Inertial migration of slender prolate and thin oblate spheroids in plane Poiseuille flow

Abstract

We theoretically examine the inertial migration of a neutrally buoyant spheroid of aspect ratio $κ$ in wall-bounded plane Poiseuille flow at small particle Reynolds number ($Re_p$) and small confinement ratio ($λ$), with channel Reynolds number $Re_c = Re_p/λ^2$ arbitrary. For $λ\ll 1$, inertia rapidly drives the spheroid to the tumbling orbit ($C = \infty$), with migration governed by the time-averaged lift over orientations sampled in this orbit. Spheroids with $κ= O(1)$ follow Jeffery rotation closely, while deviations for slender rods and thin disks yield equilibrium positions distinct from the classical Segre-Silberberg result. Above a threshold $Re_c$, both rods and disks can undergo rotation arrest near walls, with these arrested regions expanding toward the centerline as $Re_c$ increases. Unlike spheres, the resulting equilibrium positions shift inward with increasing $Re_c$; for disks, these positions themselves become arrested beyond a threshold $Re_c$. The $κ$-dependence of equilibrium locations suggests passive shape-sorting strategies in microfluidic devices.