  In particle-laden flows through porous media, porosity and permeability are
significantly affected by the deposition and erosion of particles. Experiments
show that the permeability evolution of a porous medium with respect to a
particle suspension is not smooth, but rather exhibits significant jumps
followed by longer periods of continuous permeability decrease. Their origin
seems to be related to internal flow path reorganization by avalanches of
deposited material due to erosion inside the porous medium. We apply neutron
tomography to resolve the spatio-temporal evolution of the pore space during
clogging and unclogging to prove the hypothesis of flow path reorganization
behind the permeability jumps. This mechanistic understanding of clogging
phenomena is relevant for a number of applications from oil production to
filters or suffosion as the mechanisms behind sinkhole formation.
