No Arabic abstract
Attractive colloidal dispersions, suspensions of fine particles which aggregate and frequently form a space spanning elastic gel are ubiquitous materials in society with a wide range of applications. The colloidal networks in these materials can exist in a mode of free settling when the network weight exceeds its compressive yield stress. An equivalent state occurs when the network is held fixed in place and used as a filter through which the suspending fluid is pumped. In either scenario, hydrodynamic instabilities leading to loss of network integrity occur. Experimental observations have shown that the loss of integrity is associated with the formation of eroded channels, so-called streamers, through which the fluid flows rapidly. However, the dynamics of growth and subsequent mechanism of collapse remain poorly understood. Here, a phenomenological model is presented that describes dynamically the radial growth of a streamer due to erosion of the network by rapid fluid back flow. The model exhibits a finite-time blowup -- the onset of catastrophic failure in the gel -- due to activated breaking of the inter-colloid bonds. Brownian dynamics simulations of hydrodynamically interacting and settling colloids in dilute gels are employed to examine the initiation and propagation of this instability, which is in good agreement with the theory. The model dynamics are also shown to accurately replicate measurements of streamer growth in two different experimental systems. The predictive capabilities and future improvements of the model are discussed and a stability-state diagram is presented providing insight into engineering strategies for avoiding settling instabilities in networks meant to have long shelf lives.
This fluid dynamics video depicts the evolution of a suspension of paramagnetic colloids under the influence of a uniform, pulsed magnetic field. At low pulse frequencies, the suspension condenses into columns which decompose via a Rayleigh-Plateau instability. At high pulse frequencies, the suspension forms a kinetically arrested, system spanning network. We demonstrate the degeneration of the Rayleigh-Plateau instability with increasing pulse frequency.
We perform $3$D numerical simulations to investigate the sedimentation of a single sphere in the absence and presence of a simple cross shear flow in a yield stress fluid with weak inertia. In our simulations, the settling flow is considered to be the primary flow, whereas the linear cross shear flow is a secondary flow with amplitude $10%$ of the primary flow. To study the effects of elasticity and plasticity of the carrying fluid on the sphere drag as well as the flow dynamics, the fluid is modeled using the elastovisco-plastic (EVP) constitutive laws proposed by cite{saramito2009new}. The extra non-Newtonian stress tensor is fully coupled with the flow equation and the solid particle is represented by an immersed boundary (IB) method. Our results show that the fore-aft asymmetry in the velocity is less pronounced and the negative wake disappears when a linear cross shear flow is applied. We find that the drag on a sphere settling in a sheared yield stress fluid is reduced significantly as compared to an otherwise quiescent fluid. More importantly, the sphere drag in the presence of a secondary cross shear flow cannot be derived from the pure sedimentation drag law owing to the non-linear coupling between the simple shear flow and the uniform flow. Finally, we show that the drag on the sphere settling in a sheared yield-stress fluid is reduced at higher material elasticity mainly due to the form and viscous drag reduction.
We investigate regular configurations of a small number of particles settling under gravity in a viscous fluid. The particles do not touch each other and can move relative to each other. The dynamics is analyzed in the point-particle approximation. A family of regular configurations is found with periodic oscillations of all the settling particles. The oscillations are shown to be robust under some out-of-phase rearrangements of the particles. In the presence of an additional particle above such a regular configuration, the particle periodic trajectories are horizontally repelled from the symmetry axis, and flattened vertically. The results are used to propose a mechanism how a spherical cloud, made of a large number of particles distributed at random, evolves and destabilizes.
We present a numerical study of settling and clustering of small inertial particles in homogeneous and isotropic turbulence. Particles are denser than the fluid, but not in the limit of being much heavier than the displaced fluid. At fixed Reynolds and Stokes numbers we vary the fluid-to-particle mass ratio and the gravitational acceleration. The effect of varying one or the other is similar but not quite the same. We report non-monotonic behavior of the particles velocity skewness and kurtosis with the second parameter, and an associated anomalous behavior of the settling velocity when compared to the free-fall Stokes velocity, including loitering cases. Clustering increases for increasing gravitational acceleration, and for decreasing fluid-to-particle mass ratio.
This review treats asymmetric colloidal particles moving through their host fluid under the action of some form of propulsion. The propulsion can come from an external body force or from external shear flow. It may also come from externally-induced stresses at the surface, arising from imposed chemical, thermal or electrical gradients. The resulting motion arises jointly from the driven particle and the displaced fluid. If the objects are asymmetric, every aspect of their motion and interaction depends on the orientation of the objects. This orientation in turn changes in response to the driving. The objects shape can thus lead to a range of emergent anisotropic and chiral motion not possible with isotropic spherical particles. We first consider what aspects of a bodys asymmetry can affect its drift through a fluid, especially chiral motion. We next discuss driving by injecting external force or torque into the particles. Then we consider driving without injecting force or torque. This includes driving by shear flow and driving by surface stresses, such as electrophoresis. We consider how time-dependent driving can induce collective orientational order and coherent motion. We show how a given particle shape can be represented using an assembly of point forces called a Stokeslet object. We next consider the interactions between anisotropic propelled particles, the symmetries governing the interactions, and the possibility of bound pairs of particles. Finally we show how the collective hydrodynamics of a suspension can be qualitatively altered by the particles shapes. The asymmetric responses discussed here are broadly relevant also for swimming propulsion of active micron-scale objects such as microorganisms.