No Arabic abstract
At finite Reynolds numbers, Re, particles migrate across laminar flow streamlines to their equilibrium positions in microchannels. This migration is attributed to a lift force, and the balance between this lift and gravity determines the location of particles in channels. Here we demonstrate that velocity of finite-size particles located near a channel wall differs significantly from that of an undisturbed flow, and that their equilibrium position depends on this, referred to as slip velocity, difference. We then present theoretical arguments, which allow us to generalize expressions for a lift force, originally suggested for some limiting cases and Re<<1, to finite-size particles in a channel flow at Re < 20. Our theoretical model, validated by lattice Boltzmann simulations, provides considerable insight into inertial migration of finite-size particles in microchannel and suggests some novel microfluidic approaches to separate them by size or density at a moderate Re.
We investigate experimentally the spatial distributions of heavy and neutrally buoyant particles of finite size in a fully turbulent flow. As their Stokes number (i.e. ratio of the particle viscous relaxation time to a typical flow time scale) is close to 1, one may expect both classes of particles to aggregate in specific flow regions. This is not observed. Using a Voronoi analysis we show that neutrally buoyant particles sample turbulence homogeneously, whereas heavy particles do cluster. One implication for the understanding and modeling of particle laden flows, is that the Stokes number cannot be the sole key parameter as soon as the dynamics of finite-size objects is considered.
We investigate the preferential concentration of particles which are neutrally buoyant but with a diameter significantly larger than the dissipation scale of the carrier flow. Such particles are known not to behave as flow tracers (Qureshi et al., Phys. Re. Lett. 2007) but whether they do cluster or not remains an open question. For this purpose, we take advantage of a new turbulence generating apparatus, the Lagrangian Exploration Module which produces homogeneous and isotropic turbulence in a closed water flow. The flow is seeded with neutrally buoyant particles with diameter 700mum, corresponding to 4.4 to 17 times the turbulent dissipation scale when the rotation frequency of the impellers driving the flow goes from 2 Hz to 12 Hz, and spanning a range of Stokes numbers from 1.6 to 24.2. The spatial structuration of these inclusions is then investigated by a Voronoi tesselation analysis, as recently proposed by Monchaux et al. (Phys. Fluids 2010), from images of particle concentration field taken in a laser sheet at the center of the flow. No matter the rotating frequency and subsequently the Reynolds and Stokes numbers, the particles are found not to cluster. The Stokes number by itself is therefore shown to be an insufficient indicator of the clustering trend in particles laden flows.
We study the effect of particle shape on the turbulence in suspensions of spheroidal particles at volume fraction $phi = 10%$ and show how the near-wall particle dynamics deeply changes with the particle aspect ratio and how this affects the global suspension behavior. The turbulence reduces with the aspect ratio of oblate particles, leading to drag reduction with respect to the single phase flow for particles with aspect ratio $mathcal{AR}leq1/3$, when the significant reduction in Reynolds shear stress is more than the compensation by the additional stresses, induced by the solid phase. Oblate particles are found to avoid the region close to the wall, travelling parallel to it with small angular velocities, while preferentially sampling high-speed fluid in the wall region. Prolate particles, also tend to orient parallel to the wall and avoid its vicinity. Their reluctancy to rotate around spanwise axis reduce the wall-normal velocity fluctuation of the flow and therefore the turbulence Reynolds stress similar to oblates; however, they undergo rotations in wall-parallel planes which increases the additional solid stresses due to their relatively larger angular velocities compared to the oblates. These larger additional stresses compensates for the reduction in turbulence activity and leads to a wall-drag similar to that of single-phase flows. Spheres on the other hand, form a layer close to the wall with large angular velocities in spanwise direction, which increases the turbulence activity in addition to exerting the largest solid stresses on the suspension, in comparison to the other studied shapes. Spherical particles therefore increase the wall-drag with respect to the single-phase flow.
A flowing pair of particles in inertial microfluidics gives important insights into understanding and controlling the collective dynamics of particles like cells or droplets in microfluidic devices. They are applied in medical cell analysis and engineering. We study the dynamics of a pair of solid particles flowing through a rectangular microchannel using lattice Boltzmann simulations. We determine the inertial lift force profiles as a function of the two particle positions, their axial distance, and the Reynolds number. Generally, the profiles strongly differ between particles leading and lagging in flow and the lift forces are enhanced due to the presence of a second particle. At small axial distances, they are determined by viscous forces, while inertial forces dominate at large separations. Depending on the initial conditions, the two-particle lift forces in combination with the Poiseuille flow give rise to three types of unbound particle trajectories, called moving-apart, passing, and swapping, and one type of bound trajectories, where the particles perform damped oscillations. The damping rate scales with Reynolds number squared, since inertial forces are responsible for driving the particles to their steady-state positions.
We use an acoustic Lagrangian tracking technique, particularly adapted to measurements in open flows, and a versatile material particles generator (in the form of soap bubbles with adjustable size and density) to characterize Lagrangian statistics of finite sized, neutrally bouyant, particles transported in an isotropic turbulent flow of air. We vary the size of the particles in a range corresponding to turbulent inertial scales and explore how the turbulent forcing experienced by the particles depends on their size. We show that, while the global shape of the intermittent acceleration probability density function does not depend significantly on particle size, the acceleration variance of the particles decreases as they become larger in agreement with the classical scaling for the spectrum of Eulerian pressure fluctuations in the carrier flow.