Clogging at Pore Scale and Pressure Induced Erosion

TL;DR

This paper presents a microscopic model for particle deposition and erosion in pores, revealing how pressure, particle properties, and pore dimensions influence clogging and erosive bursts.

Contribution

The study introduces a new pore-scale model that links hydraulic pressure, particle adhesion, and pore geometry to clogging and erosion phenomena.

Findings

Erosive burst pressure depends linearly on deposited volume and inversely on pore diameter.

Adhesion forces are key in initiating clogging, while cohesion is less significant.

Erosive burst magnitude varies with pore length, particle size, and pore size.

Abstract

Introducing a model to study deposition and erosion of single particles at microscopic scale, we investigate the clogging and erosive processes in a pore. The particle diameter, concentration, and adhesive forces rule the way particles are deposited, and therefore, characterize the clogging process. We study the hydraulic pressure that induces erosive bursts and conclude that this pressure depends linearly on the deposited volume and inversely on the pores' diameter. While cohesion does not play an important role for erosive bursts, the adhesion is the main force initiating clogging and when overcome by the hydraulic pressure, erosive bursts are triggered. Finally, we show how the magnitude of erosive bursts depends on the pore length, particle diameter and pore size.