the mean flow velocity of a system with a single constriction provides an upper envelope for the system with two constrictions. We also examine the orientation of the leading pair of particles in front of the constriction(s). With a single constriction in the intermittent regime, there is a strong preference for the leading pair to be orientated perpendicular to the flow. When two constrictions are present, orientations parallel to the flow are much more likely at the second constriction.

Strategic placement of an obstacle suppresses droplet break up in the hopper flow of a microfluidic soft crystal

When granular materials, colloidal suspensions, and even animals and crowds exit through a narrow outlet, clogs can form spontaneously when multiple particles or entities attempt to exit simultaneously, thereby obstructing the outlet and ultimately halting the flow. Counterintuitively, the presence of an obstacle upstream of the outlet has been found to suppress clog formation. For soft particles such as emulsion drops, clogging has not been observed in the fast flow limit due to their deformability and vanishing interparticle friction. Instead, they pinch off each other and undergo break up when multiple drops attempt to exit simultaneously. Similar to how an obstacle reduces clogging in a rigid particle system, we hypothesize and demonstrate that an obstacle could suppress break up in the two-dimensional hopper flow of a microfluidic crystal consisting of dense emulsion drops by preventing the simultaneous exit of multiple drops. A regime map plotting the fraction of drops that undergo break up in a channel with different obstacle sizes and locations delineates the geometrical constraints necessary for effective break up suppression. When optimally placed, the obstacle induced an unexpected ordering of the drops, causing them to alternate and exit the outlet one at a time. Droplet break up is suppressed drastically by almost three orders of magnitude compared to when the obstacle is absent. This result can provide a simple, passive strategy to prevent droplet break up and can find use in improving the robustness and integrity of droplet microfluidic biochemical assays as well as in extrusion-based three-dimensional printing of emulsion or foam-based materials.

Silo discharge of mixtures of soft and rigid grains

We study the outflow dynamics and clogging phenomena of mixtures of soft, elastic low-friction spherical grains and hard frictional spheres of similar size in a quasi-two-dimensional (2D) silo with narrow orifice at the bottom. Previous work has demonstrated the crucial influence of elasticity and friction on silo discharge. We show that the addition of small amounts, even as low as 5%, of hard grains to an ensemble of soft, low-friction grains already has significant consequences. The mixtures allow a direct comparison of the probabilities of the different types of particles to clog the orifice. We analyze these probabilities for the hard, frictional and the soft, slippery grains on the basis of their participation in the blocking arches, and compare outflow velocities and durations of non-permanent clogs for different compositions of the mixtures. Experimental results are compared with numerical simulations. The latter strongly suggest a significant influence of the inter-species particle friction.

Negative resistance for colloids driven over two barriers in a microchannel

When considering the flow of currents through obstacles, one core expectation is that the total resistance of sequential single resistors is additive. While this rule is most commonly applied to electronic circuits, it also applies to other transport phenomena such as the flow of colloids or nanoparticles through channels containing multiple obstacles, as long as these obstacles are sufficiently far apart. Here we explore the breakdown of this additivity for fluids of repulsive colloids driven over two energetic barriers in a microchannel, using real-space microscopy experiments, particle-resolved simulations, and dynamical density functional theory. If the barrier separation is comparable to the particle correlation length, the resistance is highly non-additive, such that the resistance added by the second barrier can be significantly higher or lower than that of the first. Surprisingly, in some cases the second barrier can even add a negative resistance, such that two identical barriers are easier to cross than a single one. We explain this counterintuitive observation in terms of the structuring of particles trapped between the barriers.

Intermittent flow and transient congestions of soft spheres passing narrow orifices

Soft, low-friction particles in silos show peculiar features during their discharge. The outflow velocity and the clogging probability both depend upon the momentary silo fill height, in sharp contrast to silos filled with hard particles. The reason is the fill-height dependence of the pressure at the orifice. We study the statistics of silo discharge of soft hydrogel spheres. The outflow is found to become increasingly fluctuating and even intermittent with decreasing orifice size, and with decreasing fill height. In orifices narrower than two particle diameters, outflow can stop completely, but in contrast to clogs formed by rigid particles, these congestions may dissolve spontaneously. We analyze such non-permanent congestions and attribute them to slow reorganization processes in the container, caused by viscoelasticity of the material.

Transition from clogging to continuous flow in constricted particle suspensions

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.

Nonergodicity in silo unclogging: Broken and unbroken arches

We report an experiment on the unclogging dynamics in a two-dimensional silo submitted to a sustained gentle vibration. We find that arches present a jerking motion where rearrangements in the positions of their beads are interspersed with quiescent periods. This behavior occurs for both arches that break down and those that withstand the external perturbation: Arches evolve until they either collapse or get trapped in a stable configuration. This evolution is described in terms of a scalar variable characterizing the arch shape that can be modeled as a continuous-time random walk. By studying the diffusivity of this variable, we show that the unclogging is a weakly nonergodic process. Remarkably, arches that do not collapse explore different configurations before settling in one of them and break ergodicity much in the same way than arches that break down.

Friction-mediated flow and jamming in a two-dimensional silo with two exit orifices

We show that the interparticle friction coefficient significantly influences the flow and jamming behavior of granular materials exiting through the orifice of a two-dimensional silo in the presence of another orifice located in its vicinity. The fluctuations emanating from a continuous flow through a larger orifice results in an intermittent flow through the smaller orifice consisting of sequential jamming and flowing events. The mean time duration of jammed and flow events, respectively, increase and decrease monotonically with increasing interparticle friction coefficient. The frequency of unjamming instances (n_{u}), however, shows a nonmonotonic behavior comprising an increase followed by a decrease with increasing friction coefficient. The decrease on either side of the maximum, then, represents a system moving progressively towards a permanently jammed or a permanently flowing state. The overall behavior shows a systematic dependence on the interorifice distance, which determines the strength of the fluctuations reaching the smaller orifice leading to unjamming instances. The probability distributions of jamming and flowing times are nearly similar for different combinations of friction coefficients and interorifice distances studied and, respectively, exhibit exponential and power-law tails.

Controlled Fluidization, Mobility, and Clogging in Obstacle Arrays Using Periodic Perturbations

We show that the clogging susceptibility and flow of particles moving through a random obstacle array can be controlled with a transverse or longitudinal ac drive. The flow rate can vary over several orders of magnitude, and we find both an optimal frequency and an optimal amplitude of driving that maximizes the flow. For dense arrays, at low ac frequencies, a heterogeneous creeping clogged phase appears in which rearrangements between different clogged configurations occur. At intermediate frequencies, a high-mobility fluidized state forms, and, at high frequencies, the system reenters a heterogeneous frozen clogged state. These results provide a technique for optimizing flow through heterogeneous media that could also serve as the basis for a particle separation method.

Interfacially driven transport in narrow channels

When colloids flow in a narrow channel, the transport efficiency is controlled by the non-equilibrium interplay between colloid-wall interactions and hydrodynamics. In this paper, a general, unifying description of colloidal dispersion flow in a confined system is proposed. A momentum and mass balance founded framework implementing the colloid-interface interactions is introduced. The framework allows us to depict how interfacial forces drive the particles and the liquid flows. The interfacially driven flow (osmotic or Marangoni flows for repulsive or attractive colloid-wall interactions respectively) can be directly simulated in 2D domains. The ability of the model to describe the physics of transport in a narrow channel is discussed in detail. The hydrodynamic nature of osmosis and the associated counter-pressure are mechanically related to the colloid-interface interactions. The simulation shows an unexpected transition from axial plug to pillar accumulation for colloidal accumulation at a channel bottleneck. This transition has important consequences in transport efficiencies. Existing limiting cases, such as diffusio-osmosis, are recovered from the simulations, showing that the framework is physically well-founded. The model generalizes the existing approaches and proves the hydrodynamic character of osmosis, which cannot be fully described by purely thermodynamic considerations.

Active particles with desired orientation flowing through a bottleneck

We report extensive numerical simulations of the flow of anisotropic self-propelled particles through a constriction. In particular, we explore the role of the particles’ desired orientation with respect to the moving direction on the system flowability. We observe that when particles propel along the direction of their long axis (longitudinal orientation) the flow-rate notably reduces compared with the case of propulsion along the short axis (transversal orientation). And this is so even when the effective section (measured as the number of particles that are necessary to span the whole outlet) is larger for the case of longitudinal propulsion. This counterintuitive result is explained in terms of the formation of clogging structures at the outlet, which are revealed to have higher stability when the particles align along the long axis. This generic result might be applied to many different systems flowing through bottlenecks such as microbial populations or different kind of cells. Indeed, it has already a straightforward connection with recent results of pedestrian (which self-propel transversally oriented) and mice or sheep (which self-propel longitudinally oriented).

Trap Model for Clogging and Unclogging in Granular Hopper Flows

Granular flows through narrow outlets may be interrupted by the formation of arches or vaults that clog the exit. These clogs may be destroyed by vibrations. A feature which remains elusive is the broad distribution p(τ) of clog lifetimes τ measured under constant vibrations. Here, we propose a simple model for arch breaking, in which the vibrations are formally equivalent to thermal fluctuations in a Langevin equation; the rupture of an arch corresponds to the escape from an energy trap. We infer the distribution of trap depths from experiments made in two-dimensional hoppers. Using this distribution, we show that the model captures the empirically observed heavy tails in p(τ). These heavy tails flatten at large τ, consistently with experimental observations under weak vibrations. But, here, we find that this flattening is systematic, which casts doubt on the ability of gentle vibrations to restore a finite outflow forever. The trap model also replicates recent results on the effect of increasing gravity on the statistics of clog formation in a static silo. Therefore, the proposed framework points to a common physical underpinning to the processes of clogging and unclogging, despite their different statistics.