| Issue |
EPL
Volume 113, Number 1, January 2016
|
|
|---|---|---|
| Article Number | 14001 | |
| Number of page(s) | 6 | |
| Section | Electromagnetism, Optics, Acoustics, Heat Transfer, Classical Mechanics, and Fluid Dynamics | |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1209/0295-5075/113/14001 | |
| Published online | 25 January 2016 | |
Vulnerability of hydraulic networks to channel clogging
Particles and Grains Laboratory, School of Civil Engineering, The University of Sydney Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia
Received: 13 October 2015
Accepted: 8 January 2016
This study focuses on the loss of permeability and connectivity of hydraulic networks induced by channel clogging. Five network attack scenarios are considered that consist of clogging an increasing number of channels, selected according to their pressure drop and flow rate. By simulating the flow in the network before and after each attack, we show that some strategies only marginally affect the permeability and lead to a loss of connectivity only after a large proportion of channels are clogged. By contrast, other strategies strongly decrease the permeability and lead to a loss of connectivity after a small proportion of channels are clogged. These findings, interpreted in terms of change in porosity and network tortuosity, should help the prediction of the effect of network attacks in biological systems, hydrogeology and microfluidics.
PACS: 47.56.+r – Flows through porous media / 47.60.Dx – Flows in ducts and channels / 89.75.Hc – Networks and genealogical trees
© EPLA, 2016
Current usage metrics show cumulative count of Article Views (full-text article views including HTML views, PDF and ePub downloads, according to the available data) and Abstracts Views on Vision4Press platform.
Data correspond to usage on the plateform after 2015. The current usage metrics is available 48-96 hours after online publication and is updated daily on week days.
Initial download of the metrics may take a while.