Seminar Sanjana Kamath

We use event-driven pore network modeling to study the transport of dense suspensions of hydrogel particles through porous mediau–a process that underlies diverse applications, from geothermal energy to drug delivery. In the dilute regime, our simulations uncovered 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. Moving from the dilute to dense regime, we hypothesized that the local concentration of particles must play a key role in dictating suspension transport. Indeed, we observe that an increase in the local concentration leads to an increase in the velocity of mobile gels and unclogging probability as well as a decrease in clogging probability.