Clogging of deformable particles

Arrested flow in the presence of confinement (clogging) is important throughout nature and industry. While there is a long history of studying clogging of hard particles (think grains in a silo), less attention has been paid to clogging of deformable objects. In particular, if deformable particles form a clog, can’t they always change shape to resume flow?

We address this question, as well as the differences between clogs of deformable and non-deformable particles, in our recent paper, performed in collaboration with Yuxuan Cheng of Corey O’Hern’s group at Yale University, and members of Eric Weeks’ group at Emory University.