Hopper flows of dense suspensions: a 2D microfluidic model system

Fuente: arXiv
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Autori principali: Kool, Lars, Tampier, Jules, Bourrianne, Philippe, Lindner, Anke
Natura: Preprint
Pubblicazione: 2025
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author Kool, Lars
Tampier, Jules
Bourrianne, Philippe
Lindner, Anke
author_facet Kool, Lars
Tampier, Jules
Bourrianne, Philippe
Lindner, Anke
contents Flows of particles through bottlenecks are ubiquitous in nature and industry, involving both dry granular materials and suspensions. However, practical limitations of conventional experimental setups hinder the full understanding of these flows in confined geometries. Here, we present a microfluidic setup to investigate experimentally the flow of dense suspensions in a two-dimensional hopper channel. Particles with controlled properties are in-situ fabricated with a photolithographic projection method and compacted at the channel constriction using a Quake valve. The setup is characterized by examining the flow of a dense suspension of hard, monodisperse disks through constrictions of varying widths. We demonstrate that the microfluidic hopper discharges particles at constant rate, resulting from the channel resistance being dominated by the presence of densely packed particles within the tapered section of the hopper. Under imposed flow rate the discharge remains independent of particle and orifice sizes, whereas it exhibits a Beverloo-like scaling under pressure-imposed conditions. Additionally, we show that the statistics of clog formation in our microfluidic hopper follow the same stochastic laws as reported in other systems. Finally, we show how the versatility of our microfluidic model system can be used to investigate the outflow and clogging of suspensions of more complex particles.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2501_10308
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Hopper flows of dense suspensions: a 2D microfluidic model system
Kool, Lars
Tampier, Jules
Bourrianne, Philippe
Lindner, Anke
Soft Condensed Matter
Fluid Dynamics
Flows of particles through bottlenecks are ubiquitous in nature and industry, involving both dry granular materials and suspensions. However, practical limitations of conventional experimental setups hinder the full understanding of these flows in confined geometries. Here, we present a microfluidic setup to investigate experimentally the flow of dense suspensions in a two-dimensional hopper channel. Particles with controlled properties are in-situ fabricated with a photolithographic projection method and compacted at the channel constriction using a Quake valve. The setup is characterized by examining the flow of a dense suspension of hard, monodisperse disks through constrictions of varying widths. We demonstrate that the microfluidic hopper discharges particles at constant rate, resulting from the channel resistance being dominated by the presence of densely packed particles within the tapered section of the hopper. Under imposed flow rate the discharge remains independent of particle and orifice sizes, whereas it exhibits a Beverloo-like scaling under pressure-imposed conditions. Additionally, we show that the statistics of clog formation in our microfluidic hopper follow the same stochastic laws as reported in other systems. Finally, we show how the versatility of our microfluidic model system can be used to investigate the outflow and clogging of suspensions of more complex particles.
title Hopper flows of dense suspensions: a 2D microfluidic model system
topic Soft Condensed Matter
Fluid Dynamics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2501.10308