Getting out of a tight spot: Cooperative unclogging of hydrogel particles in disordered porous media
Creators
-
1.
Princeton University
-
2.
University of Paris-Saclay
-
3.
University of Pennsylvania
-
4.
California Institute of Technology
Abstract
We use event-driven pore network modeling to study the transport of hydrogel particles through disordered porous media—a process that underlies diverse applications. By simulating particle advection, deformation, and clogging at the pore scale, we identify a dimensionless "squeezing parameter" that quantitatively predicts the depth to which particles penetrate into a given medium across diverse conditions. Our simulations also uncover a surprising cooperative effect: Adding more particles enables them to penetrate deeper into the medium. This phenomenon arises because individual particles redirect fluid to adjacent throats, forcing nearby particles through tight pores that they would otherwise clog. Altogether, these results help to establish a quantitative framework that connects microscopic particle mechanics to macroscopic transport behavior. Published by the American Physical Society 2025
Copyright and License
Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article's title, journal citation, and DOI.
Acknowledgement
It is a pleasure to acknowledge Baojun Bai for useful discussions, as well as funding to S.K. through the Chateaubriand Fellowship of the Office for Science & Technology of the Embassy of France in the United States, to L.T. through the INTPART program from the Research Council of Norway (Project No. 309139), to M.R. through the Princeton Center for Complex Materials MRSEC (NSF Grant No. DMR-2011750), and to S.S.D. through NSF Grant No. DMR-2011750, the Project X Innovation Fund, the Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Program of the Camille and Henry Dreyfus Foundation (SSD). This material is also based upon work by SSD supported by the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) under the Geothermal Technologies Office (GTO) Innovative Methods to Control Hydraulic Properties of Enhanced Geothermal Systems Award No. DE-EE0009790.
Data Availability
The data that support the findings of this article are openly available at :
- Kamath, Cooperative unclogging of hydrogel particles in disordered porous media [dataset], Zenodo, 2025, https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.15335841.
Supplemental Material
Supplemental calculations, data, and video:
Files
j3jz-x97q.pdf
Additional details
Funding
- The Research Council of Norway
- 309139
- National Science Foundation
- DMR-2011750
- Materials Research Science and Engineering Centers
- Camille and Henry Dreyfus Foundation
- United States Department of Energy
- Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy
- Geothermal Technologies Office