Hydrodynamic and electrostatic jamming of microparticles in narrow channels

Abstract

In fluid-driven particulate flows through channels, jamming occurs when static bridges of particles form as the channel becomes narrow relative to the particle size. For micro-sized particles, however, the significance of electrostatics relative to hydrodynamics must be considered. The present work develops a numerical framework based on the inclusion of DLVO theory in fully-resolved lattice Boltzmann method-discrete element method (LBM-DEM) simulations. Strong dependence of jamming on the ionic strength of the fluid medium is demonstrated. Further, continuous functions are fit to the probabilistic jamming data, representing a novel approach to predicting the onset of jamming compared to existing empirical models.