Stress concentration factors for the Stokes flow with two nearly touching rigid particles

Abstract

In this paper, a mathematical model of two adjacent rigid particles immersed into a viscous incompressible fluid is considered. The main feature of the flow is that the Cauchy stress tensor consisting of the strain tensor and the pressure will appear blow-up as the distance between these two particles tends to zero. For the purpose of making clear this high concentration, a family of unified stress concentration factors are precisely captured in all dimensions, which determine whether the Cauchy stress tensor will blow up or not. As a direct application, we establish optimal gradient estimates and asymptotics of the Cauchy stress tensor for Stokes flow, which indicate that its maximal singularity comes from the pressure.