Particle detachment bursts during the flow of suspensions through porous
media are a phenomenon that can severely affect the efficiency of deep bed
filters. Despite the relevance in several industrial fields, little is known
about the statistical properties and the temporal organization of these events.
We present experiments of suspensions of deionized water carrying quartz
particles pushed with a peristaltic pump through a filter of glass beads
measuring simultaneously pressure drop, flux and suspension solid fraction. We
find that the burst size distribution scales consistently with a power-law,
suggesting that we are in the presence of a novel experimental realization of a
self-organized critical system. Temporal correlations are present in the time
series, alike in other phenomena as earthquakes or neuronal activity bursts,
and also an analog to Omori's law can be shown. The understanding of bursts
statistics could provide novel insights in different fields, e.g. in filter and
petroleum industries.Comment: 7 pages, 9 figure
