Forces and torques on non-spherical particles in viscous shear flows

Abstract

The behavior of a non-spherical particle in a viscous, plane channel flow is studied by means of a combination of analytical technique and geometrical reasoning. An efficient implementation of Lamb's general solution is adopted, allowing rapid calculation, in the perturbative quasi-spherical regime, of forces and torques coming from the particle interaction with the flow gradients and from the presence of the walls. Particular attention is given to the role of symmetries in the problem. A classification of the effects of departures from spherical shape on the motion of a particle in various kinds of shear flow is provided. Additional applications to problems involving particles with streaming boundaries are presented.