Spinning and tumbling of micron-sized triangles in a micro-channel shear flow

Abstract

We report on measurements of the angular dynamics of micron-sized equilaterally triangular platelets suspended in a micro-channel shear flow. Our measurements confirm that such particles spin and tumble like a spheroid in a simple shear. Since the triangle has corners we can observe the spinning directly. In general the spinning frequency is different from the tumbling frequency, and the spinning is affected by tumbling. This gives rise to doubly-periodic angular dynamics.