Capture of particles in soft porous media

Phys Rev E Stat Nonlin Soft Matter Phys. 2010 Oct;82(4 Pt 1):041405. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevE.82.041405. Epub 2010 Oct 25.

Abstract

We investigate the capture of particles in soft porous media. Liquid foam constitutes a model system for such a study, allowing the radii of passage in the pore space to be tuned over several orders of magnitude by adjusting the liquid volume fraction. We show how particle capture is determined by the coupling of interstitial liquid flow and network deformation, and present a simple model of the capture process that shows good agreement with our experimental data.