Influence of the history force on inertial particle advection: Gravitational effects and horizontal diffusion

Abstract

We analyse the effect of the Basset history force on the sedimentation or rising of inertial particles in a two-dimensional convection flow. When memory effects are neglected, the system exhibits rich dynamics, including periodic, quasi-periodic and chaotic attractors. Here we show that when the full advection dynamics is considered, including the history force, both the nature and the number of attractors change, and a fractalization of their basins of attraction appears. In particular, we show that the history force significantly weakens the horizontal diffusion and changes the speed of sedimentation or rising. The influence of the history force is dependent on the size of the advected particles, being stronger for larger particles.