logs are frequently observed in systems and applications involving the transport of colloidal suspensions through porous media or narrow confinements1. These include water filters2,3, subsurface aquifers and petroleum reservoirs4, several manufacturing processes5,6, and biophysical systems such as blood circulation7,8. Clogging is not entirely an undesirable phenomenon: it has found applications as the working principle of diverse technologies. In healthcare, it has been employed as a biomarker for early screening of disease states and assessment of their severity and treatment methods, based on the deformability of red blood cells9,10. Also demonstrated is clogging as an efficient method for the separation of healthy blood cells from diseased ones, including circulating tumor cells11. It is important to note that these developments are facilitated by advancements in microfluidic technologies.

Clogs are formed when suspended particles are approximately the same size or larger than the narrowest dimension of a constriction. This form of clogging is known as sieving, and occurs when wcdp≤1, where wc is the constriction width and dp is the particle diameter1. Clogging can also occur when the number of particles sufficient to form an arch that spans the width of a large constriction arrive at the same instant12. This clogging mechanism is known as bridging, and has been observed when 2≤wcdp≤5, with as many as 9 or 10 particles participating in a bridge